Korean Job Discussion Forums

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

I borrowed the first three Harry Potter movies from my school and watched them today (along with my Turkey and Noodle Soup made from left-over turkey) and had a decent day.

I wouldn't say they are great movies, but they are not bad. Probably, if you are someone who has no trouble with British accents, you would enjoy them more than I did. I think I have to read the books to fully understand the plot. I estimate I missed about 25% of the plot because of the accents, but the special effects were nice. The director of the third movie is different from the first two, and that meant the sets were different. I thought that was odd. The school grounds were quite a bit different from the first two. I don't know why they would change the set just because the director was different, but they did.

Anyway, not bad. A 'B'.

Question: Are the books better than the movie version?

tzechuk · Joined: 20 Dec 2004

Yes, the books are better.

HapKi · Joined: 10 Dec 2004 Location: TALL BUILDING-SEOUL

Books are much better.

As any book/movie comparison, the book allows you to form the context in your mind, while the movie forces you to see one interpretation. For example, the willow tree in front of Hogwarts in book 2 and 3. Reading the book, you get all sorts of rich description. (How it got there, why its angry, what it does to the car, how it has to be repaired by Prof. Sprout later, etc..)

As for the accents, Rowling does a good job with Hagrid's in the books.

I think the books are so good, you could even see the movies first, and still come away from the books with a good read, and a deeper understanding.

krats1976 · Joined: 14 May 2003

The books are much better (as always), but I still liked the movies. I was disappointed by the 3rd because it was under 2 hours and they left too much out (e.g. how does Prof. Lupin know the parchment is a map?).

I really liked 4. 3 was my favorite book, but 4 is by far my favorite movie. It was a new director (again), but he stuck with the set that the directer for 3 set up so there wasn't as drastic a change as there was from 2 to 3.

Bulsajo · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

I've only read the first book so I can't compare the books to the movies, but when I compare the movies to themselves or to other series, Harry Potter is the only series of sequels I can think of where the movies keep getting better. Godfather? Alien? Jaws? Indian Jones? Matrix? Star Wars? Rocky? Rambo? Back to the Future? Toxic Avenger? Batman? LOTR? nyet. I found the 4th HP to be the best one yet.