That's the only Yates film I enjoyed. They did it to resemble rembrandt's work and succeeded incredibly. HP5, HP7pi/p2 and the beasts movies all look the same, depressingly dark. I miss the warm colours from Columbus movies.
It is inspired from the artist Rembrandt. It is the film that really stripped the life out of series. It was a transition from childhood to adulthood for the characters and I love every second of it. Beautiful colouring/cinematography.
They’re the only two that I can enjoyably watch. I honestly hate the changes that were made after the first two. The change in Hogwarts uniforms, the muggle clothes, the change in the school grounds, the colors… ugh
In my opinion, Alfonso Cuaron is the best director in the series. He managed to give Harry Potter a darker tone while still maintaining its magical wonder. David Yates, I feel, went too heavily in the last two movies.
I feel like Cuaron`s raw naturalism (his words, not mine) kind of takes a little away from the magical aspect of it. But... I would very much be down with seeing the entire series directed by Cuaron. Then it would be more coherent. In terms of quality of work.. I can agree that Cuaron was the best director of the bunch. Miles better than Yates. More modern than Chris Columbus. And more daring than Mike Newell.
I liked David Yates's Half blood prince. It was probably only time when Yates got more creative and whole movie has more magical feeling and melancholy atmosphere + some of the best OST in the whole series. (Thought colour grading and blurring is too much sometimes)
@@АлинаКостылева-ф2ч The 6th movie is in my opinion the worst of them all. It is so incredibly unfaithful to the book. Normally, I'm not really the person that would complain about this, especially since I grew up with the films more than the books, but the backstory of Voldemort being traded for the burning of the burrow and unnecessary romance is just maddening. Also, the battle in the final act of the book where Dumbledore is killed is also oddly tame compared to the book. I think this is weird, since you would think that making sure all the action is on the screen is high on the list of a director.
@@kerrbeeldens also about the final act of HBP. In the books there is a reason the death eaters are fleeing because of the battle that ensues. but going by the film however there is no reason why they just flee and not take the chance to grab Harry when he is right there following them. Like yeah Snape says no to Bellatrix killing him but she would not just go without taking Harry to Voldemort.
Adliad adliad i rewatched all the films recently and by the time i got to deathly hallows i could barely see anything particularly in the dark forest scene.
Honestly what made the first harry potter great was that i WANTED to be there in that universe, despite the immense danger. It just communicated so much awe, and desire for purpose.
Personally, I would have liked to have seen the golden warmth and timeless cinematography of the Columbus movies blended with the hard lines and texture of Cuarón's style, something like Ridley Scott's Gladiator mixed with The Fellowship of the Ring and just a splash of Pan's Labyrinth.
To be honest I think it was Goblet that ruined the movies, not Azkaban. I remember feeling so disappointed when it came out. I was disappointed with the world cup, which I know many people were, with the way that Gambon acted in not just that scene but pretty much all of them and the way that the tasks were, how they cut out most of the maze even though that was my favourite part. There are parts of Azkaban I don't like, such as how they designed Hagrid's house but I find it to be tbh the best of the movies.
I'm with you on this one, GoF is my least favorite as well, however I didn't mind Gambon's acting most of the time. The *one part* from GoF is a tad annoying in retrospect, but I think it may have been more to add to the dramatic effect that the directors seem to go for as the series progresses. If he was actually gentle and calm in that scene, it may have felt too soft for the tone and mood of the film, if that makes sense. I also know what you're saying about Hagrid's hut, but for some reason I kind of prefer the way it was set up in the other movies than the first two. I don't really know why, and it may just be because PoA is one of my favorite films in the series and I liked the use of the sort of establishing shots used when the trio would run down the stairs/hill to his hut, or the fact that they were so comfortable with Hagrid that the distance of his hut from the school itself kind of felt like it was being used as a way to escape certain school or magic-related troubles, or a place to sit and think or talk things out. I don't know if I'm making much sense, but I do honestly feel like PoA was one of the best films from the series, if not the best. Same with OotP. I LOVE the colors, the directing, everything.
I agree. I hate that Azkaban changed so much. But it still felt like Harey Potter. The colors still had saturation, the music felt triumphant and medieval and it honored the story pretty well. Goblet of Fire felt nothing like the book and had little artistic style to it.
