The Movie I Missed…
Not to be confused with The Boy Who Lived…
I thought it would be peachy to go back and watch the movie trailers for the books I’ve already read. Having only seen each film once, I was curious about the imagery now that I know the story.
First, I watched the trailer for Sorcerer’s Stone. I remembered that one the best, probably having understood it the best when I saw it. There was no need to read the books to appreciate the first film. It’s pretty verbatim from the text. Cute little wizard children, magical spells, a stirring John Williams score, and some flying. Tada!
So on to the second film, Chamber of Secrets. I remembered this one too, mostly because I remembered thinking Dobby looked a hell of a lot like Gollum.
On to the third film, Prisoner of Azkaban. My memory for this one was a bit weaker, maybe because I went into it without the books to back it up. My faulty memory for the movies left me a bit confused in the third installment, but I remembered Gary Oldman. How could I forget?
Last, I switched on the trailer for Goblet of Fire. Hmmm…I watched the trailer a second time. You know what?
I never saw the fourth movie!
There wasn’t a single aspect of that trailer that rang a bell. If I saw it…and that’s a big if…I really didn’t remember a thing. I’m not saying it’s impossible – maybe it was a particularly late viewing, maybe I was tired or disinterested or just really confused – but I really don’t think I saw Goblet of Fire. The only thing that sort of struck me as familiar was Moaning Myrtle, but I think I remembered her from the previous movie.
This explains a lot.
It explains why I sat in the fifth movie BEYOND confused! I had no idea who the Death Eaters were – did the have anything to do with the Dementors? I had no idea a student had died (as indicated by the fact that I was asking where Cedric was in the sixth movie). I didn’t know about the Quidditch World Cup or the Triwizard Tournament – the Death Eater trials or Crouch or Moody or Bagman or Snape. Nothing. Flat out nothing. All I knew was that Ralph Fiennes made a bad ass Voldemort.
Makes a lot of sense…
As for the films themselves, I will go back and watch each of them when these books are done and then get back to you.
I’m very excited that you’ll be reading the 7th book without seeing the movie first. For me, I loved being able to read the book again before going to see the movie, and you’ll actually get to experience that as well!