What’s it doing? Or not doing?
I saw Harry potter 1 on a plane to Kuwait in 2002. I was not impressed. I don’t normaly go for children’s books… or children’s programming ( unless it’s something I used to watch as a child). But after listing to the podcst and noticing how many adults on this forum like it… I figure that there HAS to be something to it. ( plus I just found out that Gary Oldman is in one of the movies… so I am sold)
Question. I REALLY didn’t like the first movie when I saw it that time. My GF ( who is 21, so she loves HP because it came out when she was like 10) says they get not only watchable but good after like the third movie. She doesn’t have much “geek cred” and told me to just skip ahead and they are great. If I do that… am I really missing anything exciteing?
the first one I saw was the third, and that’s the first one with Gary Oldman. I’d say go ahead and skip to that one. you can always go back and watch the first two later. that’s what I did and I turned out okay. I think. 
I was having trouble downloading it from iTunes, too. It put the button there to “get” it but when you click it, it won’t start the download.
So I just listened to the first part of the podcast, and as an old BSG-era listener who’s never participated in the forum I just had to pop on and speak to one very small point that was brought up in discussion: the Wizard’s chess scene, or specifically the idea that Ron sacrifices a pawn just to test the stakes of the game.
He doesn’t, really. I can’t remember if we get into the specifics of the game in the book - I don’t think we do - but in the film at least, Ron answers 1. e4 with 1. …d5, which is the Scandinavian defense. He knew white would take the pawn, but it’s not much of a sacrifice because black soon recaptures, either immediately with 2… Qxd5 or a few moves later with 2… Nf6, after which the pawn is attacked by two pieces and very hard to defend (3.c4 defends it, but slows white’s game and blocks his light-square bishop.)
We don’t get a clear sense of the game’s progression after the first move, but it’s worth pointing out that even with that first move Ron is still playing good chess, and not throwing a pawn away just to see what will happen. Apparently the filmmakers brought in a real chess teacher to map out the game, which indicates to me that they were paying attention to this stuff.
Here’s the scene on youtube, and here’s Wikipedia’s article on the Scandinavian defense, which mentions the movie.
And yes, I’m a total pedant.
Thanks for that tidbit, darthmix, and welcome aboard!
Harry Potter series not on Audible? :eek: 
I too watched the first 4 movies before I picked up the books. I was not that impressed with the first two movies either. They were fun, but I had the feeling that HP really wasn’t doing anything and was just being propelled along based on the skills of his friends and manipulations of his professors. However, I was always told by a friend that it was really much more complex than that, and she was right.
The other odd thing about seeing the movies before reading the books was that I could never really dislike Snape because he was played by Alan Rickman. I had heard that JKR suggested AR for the part, and that to me seemed to constitute a spoiler, because you don’t put AR in a role and have him just be a one dimensional bad guy (at least in this point in his career).
Mine usually is there waiting, having auto downloaded upon update, but this week I had to right click and choose “update podcast” and it downloaded without issue. I did that at about NOON on Saturday.
Yes. go ahead and Jump in with the third movie.POA(with Gary Oldman). It might just hook you enough to go back, and fill in the blanks, but if not, that is where the movies become actual movies and not Kid flicks. Partly because the characters are old enough to be interesting to adults. IMHO.
Just finished final Potter book (finally) to avoid spoilage. Didn’t start 'cast yet. But here’s preliminary comments…
Not all Slytherin are d*cks. Not actively. Though many of them are. If not most.
The Potter audio books are quite good. At least, the first 3 are. I kinda lost interest after that. But if you’re remotely inclined, check 'em out.
Ditto with the series itself. It’s one of those things that sounds like so much hooey, but it’s the real deal.
Hang with the first book. It all comes together in the end.
I agree that snakes get a bad rap in lititure. They keep rodent and bug populatons down and gennerally ae rather nice to us. The few snakes that were in my yard ran away from me. I think thy are worried that I may have them for dinner.
The thing to keep in mind is that the books (and, I assume, the movies) are aimed at the age group that the principles are at the time. So, early on it’s very definitely a kid’s story, and it gets progressively more adult as it goes on. If you keep that in mind, the early books may not be so disappointing.
The early books were to sucker the kids into reading. The stories were linear and short. Then the books became longer and more complicated, more adult. Now the children will read. It is all a trap. :eek:
“The best of us must sometimes eat our words.”
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Spoken by Albus Dumbledore.
With above in mind (from Pike and Leah) see if you can take them in order, the first two are rather short by comparison…
I briefly met Daniel Radcliffe, the guy who plays Harry Potter in the movies. He doesn’t really have that scar.
Does he wear glasses?
Yeah, and the nice thing she did was plant seeds early on that were only revealed several books later. So, if you can handle the whole “reading a kid’s book” thing for the first couple, you’ll be rewarded by the reveals later on.
All you potterheads know what I’m talking about.
Does he really, REALLY like horses?
I have seen pictures, he does not seem to be wearing, well, much of anything… Certainly …no pants