Couldn't agree more! Azkaban was actually very decent imho. After that, the franchise fell victim to the infamous adaptation-freedom (as I like to call it). Characters we know from the books are somewhat changed or distorted in order to put the emphasis on the main characters. It happened in LOTR (Gandalf getting owned by the Witchking...luckily, Extended Edition only) and also in HP (duel of Voldemort and Dumbledore in which D. was struggling to gain the upper hand...quite the opposite can be found in the book)
Well said! HP 1-2 gives you a feeling thats similar to what you feel at Christmastime! Very magical! HP 3 gives you a feeling like you had a fun weekend, in October. Its spooky and fun. But not as magical. HP 4-6 gives you a feeling like you had a nice dessert. Its fun but that feeling isnt there. Did you notice? HP 7-8 gives you a feeling like you ate a piece of stale halloween candy, in a pitch black room. It taste alright. Better than nothing, I guess. Also, that HP theme that we all love so much, was very heavy in 1& 2, so we immediately associate that music to a magical feeling that was produced in those 2 films. With every film afterwards, that theme is used less and less. Mirroring how each one felt less and less magical. ps. But if you read all 7 books, you noticed that they all still had that magical feeling. And THATS what the movies shouldve been like. Despite Voldemort being after Harry, when you read "meanwhile at Hogwarts" you sighed with relief and your mind conjured up a grand magical castle with floating candles and ghosts floating through the halls. All that is missing from 5-8 movies. You can still make a movie about dark things with out turning the color grading all the way down to... "what the heck is going on? Are we watching the audiobook?
I think this video is just an opinion , not an essay . Prisoner of Azkaban is the most loved Harry potter movie by fans and critics . Whenever I read the books I visualize the Hogwarts in Prisoner of Azkaban not the first two movies because i loved Alfonso’s vision and mostly the colors which continued to the next movie as well till David Yates . He directed 4 movies and each movie a different color pallet. So the problem of colors in franchise is with David Yate’s vision , not Alfonso’s .
Farnaz Liravi «An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument - but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story.» from Wikipedia.. I’d say I’m pretty much covered. I express many times how good Alfonso’s look is. His vision is not really the problem. It’s the disconnect with Columbus’ look. And Mike Newell actually brought the harsh contrasts and pale skintones back a lot. Goblet actually felt like a step in the right direction (as far as Columbus’ vision went). And I also talk about (criticise) David Yates in the video. But the point here is that Alfonso was the first one who started with the «too different look». Which set a precedent for the next directors of continual changes in the look.
Prisoner of Azkaban probably came closest to capturing the essence of Hogwarts, even if plot-wise it wasn't that faithful. I think out of all the movies it does the best job cinematically of blending dark and whimsical elements, which is what HP is meant to be about IMO.
A lot of fans may feel the 3rd movie was the best. And yes, it did do certain things well. But my favourite movies are always going to be the first two. They just had that magical feel, and also a rich and memorable soundtrack. I absolutely hate Gambon's Dumbledore as well. Yes, as people turn into adults, things change. But I wish it was done in a manner consistent with the first two movies. The third movie was drastically different than the first two. I wish Columbus directed everything from start to finish, John Williams composed the whole score and Richard Harris did not die.
>Prisoner of Azkaban is the most loved Harry potter movie by fans by most fans, doesn't mean they're right. I hated this movie when it came out, and still hate it now. it's nothing like the feeling the books had, in a bad way. It just feels like a generic hollywood product. >I think this video is just an opinion , not an essay what else is a video essay supposed to be? absolute fact? because there's no such thing in art.
When people complain about Gambon they only ever mention that one scene. Gambon aside from that scene was a great Dumbledore. That said, when I read the books I imagined an older Jude Law so I’m ecstatic that he’s Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts films.
Archerpool that was the absolute worst scene, I’ll give you that. He was at his best in Deathly Hallows. So I’m not saying he wasn’t good in any scenes. But overall he felt way too whiny, fragile and not authoritative, like Harris was (in a very humble way). Gambon’s interpretation was nothing like the Dumbledore in my head..
c17sam90 i’m all for adapting books to scripts. I know what it entails, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t wrong ways of adapting... in Gambon’s case, I personally thought it was pretty bad adaptation.
