This one's easy and I don't know how many people agree with me on this. Maybe I'm just an obsessive fangirl, I don't know.
I was hugely bothered by the fact that the scene in the Shrieking Shack at the End of PoA didn't make it into the film because they didn't have time and it wasn't important.
Right, at what point when you read the book, Mr. Cuarón, did you think to yourself "Oh, I don't suppose anyone will notice if I scrap all this hugely important back story that will go on to play a huge part in the series. Cut!"?
I really feel that I'm too harsh on David Thewlis and I actually think that though he does look like a man who ought not to be trusted around pre-pubescent children in this film, he's a damn good Lupin and Lupin's shining moments throughout the series, in my opinion, take place in the Shack. He has the best lines in that scene and it steals the series from the other characters.
"'Well, hello, Peter,' said Lupin pleasantly as though rats frequently erupted into old schoolfriends around him. 'Long time, no see'."
I mean, come on!
It's my favourite scene in the series and I would love to have seen it on screen between the likes of Thewlis, Oldman, Spall and Rickman. That could have been a scene that went down in cinema history.
But no. No, it was just wasting film.
This wouldn't have been so bad. I could have accepted it, but instead of including this scene, Cuarón inserted artistic shots of butterflies and snowdrops. I wasn't angry. I was insulted.
Candy is now descending from her soapbox.
I was disappointed by this too, but honestly, so much canon was cut from the films that anyone that hasn't read the books won't follow them anyway, and those that have don't need the backstory. It's true that a long expose would've ruined the tension, and I'm assuming the Cuaron wanted to keep the confrontation tense and short, and thus decided that cutting the backstory was a risk worth taking.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. I think they left out too much of Lupin in the movies (and I know how much you love him!) Especially the parts about him and Tonks and them having a son. Seriously?
ReplyDeleteBut yes, so much of the third movie was taken out that if you haven't read the books you wouldn't be able to follow the story. A lot of the earlier scenes could have been cut short to make room for the Shack scene. Granted, I'm not sure how much Cuaron knew of how the books would turn out, but still, even at the point of book 3, we knew that it was a really important scene. You wouldn't realize the importance just through seeing the movie.