![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So, this has been bugging me for awhile. I blame Tumblr. There are way too many SUPER SRS gifs of Harry Potter on tumblr and they annoy me because, and I know this will probably get my burned in effegy, but:
The Harry Potter series is not that great.
I blame the movies for creating the illusion of character growth and development. I want to find a group of people somewhere and use them as a control group because I think that, while the first 3 books are good, the series as a whole is pretty weak. BUT since we started watching the movies before the books were done, and since we got to see the principle cast (Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint) grow from little kids into adults as each film went on, it made us believe that the characters were growing. They were not - the actors were growing and maturing and becoming better at their craft, but really Harry and Co. don't do much in the way of character development for the whole series.
One of the biggest problems is that each book is actually the same and I felt this was made even more obvious with the movies. I can only rewatch the first three in the series because after that the books and movies just get unbearably LONG and DULL because Rowling felt it was necessary to follow the school year pattern in EVERY BOOK. Even if the plot would have moved better without it. Any action and discovery has to wait until the end of the school year because they can't solve the mystery or have a showdown mid-term. This isn't as big of an issue in the first three books because they are short and the stories movie a lot quicker. But I felt like the stories in 4-7 have a lot of moments where Rowling is treading water, trying to just get us to summer time so that Harry can discover the villain and win the day. Again.
(Every HP book/movie: End of summer blues/back to hogwarts yay life is so much better/new random professor introduced, snape looks mad/go to classes for first semester, odd things happen/weird things happen but then it's Xmas so break!/Xmas Break, Harry explores alone, discovers something/Classes resume, Harry tells Ron & Hermione his discovery/talk to Hagrid/QUIDDITCH MATCH/Ignore Dumbledore's advice and/or warning/Exams coming up, panic/Malfoy does something dickish/passed exams/quick solve the mystery/BATTLE!/Dumbledore lecture/back to abusive foster family.)
( and then I start to ramble... )
The Harry Potter series is not that great.
I blame the movies for creating the illusion of character growth and development. I want to find a group of people somewhere and use them as a control group because I think that, while the first 3 books are good, the series as a whole is pretty weak. BUT since we started watching the movies before the books were done, and since we got to see the principle cast (Radcliffe, Watson, and Grint) grow from little kids into adults as each film went on, it made us believe that the characters were growing. They were not - the actors were growing and maturing and becoming better at their craft, but really Harry and Co. don't do much in the way of character development for the whole series.
One of the biggest problems is that each book is actually the same and I felt this was made even more obvious with the movies. I can only rewatch the first three in the series because after that the books and movies just get unbearably LONG and DULL because Rowling felt it was necessary to follow the school year pattern in EVERY BOOK. Even if the plot would have moved better without it. Any action and discovery has to wait until the end of the school year because they can't solve the mystery or have a showdown mid-term. This isn't as big of an issue in the first three books because they are short and the stories movie a lot quicker. But I felt like the stories in 4-7 have a lot of moments where Rowling is treading water, trying to just get us to summer time so that Harry can discover the villain and win the day. Again.
(Every HP book/movie: End of summer blues/back to hogwarts yay life is so much better/new random professor introduced, snape looks mad/go to classes for first semester, odd things happen/weird things happen but then it's Xmas so break!/Xmas Break, Harry explores alone, discovers something/Classes resume, Harry tells Ron & Hermione his discovery/talk to Hagrid/QUIDDITCH MATCH/Ignore Dumbledore's advice and/or warning/Exams coming up, panic/Malfoy does something dickish/passed exams/quick solve the mystery/BATTLE!/Dumbledore lecture/back to abusive foster family.)
( and then I start to ramble... )