Tomas Stavik i hated Harris as a child. He was too old looking in movement and over all look. Too weak at that stage of his life as actor. If they had Richard Harris of the late 80’s it would a be a different story. Reading the overall Dumbledore story Gambon makes more sense to me. He can do the light and do the dark. Partly because he had scripts that required both sides and costumes that hat both sides of the character. The character as performed by Harris I can’t see doing the darker side or even being very intimidating to anyone over the age of 4.
While I do hate Gambon in the Goblet of Fire (I hate everything about that movie aside from Harry's hair and the first task), I will admit he does well in certain scenes. I would have preferred Harris to have lived on to continue the role, but we all must die sometime. Personally, I would have chosen a different actor than Gambon, though; Patrick Stewart, Ian McDiarmid, or Michael Caine would have been good choices, but I really think Sam Neil would have been the perfect fit.
1,2 and 4 were the only films with warm colours. 3 holds a special place in my heart because while it's still dark in its colours it's also bright and clear unlike the Yates films that are hard to see, almost as if the budget ran out on the lighting.
It was the actor's decision. Gambon never bothered reading the books and felt he needed to impose his own personality onto Dumbledore. He didn't act as Dumbledore, he acted as himself pretending to be Dumbledore. That's the difference.
I agree on the color, I did like the Columbus palette the best, it had a innate wimsy to it. Through I think the main reasons the movies feel so inconsistent is because of the change in reality and reactions of the characters. While the book had time to shift from a child escapist fantasy to a more realistic tone, a movie can't change the rules of its reality. In the Harry potter series the tone shift wasn't handeled gracefully. The movies therefore feel less consistent, at least to me.
Mister Twinkles strictly observational, I prefer Azkaban.. hands down... though I do like PS and CoS. And I kind of agree with you on what is the main reason. I didn’t try to claim that these points (in the video) was the only and/or main reasons for the disconnect in the narrative.
Nor did I claim you did. It very intersting though, you brought up good points, I never really considered the possibility that the color pallette could contribute to dissonance. Yet it does explain a lot of feelings I had on the last 4 movies. They should feel more in tune, given they have the same director, but something was a little off. I get why you like Azkaban (it's my favorite movie), it nails the realism and feeling it's going for. I just really liked the bright vibrant colors of philosopher which, like you said, is mostly preference.
Daniel did talk about the dark turn the harry Potter movies made when Alfonso came in but hey..the first two movies are when harry is a child. From the azkaban one, he's entering the main plot..or...you get it right? So the dark colour grading complimented the dark twist in the story.
Mrinal Singh I don’t really agree. But it’s OK if you disagree with me :) PoA is darker, yes. But it wasn’t that much darker. The plot in CoS is pretty frikkin dark as well...
Tomas Stavik that's the thing that lacks in the netizens today 😂 two people CAN HAVE different opinions 😂😂😂 but they'd just fight back again and again to prove Thier point! Anyways. Great video. And yes when you compared the scenes from the movies on screen together...the change was VISIBLE ENOUGH.
While I agree that the tone of the lighting needed to be changed with the mood... there's also a bit of a problem. It needed to be more gradual. Or maybe the movie's tone was different from the books, and I am just remembering the movies wrong. At least in the books, there wasn't a huge difference in Prisoner of Azkaban. Sure, some themes were a bit darker. But there was just as much levity and charm as the first two. The tone of the lighting needed to be more dynamic, not necessarily darker throughout. Have it dark during the scenes that are more dark. Have it brighter when the tone is brighter. Having a dark theme during certain scenes was certainly needed. But there wasn't enough light where there should have been. This is of course a lot more pronounced in Year 4 and onward. (The fourth movie has a lot of problems of its own.) And the "Harry is a child" doesn't sit right with me as much. Sure, it's pretty accurate for the first two films. But he doesn't have a sudden change in maturity as soon as the third book comes around. The problem isn't necessarily that there was a darker lighting scheme, it's that it came too early in the series. And they didn't know when to change it. Prisoner of Azkaban had good lighting, and some of it was actually dynamic, but I think it was too much, too soon. That sort of lighting would be good around the fifth book, at least to me. Later on, it's more of a color filter than actual mood lighting. Almost like watching a movie in greyscale. Sorry for the apparent rant. I am actually fine with you having a different opinion, I just thought I would explain why I thought otherwise. It's actually the music that is more of a problem for me. (Just the lack of consistency with the themes, and the more "action movie" scores don't appeal to me as much as what John Williams did with the first two. It makes them seem like each movie is a separate entity instead of a continuous series.)
