During my time off last week I did something that is rare for me: I watched a bunch of movies.
It isn’t that I’m normally averse to watching movies, it’s just that I can usually think of better things to do with my time (cleaning guns, reading this here interweb, etc). But last week I had a bunch of time, the interweb bored me after about Tuesday and all the guns had been cleaned (twice), so I settled down into the Pythonesque torture device known as “The Comfy Chair” and tried catching up on the ever growing DVD collection.
Now, the Analog Wife is a movie maniac. I suppose I could say that I’d be a fan of sitting in a dark room with a bunch of strangers if I had to live with me too, but her celluloid addiction started long before she met me. She has amassed a collection that, while not overly large, does catch the eye of many of the visitors to Casa de Analog, and I can faithfully say that if I am the master of the music collection, it is she who controls the content of the movie collection.
I do, however, have a decent selection of flicks that I have either bought myself or she has bought on sale thinking I might like them. One of the former of those that I watched was the Terry Gilliam adaptation of Huner S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”. Let’s just say that I can relate with that movie. I also watched the entire Cowboy Bepop series and Ghost in the Shell I & II as well as the first Stand Alone Complex series.
Let’s see, I also watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy in a single sitting, the Star Wars double trilogy in two sittings (three in the morning and then three that evening) and the four Harry Potter movies in another single sitting.
And this is where I have a question for you:
I have watched the Potter movies before, but always one at a time. In watching the series, I came away highly entertained, but with questions, and since these movies are adaptations of books, I wonder just how much the screeenwriters are leaving out.
But alas, there is a problem to upset the “Well then, just read the books, silly” comeback:
I fall alseep reading fiction, or at least 99% of it. I can read non-fiction books for days on end. Technical manuals are a breeze. But if I am reading fiction, I had better be sitting somewhere uncomfortable or on the commode if I am going to make it through.
I’m currently moseying my way through a triple sci-fan trilogy recommended by a co-worker, “The Gandalara Cycle” or some such. Eh. It’s not bad. Not great, but not bad. And then the Analog Mom recently dropped off Stephen King’s new one called “Cell” for me to read. The wife has snatched it up and is currently pouring through it.
So, to those of you who have read the Potter books, do they answer questions left by the movies and, more importantly, as they are set for children to read, are they readable by adults?
What say ye?
I’ve not read them, but a close family friend (and one of the highest-powered international attorneys in the Bay Area) is a faithful reader of the Harry Potter books. And when the new ones come out, if I’m taking the local rapid transit system, I’ll usually see two or three per car being avidly devoured by Bay Area adult riders. So short answer — yes, it seems they’re not just for kids.
I’ve enjoyed them all.
My wife enjoyed them, also, and she’s not a reader at all…
I don’t know what questions you have, but the movies are pretty close to the books.
Oh yeah, stuff has been left out, but the basic plot has stayed intact. Quite a bit of material had to be trimmed from Book 4 to make Movie 4, including some begininng bits, Winky the House Elf, Barty Crouch at the World Cup finals, Hermionie’s house elf rights campaign, the bit with Rita Skeeter being a nosy bug of a reporter, etc. The plot to movie 4 was slightly mangled because it was actually Dobby who came up with the gilly weed, not Neville Longbottom.
In the first movie, there’s a challenge missing from the list of things the kids have to go through to find the Philosopher’s Stone. I believe it’s something to do with finding a bottle of a potion amongst poisons. I’ll have to re-read books 1-3 to give an acccurate lisitng of what’s left out.
Sitting on your butt watching movie series non-stop…..sounds like my kind of vacation. I’m hoping to finish the last 6 hours of James Clavell’s “Shogun” this weekend.
DFWMTX, I do hope you read the novel Shogun too. It’s much better than the movie. (Although I do miss Richard Chamberlain, he was pretty good for swashbuckling roles.)
I plan to, but right now the reading list is chock-full of non-fiction. Is the novel “Shogun” worth reading before say “The Art of War” and the complimentry “Tao Te King”?
Like said, I’m only 33% through the mini-series, but so far I’m impressed. It’s very beautiful to watch.
I’m a computer geek, and along with various and sundry science fiction books, I read a lot of techie stuff.
I tried reading the Harry Potter books, but just couldn’t get into them. I probably would have loved them when I was a kid, but the writing is too young for me now.
The movies were entertaining, but not something I just have to run out and see on opening night.
Books are getting longer and longer, with the plots (that are the backbones of the movies) basically becoming window dressing to Rowling’s exploration of the characters feelings and emotions and thought processes.
In other words, the books started out as Kiplingesque fantasy remakes of “Stalky and Co.” and are becoming romance novels for teens and subteens.
I expect Harry will have to die to rid the world of Voldemort, unless there is a love interest to save him, again.
“The wife has snatched it up and is currently pouring through it.”
Ummmm…….wouldn’t that actually, you know…. be……ummmm…..”poring” through it?
Pingback: Random Nuclear Strikes » Another Thank You