Why Hollywood should keep their grubby paws off my favorite book series.
Artwork by Rebecca Holt
When it comes to obsessions, I will be the first to admit I am a starry-eyed Harry Potter nerd and a rabid “Twiheart” foaming at the mouth. Despite that, it’s not Robert Pattinson’s chiseled bad-boy looks or Harry Potter’s vast magical world (and Snape), which excites me. It is, believe it or not, the books. Holding that 600 page textbook-like novel allows me to escape into the holy grail of teenage fantasy, where magic and mystery prevail alongside ‘vegetarian’ vampires and a twisted evil wizard who resembles a giant snake.
Film blockbusters such as Twilight and Harry Potter are perfect examples of Hollywood’s need to brand everything and market it for one-size-fits-all audiences, and along the way it is tarnishing the appeal of the original book series. Now more than ever, more teens have an apathetic attitude, and watching the movies over the books, finding it a tedious waste of time to wade through pages that the author slaved over and poured her entire heart and soul into.
Don’t get me wrong, Stephenie Meyer and J.K Rowling probably wouldn’t be rolling in dough if it wasn’t for the films’ publicity sky-rocketing them both to number one on the best sellers list for more than a month. But is it right to sacrifice artistic creativity over making money?
For example, there are a lot of things that could be said about the summer’s biggest blockbuster hit, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but only one word could describe my emotion in the theater when the screen turned black and a steady flow of music accompanied the credits.
Shock.
Aside from the fact that it turned into a grotesquely cheesy teenage romance movie fit only for the Twilight series, it cut out a beloved character’s funeral, missed imperative character development, and had a dilapidated plot.
The movie starts, like always, with Harry and his newly discovered raging hormones. No Dursleys this time around; the movie skips right to the meat of the plot, which is the introduction of Professor Horace Slughorn. Skipping on to Hogwarts, we witness the first evidence that the screenwriters and directors actually paid attention to the book; it is established that Draco Malfoy is up to no good. Onward to some witty dialogue, the words “love potion” being flung in every direction, something about a spider dying and, finally, back to Harry’s raging hormones. Then, at last, Harry accompanies Dumbledore to a mysterious cave, and he’s given mysterious instructions about a mysterious object.
At this point my jaw had already unhinged at the number of things they had changed, but I was stubbornly clinging to the hope that the final showdown at Hogwarts would redeem the entire movie.
I was wrong. There was no final show down.
As a fan of the books first and the movie second, I cringed every time they missed a vital piece of information or changed, well, anything. It is true that in the book the rocky relationship between Ron and Hermione along with Harry and Ginny’s awkward encounters happened in the most amusing bits to add light to a dark and gloomy book, but it was not the primary focus and it actually served a purpose.
Snape and Voldemort’s roles disappeared into the background in favor of witnessing an obsessed Lavender Brown doodle a heart for a very uncomfortable Ron Weasley. The chances the audience got to have a peek at Voldemort was through Dumbledore’s memories, which then awkwardly transitioned into talking about the horcruxes, and then it was right back to who snogged whom in the hidden staircase.
Meanwhile, half the people in the theater are left to wonder what a horcrux is and why it is so important. This isn’t the first instance where the Harry Potter producers have left out bits of information only people who bothered to read the books would know. For example, the third movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban introduced the Marauders without a hint of who they were and why they had such odd nicknames.
The Half-Blood Prince was supposed to be set up to explain exactly what was going to happen in Deathly Hollows. For instance, the importance of Harry learning about his archenemy’s past, the horcruxes, and really finding out exactly why Voldemort turned into a homicidal maniac – or more accurately the lengths he took to receive immortality.
This fall the Twilight sequel New Moon and the newly adapted Cirque Du Freak will be let loose in a theater near you. I feel a tiny prickle of foreboding. The first Twilight movie, like all the other book-to-movie franchises, started out better than expected. Aside from a horrible case of bad acting and adding an extra scene or two, the movie stayed true to its roots. Unfortunately, the trailer for Cirque du Freak I hesitantly watched left me skeptical and somewhat horrified of the final outcome. I’m sure of one thing, however; even though my morbid curiosity will surely lead me to watch my favorite series be slaughtered on-screen, I can always tell my friends, “The book was SO much better,” then vent by writing a very angry blog about Hollywood ruining the things I love.