Allen Holloway This was such an Impressive and nice take on my comment! I loved it and yes Thanks for correcting me there, the change in lighting should've been gradual.
Allen Holloway you make much more sense than me and one thing I really like in this thread- PEOPLE ARE OKAY WITH ME HAVING A DIFFERENT OPINION! GOD ITS SO HARD TO SEE THAT THESE DAYS.
LOTR was a very dark film, and yet they managed to give it Life & Beauty & vibrance. HP just lost its sparkle. Also, its very tiring how everyone wants 'their vision'. Thats just a lame excuse. Why would Dumbledores beard change just because the actor did? If Daniel couldnt film any of the movies and got replaced, would the new actor not wear glasses, bc the new actor is giving it 'his interpretation' Tomas did a great job pointing out how LOTR feels like a proper trilogy, whereas HP just seems to decline with each movies. Btw, HP propbably has the worst ending of any major franchise. Harry and the crew just seemed so depressed. No celebrations were shown. Just a patheic lame send off of their kids. "Well son, I hope you like the school. Youre named after one of those dead teachers. Now behave. Ok?" Ron and Hermione also look frumpy and depressed. Its sort of like "We fulfilled all our dreams... now what? Whats the point of life?" Not to mention the very last seconds of the credits when the music plays. Listen and you'll see what I mean. Its like the composer didnt finish or was cut off. 7 & 8 arent canon in my book.
You nailed it. I always felt like the post-CoS movies weren't really Harry Potter anymore because of the shift in tone and colors. Chris Columbus and John Williams gave the franchise a very recognizable look and atmosphere, so while Azkaban is more artsy, it doesn't look like it's part of the same universe. They changed the logo, the school uniforms, the look of Hogwarts, Hagrid's house and didn't seem to care about the incoherence. The Colombus movies had colors but everything that came afterward was so dark and blue/greyish. I guess they wanted to show the growth of the characters but it just made the movies feel disjointed from each other. I wish Harry Potter hadn't became one of those countless desaturated, gritty-looking franchises.
Agreed, agreed and fully agreed! They had such a great start and so many makings of greatness. And then... ended up not living up to their potential at all...
THANK YOU!! Couldn’t agree more! Also, it became clear that they were not filming on location anymore (maybe a couple of scenes), and began shooting almost everything in studios with green screens.
I for one, am super glad that the rest of the Harry Potter films don't look like the two first ones. If anything, PoA saved Harry Potter. After CoS, Harry is almost forced to grow up faster than other kids, and I think that the change in style really reinforces that. The films do get darker and darker as Harry matures more and more. I'm glad the films are each distinctive from one another - I feel it would be rather boring if they all looked the same! :) Regarding the grade with LoTR, they shot and edited the films basically all at the same time, so it was reasonably easy to change the style for all of the films if you wanted to. Harry Potter was filmed over a decade so it would've been impossible to do it the same way as LoTR.
It's okay to change the picture with his grown process. But not so drastically fast. And not through the whole movies in nearly every scene. It's like if the movie want to say: grow older means, you have to give up all the colour and brightness of your life, because the world is bad and you have to see the darkness in everything and at some point, you'll always be depressive and embittered. I wonder where Harry get's the strength to fight against the dark ones day by day, if the only thing he is experiencing is darkness all around him? This has nothing to do with maturity. There are evel forces responsible for that. They called inappropiate directors.
I respectfully disagree. The target audience is mainly children, but PoA and GoF kind of changed the tone. (Pun not intended.) When characters started dying, and the movies became less about fooling around at Hogwarts, the movies really changed. When Hermione punched Malfoy, you could really *feel* the mood change drastically.
