Can't resist

The latest Harry Potter movie came out in Korea on Friday, and my friend Suzi and I went to see it on Sunday. If the advertising for Azkaban here came out several months ago (huge 9-foot tall posters that feature Harry, Hermione, and Ron separately), the movie must have been hyped all to hell in the States. Even so, I can't resist putting my two cents in -- and it won't even be two cents, I promise. More like two won. Which is such an infintessimally small amount, I won't bother converting it.

When English language books are as expensive as they are here, and when you live far away from your schoolmates, you reread the books you have. A lot. I'm very fond of the Harry Potter series, so I reread 1-4 to the point of memorization. No exaggeration. 

The first two movies pretty much sucked. It was interesting and fun to see the visual interpretations of the fantastical creatures and doodads in the books, but the kids couldn't act, the timing was all shot to hell (every damn moment offering any hint of emotion was wrung out to embarrassing lengths), and the pacing dragged. When you read a Harry Potter book, you don't want it to end. Films 1 and 2 failed the books miserably.

Azkaban is much, much better -- the best one by far. There were a few crucial details that were inexplicably left out and would make the film very confusing to those who haven't read the book -- though it's a fair bet that no one in the audience would belong to that category -- but the kids have picked up some acting skills and the timing was spot on and the landscapes were beautiful and the movie didn't drag. I knew it was long, but it didn't feel like it was over 2 hours. 

The magic world that Harry Potter is set in is a brilliantly imagined, beautifully romantic smoke screen for several themes of a more prosaic nature, most notably Harry's longing for his dead parents. Only one scene in the first movie stayed with me: Harry sitting in front of a magical mirror late at night, mesmerized by images of his family, whom he's never known. It nearly brought tears to my eyes.

I remember virtually nothing from the second film. Damn, Chris Columbus, how could you mangle such a great story?

The scene that sold me on this latest installment is a bit more quotidian. Harry's grown up a bit (and what a great source of interest for the viewers at the same time as it's a great source of anxiety for the producers -- what if the cute kids turn out to be ugly adolescents? what if Daniel Radcliffe got a growth spurt or something and shot up taller than Rupert Grint, whose character is supposed to be taller? what if Emma Watson started suffering from extreme acne? as it turned out, the only non-screen-friendly development is Daniel Radcliffe's neck, which has the long, thin, spindly look of someone growing very fast. now, where was I?) so the sorrow and loneliness of a 13-year-old orphan sitting in front of reflections of his family has given way to an adolescent anger when he finds out what Sirius Black did.

But that's not the scene that got me. (Sorry, got carried away on a tangent. It happens. Often.) It's a small, completely unimportant scene that lasts less than a minute but humanizes Harry and makes his world seem real in a way that even the books don't quite do. Harry and Ron and two friends are sitting in a room in Hogwarts, the wizarding school. One of the boys is hooting like a monkey and flapping his arms. He stops, and the group laughs. The next boy takes a piece of whatever they're eating and trumpets like an elephant. (The sounds are clearly from real animals.) The group laughs even harder. Ron takes a piece and snarls like a lion, to the boys' utter delight. Harry -- you don't even see his face, just the back of his head as steam shoots out of his ears. As the shot moves outside their window into the snowy air, you can hear the boys screaming with laughter, someone saying, "Look at his ears!"

The director doesn't dwell on the moment, which makes it work even better. From flipping your eyelids inside out (and other stupid human tricks!) to crowding into a closet and closing the door to see if crunching down on a Peppermint Lifesaver really does emit a spark (it does!), that's what you do with your friends when you're in your teens -- you sit around and hang out and amuse yourselves with utterly stupid activities. That tiny little scene made the movie for me. Harry became real. 

That's my two won on the film. (And I didn't even have to include any spoilers!)

Oh, and by the way? There was a kid sitting behind me in the theatre who kept kicking my seat. Did the parent say anything to the kid? No. Did I shoot nasty looks at the kid? Of course. Was I hard-pressed to keep from grabbing the kid's leg and saying quietly, "Listen, shorty, if you kick my seat one more time, I will cut your foot off and use it as a doorstop"? Yes. Do I hate kids? One guess.