Harry Potter Rant.
I know for sure that when Order Of The Phoenix came out and I found out that Sirius Black died, I was more than angry. I think I ranted and raved about his death more than... well... more than anything. He was - and will always be for me - the best character in the whole Harry Potter series. What retarded JK Rowling did was kill him off in the most pathetic way ever - who the hell dies by falling behind a curtain? Sure, it's all magic, but it's a pretty lame way to die. I know that she said that she couldn't rewrite it any other way, but surely you could give the character a more dignified death.
I've read Prisoner Of Azkaban the most out of the whole Harry Potter series - and it's possibly even one of the most re-read books of mine, having read it some eight times - so when it came to The Goblet Of Fire, I was anticipating some great follow up to Azkaban featuring Sirius. I mean, he's Harry's god father for crying out loud! But alas, he's shafted to a mere appearance as a dog and a hokey face in the fire sequence.
Don't get me wrong, Goblet Of Fire is a great read - certainly much better than the first two dismal books - but it suffers the same problem that Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith suffered from. It is given a storyline which sounds great as a stand alone book, but in the whole mythology of Harry Potter, the last fifty pages are all that matters. The sum of the whole story doesn't add a hell of a lot to the Voldemort mythology. Philosopher's Stone had Voldemort trying to regain power by inhabiting Quirrell, Chamber Of Secrets had Harry finding out prematurely about Voldemort splitting his soul - although not explained until the sixth book, Azkaban had the insight into the legion of followers that Voldemort is gathering (Peter Pettigrew), then Goblet Of Fire stumbles along.
A mammoth book of visual excitement. We do find out about the Death Eaters, but hey, that really only kicks in in the first chapter and the final chapters. What occur's in the middle is pretty hokey at best - and a major diversion to the main mythology of Harry Potter. Even Dumbledore's distaste in the Ministry is pretty quiet in this book until Order Of The Phoenix.
Don't even get me started on the annoyance that is SPEW.
Where my major gripe comes into play here is with Sirius' role in Goblet Of Fire. He's built up as this great character in Azkaban, a mysterious monster raging through the halls of Hogwarts. Then we find out the heart he truly has. Flash forward to Goblet, he's a mere figure who appears minimally, then come Phoenix, he is one major motherfucking prick. Iain and I have discussed this before about Sirius and Rowling's deal with killing off characters - it seems quite easy to pick out the characters who are going to die merely due to their pigheadish dickheadness.
In Phoenix, Harry and Sirius clash like no tomorrow. Sirius acts like he's constipated all the time and walks around like a prick, so when his death comes in the final act, you don't really give a shit. The same could be said for the death of a major character in Half Blood Prince, but alas, with that death Rowling at least built the character up so that they have a back story and you feel sympathy for them when they die.
Why does Rowling persist to do this to her reader's? Is it because the main fanbase is young and she doesn't want the readers to feel too sad when the character dies because he's been a prick? Is it because she wants us to feel sorry for the not so good guys too? I'm not too sure, but it certainly gets to me.
Which brings me to the film adaptation of Goblet Of Fire. As I've read in many reviews so far, the relation of the text to the film is a tough one. A lot of the text is cut out to make the film more enjoyable and understandable to mainstream audiences. But what they appear to have done - and this is going from the reviews, not my viewing as I haven't actually seen it yet - is fucked themselves up royally for the next film. A lot needed to have been covered in Goblet Of Fire to make Order Of The Phoenix an enjoyable movie to watch - because god knows it is not an enjoyable book to read (that is not to suggest it is a bad book at all, it isn't, it's a great book and also has one hell of a fantastically evil character in Professor Umbridge - who I hope they get somebody who looks like a frog to play because I know that whoever plays her will not match the image in my mind) - and from what I hear, they've not done that.
To start with, the furor that is Dumbledore being relegated to a side character, exiled from his own school is a fascinating plot device which makes the finale of Half Blood Prince all the more brilliant (fingers crossed they sign David Fincher or Darren Aronofsky to direct Half Blood Prince because I could not imagine any other director filming such dark and disturbing children's text as these two gentlemen). By not building it up neatly enough in Goblet Of Fire, the viewer will be left wondering what the hell has gone on in Order Of The Phoenix.
Also with Sirius' role in Order Of The Phoenix, you really have to wonder how the hell they're going to handle his death. You have to think about what the hell is going to go on in this film adaptation because of what occur's and how they are going to handle it. Sirius is not a truly noteable character in Goblet and for those who enjoyed Azkaban may get a little lost as to what happened to Sirius in between Azkaban and Phoenix. (The petition for Sirius - the Azkban and hideout years starts here).
Maybe I'm just a little too eager to see more of Sirius and await his return in the final Harry Potter book - don't tell me he's not coming back, if Rowling wants to keep her child fans happy, she'll allow Harry to live (even though he must die) and Sirius will return and the fuzz will let Sirius go free and they will live together happily in Harry's house.
Hell, I don't even know how well the film maker's have handled the Ministry Of Magic's portrayal. I mean, here we have a body of magician's who seem to continually fuck up things and cause chaos as they go and don't listen that yes, Voldemort is back dammit! So when Phoenix comes around, their portrayal will be comical at most because of their lack of character build up in the previous films. It may also suffer from a little Phantom Menace feeling with too much politic's, given that the director who is signed on for Phoenix handled a superb British politic's TV drama.
Maybe I'm going on for too long, and I probably am, but I have a lot to say about the plight of the Harry Potter universe. We've got some great films coming out of the series - and I wish that somebody with half a brain would go back and remake the first two Harry Potter films after the botched speedy attempt to get those out in a hurry after securing leads and a writer, fucking Chris Columbus. Who ever thought it was a good idea to allow him to helm the first two films? Enough of that, I've lost enough sleep over that to begin writing about my anger about that again.
I just hope that the quality of film making remains the same and that there is no compromise in the next few films for story line. Why the motherfuck didn't Mike Newell take the advice and split Goblet Of Fire into two films? It would have been a brilliant idea! Think, two Harry Potter films in one year. Why did he have to listen to Alfonso Cuaron and go for one three hour film instead of two two hours? I hope that they take that idea and run a fucking mile with it for Phoenix because god help them, it would boost sales so fucking much - I still refuse to believe that Warner Brothers is concerned about losing ticket sales as the films go on, how can they fear that when they have an inbuilt fanbase that spans generations, worldwide release of books at the same time universally when they are released, a growing quality in films, millions of dollars tied up in cross promotion (vibrating broomsticks, lolly's, wands, capes...), soundtracks, posters, etc. etc. Why the fuck can't the film company take a gamble and make more money by releasing the film in two halves and not making a compromise to the text?
I'll leave you with one thought for those who have read Half Blood Prince - do you think that the final chapters with the cavern and Dumbledore's death would work better as a fifteen minute finale or a grand hour long finale?