@@luer2202 Sorry, but can you imagine dementors in a bright, saturated, sunny movie? How about Voldemort's return (ok I know it's in the evening, but the colors could have been saturated)? The books themselves take a dark turn in Prisoner of Azkaban with a "mass-murderer" on the loose, dementors around Hogwarts all the time (on the whole dementors are FAR darker than the basilisk which just kills you instantly, seeing as the dementors are able to suck the happiness out of people, and the dementor's kiss results in a fate worse than death), Harry seeing the Grim all over the place, Harry hearing the murder of his parents every time he gets too close to a dementor, for most of the book, the reader believes that the person responsible for Lily and James' death was their friend and secret keeper, is Harry's godfather, and is out to kill him and to bring Voldemort back, part of the prophesy about Voldemort's servant returning to him and Voldemort rising again is fulfilled when Pettigrew escapes, and the injustice of Buckbeak's case. I also might have missed some things. The color saturation is fine in this movie (at least compared to Half-Blood Prince where it's hard to see a lot of stuff on screen), and quite frankly, justified.
Oh my god THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! You have no idea how much I appreciate this video! The dissonant coloring of the Harry Potter movies has irked me for YEARS and everyone I try to talk about this with has just rolled their eyes. They think I’m being knit-picky and call me “nostalgic” for the Columbus films. I don’t really even mind PoA’s change of cinematic style as much as the godawful, dreary, and desaturated palette. It just felt so jarring and out of place! Plus it certainly doesn’t help that PoA also redesigned the architecture of Hogwarts and put a greater emphasis on the characters wearing modern clothing rather than the familiar school uniforms. It was too different and too sudden to mesh with the narrative whole and I’m so glad someone is finally pointing that out!! Bless you!
I'm quite the opposite. I'll take screenshots from Order of the Phoenix through Deathly Hallows 2 and run them through my photo editing software to lift that dark filtering and saturating the color to see what they'd look like with a different cinematographer. It's amazing how much color is buried in these later movies. It makes me wonder how much of a different viewing experience the series would have been if say all the movies had the same brighter, more vibrant look and a John Williams score throughout.
The first two films have a lot more 'magic' to it. The colours, the school uniforms, their storylines in context with the whole, the old Dumbledore, the settings (Hogwarts and diagon alley, hagrid's hut and the forest..) With that said, cuaron was the best director and created the best film; but definitely initiated a tonal shift, for the worst, in my opinion.
I think that Chris Columbus’s style very much defined the feel of films from the late 80s and 90s, the ones that most of us were brought up on. He directed the Home Alone films, Gremlims, the Goonies and Ms Doubtfire, which are all classics from the era as well .
Great essay - deserves more views. I've just been writing a video essay on this exact topic (but from a musical standpoint!) - so it's so great to hear your views on colour grading and cinematography. I completely agree - I recently watched all 8 films and was totally bothered by the inconsistencies. More than just the colour grading - there are just so many inconsistencies in those films, you can't buy into it actually being a cogent series. Also, I even remember as a kid loving the first two films in the cinema, and being distinctly disappointed by the 3rd film onwards. I wasn't critically aware of why the third disappointed at the time, but I just knew that it had lost the 'magic' of the first two. Don't get me wrong, it's fabulous cinematography. But it's just too big a leap from the first two in terms of style
I completely agree, and your experience is very similar to mine. Would be cool to see how your essay turns out :) The music also changed a lot from the two first movies to the third one as well, even though it's still John Williams who scored it. My favourite scores are possibly the two first and then Goblet of Fire, although the theme from Williams is the most memorable, and beautiful, melody
About the music? Bring it on! Big-time Williams fan here. I do believe the music saved PoA for me as it was still as excellent as what came before. But indeed still a massive change of tone. After Williams left, the music really took a nose-dive. Until Fantastic Beasts, that is...
Even though PoA is one of my favorites BECAUSE it was dark, you brought up some good points about the change in tonality due to such a drastic change. In my opinion, because of the progression of the story, PoA should have been a tiny bit brighter but then GoF should have been the quality of darkness that Alfonso brought to PoA since it's the first time someone dies in the series. PoA stands out as my favorite movie (except maybe HBP) because the direction was so stylized, however. I thought the first two movies established the universe, but not much was being said as a director other than solidifying the universe. The interactions between actor and audience felt like watching a play, removed from the situation as an observer, rather than interacting through the big screen on a personal and emotional level. Alfonso took the established universe and breathed that realism into the characters for me and showcased the characters uncomfortably; close and with all flaws. I felt like PoA was full of more magic and intrigue than the first two movies. Time and life and death are huge themes that the color palette carries well, especially for a kid's franchise. The audience needed to be informed that the tonality was all about to start changing and the stylization carried that message. As soon as those opening credits rolled we knew something had shifted. After Harry defeated the Basilisk and nearly died after CoS, he is only just starting to understand what being Harry Potter means and the weight of the world is starting to build the foundation on his shoulders. We are not meant to forget what happened after the events of movie/book 2 and I appreciated that even though Harry is only 13 in PoA, the series was beginning to be taken more seriously with more adult color themes.
