Harry Potter films

For about 10 minutes today it started hailing in Oxford. Being April, and being in the UK, I expect rain, but not hail! At the time of this hail I was about to leave from enjoying a very tasty brunch, however rather than face getting hailed to death as I cycled home I was invited to watch the final Harry Potter film; The Deathly Hallows part II.

My experience with the Harry Potter films has been very mixed, I haven't seen them all, the first couple were so poor I didn't really want to watch any others after them! I watched The Deathly Hallows part I while I was at university, and I wasn't entirely offended by it.

Generally speaking, Part I and II work well together, they do a good job of adapting the book to film, I think it is one of the benefits of being giving two films to tell a massive story. Yes there are certain bits missing, odd embellishments to the plot, however in the grand scheme of things it works well.

But my issue comes when you step back - regardless of how good or otherwise The Deathly Hallows was as a film adaption it cannot be watched in isolation. The seventh (and eighth) film has six other films preceding it, many people have only ever watched the films and not the books, and they were built on really bad foundations.

Ben Jiggins has blogged about his thoughts about why the films were 'doomed from the start' (his words, not mine), however I agree with most of what he says.

I love the Harry Potter books, and I love when a book is adapted well to film (or stage), however it didn't happen with the Harry Potter films, and that makes me sad. They have so much potential for the screen.

I think I'll just have to re-read the books again!