Harry Potter and The Problems with The Movies
Like many people of the millennial generation, I grew up reading Harry Potter. It was a large part of my childhood, and the tattered paperback copies I waited in line at midnight for at age 12 still line the shelves of my bedroom. I always have and always will love the written series.
The movies, not so much.
This either surprises other fans, or immediately makes us best friends. Of course, those who enjoy the movies have their right to. I never want to quash other people’s happiness- what I feel makes the movies weak may be the thing that another person loves and associates with. I celebrate their feelings, and whatever unites us all as Harry Potter fans is good.
Still, I feel that the movies are more of a visual aid to the books and don’t represent the characters or the general feeling of the series well. This is not due to the actors, but the writers and producers of the movies.
Though the books deal with some pretty heavy topics, the tone and feeling of Harry Potter is happiness. Even in the darkness of the 7th or 5th book, there are pockets of mirth, rumbles of exuberant rebellion, and humanity in the face of evil. A wizard’s patronus is literally fueled by the memory of happiness, and the spell to ward off a bogart is finished once the witch or wizard laughs. With so much of the magical world canonically running on happiness, why are the movies so visually dark? Why is Hogwarts, a literal magic castle, the place Harry feels is his home, so creepy and dark? Why are the grounds so needlessly foggy and eerie? The students are students. They have exams and essays through all the intrigue and tragedy. They attend quidditch matches, pull pranks, and celebrate holidays with fervor. The spirit of Hogwarts is bright, but the visuals are dark. Maybe because angst sells, maybe because the writers didn’t really like the books, or maybe because the adults forgot to include a little child-like innocence in the troubled wizarding world.
The butchering of Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s characters in the script makes their friendship seem redundant and unlikely. All Ron’s good qualities go to Hermione- his sarcasm, his wit, and his knowledge of the wizarding world. There are quite a few things that don’t make it out of the book (obviously), but some of the most infuriating exclusions aren’t exclusions at all. Many of Ron’s lines are given to Hermione, making her seem all-knowing and leaving Ron as a sidekick to the dynamic duo. A huge part of Harry and Ron’s friendship is based on their exchange of information; Ron is Harry’s ambassador to the wizarding world. He explains things without being condescending, which is why he and Hermione work so well together- her passionate intellectual collaborating with his relaxed and joking persona. In the movies, Ron is reduced to a punchline. His compassion for the orphan wizard and the brotherly bond they form in the books is dramatically diminished onscreen, which is a travesty.
Though there are these problems (and more) with the Harry Potter movies, I can never argue that something as influential as the movies could be all bad. There are definitely glimpses of the Hogwarts I imagined and the Harry, Ron, and Hermione I got to know. I wish they had gotten more screen time.