I agree with actually most of what you are saying. Especially that 1 & 2 feels like watching a play. The child actors were just getting into acting.. So many scenes feel quite rigid... I'm not gonna lie and say that nostalgia isn't a part of why I cherish the first two movies that much.. But I would only wish the direction of the next movies would be sort of line with the same color palette, all the while contributing with more realism in the acting, showing the flaws of the characters, and making it gradually darker in tone.. EDIT: Oh.. and thanks for the long reply :) I like when people get involved in the discussion!
the change from CoS to azkaban was just far to sudden, it should have been a more subtle and gradual growing of dread and unease with a slowly changing colour palette, but instead what we got is the movies going straight from warm, children's fare to grimdark edginess with no warning whatsoever, and it's jarring and throws you out of the film, especially when they change literally EVERYTHING at the same time, from the colour grading to the direction to the music style, the sudden abandonment of established musical themes, the change in costuming from wearing robes and school clothes all the time to modern casual clothing that doesn't really fit the universe. Remember, in the books, even GoF wasn't *that* dark until the last few chapters, most of the book is about a school competition, in fact I'd argue that some of the shock value of GoF's twist ending was ruined by making the films grimdark immediately after CoS.
XamoebabrainX Harry Potter is not a kids franchise. Toy Story is a kids franchise This is something HP film viewers get so wrong. The first two films might stick out as what Harry Potter is to you, but the collective tone of the series is far more similar to what Cuaron, and even Yates created than to what Columbus created. Also, I think the longer running nature of the series and the fact that the book series was written as a tonal gradient from light to dark, from immaturity to maturity, here had to be some significant changes in how the film looked, and the cinematography of the films changed a lot. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t “look or feel like” a Harry Potter Film to me. It still very much did. But the spirit of the story changed.
After all these years, I still LOVE the first two movies. I like the third. And the rest I gradually like less, dislike and hate for the unbeareble lifelessness and colourless pictures of the former magnificent, wonderful and BRIGHT magical world of Harry Potter. To me it wasn't the same world anymore, and I still hate what they did to it. The CIRCUMSTANCES were bleek and dark in the later books. Not the whole WORLD it took place in! It would have been such a great way to show how bleek and dark it was compared to the colourfullness of the first two movies. Now everything was bleek and dark, making nothing stand out as such anymore, making it way less effective in my opinion. All this made me love the books all the more, where I can picture it as I want, because different than the narrator, I will not let those directors hatred of normal light and colour change the way I see the HP world.
We have the same thought!!! I 2000%agree!!!the first 2are my favorite!!! I'm actually in the middle of watching all of the movies with my dad (he's never seen any of them) and I'm remembering all the criticism I had the last time I watched them! The first 2are for ever my favorites!! We've only gotten to the forth movie so far but my dad is also agreeing with me lol
Hi Cecilia That's funny :D I'm in the middle of watching them all with my boyfriend, and he's never seen any of them! We're also reading all the books together. He's never read any of them either. To be honest he is reading them TO me... So lovely
@@Keyboardje I hope he loves them as much as we do!!! I'm going to be watching movies 5 and 6 this weekend... If my dad was a reader have him read them too but that's never gonna happen so I have a friend reading them for the first time she's just starting book one!!! I'm sooo excited for her!!! Then I'll have her watch the movies as well!!!! Every one must love Harry Potter!!!!
Agree completely! This dark shades makes you depressive and agressive at some point. It's a horrible feeling to stare all the time at a dark screen. It's a total mess. Someone should tell this to the directors or to warners brothers. They should bring a new, over-painted and brighter version of the movies to the cinema. Maybe they can rescue some of the feeling.
