i didn't like the movie..i don't think it did the book justice (personally). however, this person should have planned the letter out better in order to not "sound like a 6-year old" as someone put it.

I know there are a lot of people who work on the script..most people don't understand how many people work with it. It's not just the screenwriter (Kloves) who decides how the movie ends up. JK looks at the script and Alfonso (or Newell in GoF case) and I know the producer's (Heyman) brother and even he has read the scripts before they film. Thye really want to get tons of people perspectives on book to movie thouroughness.

I think the mistake with PoA (in my opinion it was a mistake) was getting Cuaron to direct BECAUSE he is used to mainly more adult films...he has done a kids film before but it think more mature films are more his style. I liked Columbus's job on the first two because he can find the medium between adult and child and I think mike Newell will do that very well so good luck to the whole cast and crew on that one!

~Jes

i dont know, i think PoA was the best of the three movies and my only complaint with it was at the end they didnt explain about the marauders!!! other than that i really liked it.

Gary you're from Greece? That's so cool. I would say something to you but its not letting use that alphabet for some reason. :/

-Jess

i fully agree with the letter - i think PoA was horrible, and i think the only way for the coming movies to go is downhill. they just get so complex and long that there is no way to successfully keep the key parts and still make a great movie. the hard-core HP fans will never be happy with it; only those who just like the movies and what not will. Some people are just too afraid to give any criticism to the movies because they blindly accept that since it's harry potter, it is one of the greatest things ever made. In my opinion Harry Potter is the best thing i've ever read in my life, but i can still tell a crap movie when i see one, and im not afraid to say i dont like the harry potter movies. they in no way capture the magic of the books, and the real magic of how they are written.

what?! POA was my favorite Harry Potter movie!! how can she say that!! she's definitely not representing the majority the fans saying that--POA was the best movie i've ever seen in my life and although they left a lot out-it was made up for by how great the film was!! wow-i really hope this note never reaches Mike Newell.

I think the movie was a good movie not a good book made movie. People have said that you have to forget the book to enjoy the movie and I don't think that should have to be the case. I believed it missed a lot of the core essentials of the book that made it most everyone's favorite book so far, including mine. In that aspect I felt the movie was lacking though was a very good movie if the book was forgotten.

POA is the best HP movie so far, hopefully GOF will be better and i trust Mike Newell will do a good job on the movie. I liked the way Alfonso directed POA, it was diffrent from Chris.

I think that POA was excellent. I also think that Alfonso Curaon made Hogwarts a bit different and it (to me) seemed better the way Chris Columbus portrayed it. Alfonso Curaon did a very good job making the movie dark and scary ( and, this is very weird, realistic), but Chris Columbus made the first two movies the way that most of the readers would have imagined it. Don't get me wrong, I love the way Alfonso Curaon made POA, but maybe it would be nice to see what this new director (Mike Newell) can do to, what I think, is the best book in the whole Harry Potter series: GOF........ sorry I'm sounding to intelligent. Need to go back to being stupid now! lol........ :/

as good? AS GOOD?
If they are anywhere near as bad as the first two movies I'll never be able to get over it. I think the third movie's the best so far. And anyway I don't expect GoF to be like any other HP movie cuz there's a new director. Every director has his own way.
And as for him getting loads of other similar emails and letters, i certainly hope not! And i think there were more powerful actors in PoA (david thewlis, gary oldman.........).
sorry but i dont agree with a word of that letter!!

i think that because we love the books so much we want it to be just the same for the movies...but in most cases the movies are not as good as the books and i feel that this person has not taken into consideration how hard it must have been for the crew yet alone Alfonso to take on such a huge job wih a huge audience which may critique him like this person...i just say congratulate him and the crew for the efforts they put in..honestly it is totally impossible to follow the book EXACTLY...yet alone keep everyone happy!! thats my opinion so come on people be reasonable!!

The point of the clocktower was that it's from JK's mind. Hogwarts is vast, you cant possibly see it all in just two films, or even five books as JK's proven by pointing out that there's another part of Hogwarts we dont know much about and have not seen yet, a graveyard.

I respect that but you, like the letter writer, did not present any proper argumentative points to debate from.

This letter and ensuing debate sparked my interest quite a bit, and I made a fairly lengthy post about it before, but unfortunately no one seemed interested in those points, so I would like to make another one. This is just my opinion, but I would like to know what others think. I think that a massive part of any very good books is their capability to create significant attachment to the characters. Now the Harry Potter series definitely does this. In terms of the movies, a few people have been bashing Columbus quite a bit for the first two movies, but I want to point out that, at least in my case, he created that emotional attachment to the characters and what happened to them. I have seen every movie multiple times, and I try to watch them without thinkning of the books. In the case of watching Cuaron's POA in this manner, I found I really did not care what happened to the characters. I didn't have any attachment to them or what happened to them, whereas with SS/PS and COS I had an attachment to the characters.

I didnt feel like that at all i felt attached to them in the same way as in the first two movies maybe even more so in this one. I felt like the characters were starting to grow up and it made them seem a lot more real to me. I'm not gonna bash columbus or alfonso because ive loved all three movies and i hope that the new director keeps up to their standards. I realise that a lot of people were dissapointed(sp?) with poa but the majority of people i have spoken to about it were not. Personally i think the letter sounded like a very childish person having a tantrum but trying to sound sophisticated. It also annoyed me the way she assumed she was speaking for the majority arrrggghh
End of rant :flowersmile:

....Well it doesn't matter anyhow, they already started filming the movie and I highly doubt Mike (being the increditable director that he is) is going to take a worry to such a poorly written,immature, and insulting letter. She is just wasting her time.

I find that comment somewhat confusing... Are you trying to tell us that even though POA was the most emotional movie out of the three and your saying that you weren't attached to any of the characters? Basically your saying you attach easier with more (dare I say) "kiddy" movies then more adult, emotional movies?

I personally think the writer of that letter was in some parts right. I thought after watching PoA it was more childish then the other 2. Everyone says that the characters are a lot more mature in PoA well I thought differently.

The movie, I admit, was funny. That's basically all I thought of it. It really didn't capture me.

I also understand that maybe PoA probably only disapointed hardcore HP book reading fans. As for people who didn't read them, I'd agree that it was a very entertaining movie.

But so many things were left completely forgotten in the movie. Like in the shrieking shack scene (which was I think was a grand total of 5 mins) left out so much information that I agree with the letter Mike Newell needs to fix. Also the beginning of PoA reminded me of a home video. And the overall emotion of the movie just annoyed me.

I also dont think that by appreciating the other 2 movies makes me childish myself. I am an adult and I thoroughly enjoyed the first 2 movies. As for my 10 year old niece, she loved PoA. There must be some kind of explanation for that. But I also understand that the majoirty of people watching the movie are children so they have to please their viewers.

I don't have anything against nor hate the people who liked PoA because that is obviously their own opinion. And I don't think people should start calling the writer of that letter a cry baby either because just like many of you she is expressing her own sentiments about the movie.

The only thing that I don't agree about the letter is the pressure she may be putting on the new director. He should just take the letter as an opinion and nothing more.