The Rocchi Files: Harry Potter and the Secrets of the Series

Let us pause, as Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince rakes in money at the box office, to take our eyes off the bottom line and the rave reviews for this sixth film and see the forest for the trees. Yes, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a marvel -- it's technically brilliant and yet emotionally rich, full of excitement but grounded in character. (As you can tell, I liked Half-Blood Prince a bit more than Erika, true, but she's also got some praise for it.) And there's another thing to recommend Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince -- namely, that it (rightfully) assumes that if you're there, it's because you've already seen the other films; there's no line where Ron has to say "Oh, Harry, you could use the invisibility cloak you were given five years ago ..." or Hermione says "Well, Harry, if you need to be on the lookout for Snape, you could use the Marauder's Map that was a legacy from your father. ..." In fact, it's a great irony -- the blockbuster movie this summer that treats audiences the most like adults is the one ostensibly made for kids.

But then, the entire series has been excellent, and it's in no small part thanks to ironies like that, those little touches, and that level of care is why I'll be sad to see the franchise end with the two films that'll be made out of the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In fact, if I step back and take the whole series in, there's a bunch of reasons to respect and admire the Potter series, above and beyond the immediate pleasures of the individual films. ...

1) Casting

A lot of fans shuddered and shook when Christopher Columbus -- the man behind Home Alone -- was announced as the director of the first two Potter films, and while those movies have their admirers and their detractors, let's give him credit where credit is due. The three leads in the Potter series, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, haven't just grown up to be presences -- they've grown up to be actors, and good ones. The idea that you could find a one-in-a-million child actor to hinge a multi-million-dollar, 8-part movie series on and have it work out so well is ridiculous -- and Columbus did it three times over.

2) Effects

Let's be blunt -- special effects have become just another thing money can buy, and also a great demonstration of what money can't buy. Sure, effects are big and bold and impressive these days -- but, it often seems that too many times, they're used as a substitute for story, not as an enhancement to it. In the Potter films, the effects are great, to be sure, but they're also used to inform us about who the people on-screen are and what the stakes of the story every time, not just a big moment of spectacle we're expected to gawk at. In Half-Blood Prince, for example, look at the Quidditch game -- great effects, to be sure, and nice action beats, but it's also a great demonstration of what Harry, Hermione and Ron are all about at that given moment -- and how they relate to each other. I'll take that over a talking truck with nothing to say any day of the week.

3) Ambition

Think hard; I dare you to name a franchise that's gone as long, and as well, as the Harry Potter series with the original actors still in the lead roles. I can't think of a single one, in the modern era. (Yeah, films like the Andy Hardy movies and the old serials used to churn the movies out ... but those had a much lower level of production, and a shorter running time in many cases, never mind that they were under the studio system's industrial production system.) But the Potter series hasn't changed leads, like the long-running Friday the 13th or Saw series, and it hasn't flagged or faltered; a lot of that credit has to go to Steve Kloves, the screenwriter who's adapted all but one of the books so far, managing to wrestle J.K. Rowling's huge novels onto the screen without cutting out their soul. The Potter series will stand as a textbook template for taking a huge epic novel series and fitting it into a visual medium -- even with some bumps and bruises along the way -- with persistence and vision. If you want to look at what would have happened if the Potter films hadn't taken off, look to the Chronicles of Narnia as a cautionary tale -- that's one epic series you're never going to see finish. Yes, the Potter movies have paid off -- but they were, at one point, a gamble, and never a sure thing; one mis-step could have killed the franchise, and yet that hasn't happened.

And in retrospect, these all seem like easy things to have gotten right -- and yet, it's because they were so right that they seem easy and not the other way around. When it comes to big-screen fantasy, good source material doesn't mean good movies, (as we've learned from the '90s Batman films), and good first movies don't mean good later films (as we've learned from Spider-Man). But with the Potter series, watching good books being turned into good movies might be the best magic trick of all.

(What do you think is the secret of the Harry Potter films?)

Comments

[Wendy Schaefer]

Too bad the film doesn't follow the book. I was very dissappointed not at the ommissions but moe the additions that had nothing to do with the text.

[Ally Jay (iareally)]

I have no idea what the secret is to the Potter films... I'm just glad the secret is working and that it didn't get derailed along the way!

[Jason]

"The Potter series will stand as a textbook template for taking a huge epic novel series and fitting it into a visual medium -- even with some bumps and bruises along the way -- with persistence and vision."

Amen. I've said the same thing before and it is so true. I sincerely hope this opens the gate for the fantasy genre (which is currently heavily dominated by lengthy epic series).

[Sri]

David Yates (director) did a superb job just magnificent to watch, may be Alfonso Cuarón would have made them ROCK. I am a great fan of Harry Potter series. My favorite still remains HP3: Prisoner of Azkaban. But Half Blood was simply outstanding on levels.
Being a great fan I have collected a list of good sites and articles (may be around 200) related to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (movie information, movie schedule, movie reviews, books, games, news, wallpapers and many more). If you are interested take a look at the below link

http://markthispage.blogspot.com/2009/07/all-you-want-to-know-about-harry-potter.html

[Sandford Tuey]

I've read all the novels and look forward to seeing every Harry Potter film!

Sandford Tuey
www.Playdigm.com