Good point and idea Lu Er! I've heard the movies are digitally altered to be the way they are now, so I think it might be possible to undo that, or to use the original movie recordings. I would buy those at once if they were available! And for good measure they would have to be with all the deleted scenes too! :)
I can't even watch the Deathly Hallows movies during the day or even in a normally lit room, which is annoying. It hard to see anything in the last few movies.
I am currently doing a rewatch of all the Harry Potter movies with a friendd of mine and just watched the order of the Phoenix and while I do enjoy all of the films, I just just feel myself getting more and more disconnected from the world as the movies go on and I did not know why. Now I know why I have this nostalgic feel when a watch the first two movies. I love the adaption of Chris Columbus and while it is not perfect it is the version I think of when I think about Harry Potter, it is what I feel when I read the books. Cuaron made an amazing movie, just not a great continuation of the Harry Potter universe. I just wished that Columbus continued the series. People always say that Columbus would not be able to integrate the darker stories into his films. I disagree, the second film was already getting slightly darker compared to the first and I think we would see the same in POA. This would be a more gradual and natural change of tone, but I am just rambling and thinking out loud at this point. I just think we would have an AMAZING series at hand if Columbus or Cuaron did the entire thing. Thanks for the video and sharing your thoughts.
Yes, but the first two books were much shorter. Take the fifth book, which is three if not even four times longer than the first. They could include only so much detail, so many scenes in the later movies so to not make them five hours long. When you think of it HP books are not the best type of book to adapt and transform into movies. Just like any other major literary works, because of the sheer amount of information in them. And ironically they are the best stories everyone wants to see on screen. I love HP books and movies, Chamber and Half Blood Prince being my favourite I think, and I'm not even mad that they cut so much from the sixth movie. You can't have everything.
I do not believe that the problem in the later movies was that they didn't include most of the book. They have a time limit, but the art of transferring a book to a movie was well made in the first two movies in my opinion. Some things that were added in the first movies which were not included in the first two books were as they should have been. For example, in the end of the first book when voldemort said There is good or evil, only power and those too weak to seek it looked nice in the movie and it bonded good in the character of voldemort, it didn't change what we had in mind as voldemort. Or in the second movie, the quidditch scene where Harry and Draco were chasing the snitch and Draco crashes. Or the duelling club scene which was different than the book but still didn't alter the importance of the scene, such a good transfer to a movie. Those details with music, direction, cinematography eventually make a piece of art, a good transfer without spoiling the delicacy of the books' story. What I felt about the rest of the movies is that, the direction realised that harry potter is a big money thing, so they made the movies' spells for examples be like star wars shotguns, voldemort acting was very bad in my opinion as well, in addition to many others. They just looked to me like cheap movies, trying to get as many viewers as they can, spoiling that delicacy. Or the directors were just narrow.
At the time of the first and second they didn’t even knew what would happen. I think they did a great job. Also John Williams and how he transformed the music.
This is my favorite movie of the saga, and for the reasons the nerdwriter listed, but I agree with you: I remember seeing this at the theater in 2004 and keep getting annoyed at like how the uniforms slightly changed, the wands (while the new ones look cooler) were different and hagrids house were in a different spot.. so yeah you’re totally right it break the narrative that was building up.
tbh though its suggested that the uniforms change every once in a while just like in real british schools. Its possible that they were redesigned just because it was time.
Everything about the world that was built was different- all the stuff you mentioned, plus the whomping willow, fat lady. Somehow the only part of that castle that survived all 8 movies without a director feeling the need to reboot it was the defense against the dark arts classroom
For me, the real disconnect is with GoF. For a book with such dark undertones (showcasing the first time we see real death and vivid, malicious intent) the film seems almost light-hearted, playful. Especially when you put it in between PoA and OotP, there's a huge jump that isn't really bridged. I think also that part of the reason why there's such a sudden shift in tone from CoS to PoA is to symbolise the darkening world Harry lives in. He's 13 in PoA and beginning to realise where he stands in the wizarding world and beginning to catch glimpses of the real darkness. It's no longer men with a face on the back of their head chasing after a glimmering stone, nor magical memories controlling a giant snake- PoA introduces themes of justice (or injustice) and political motivations. Not to mention the dementors, which invoke in Harry his worst memories- ones he wasn't previously conscious or aware of. Of course there are the brighter moments, but what really makes PoA stand out is its ability to bring emotional depth to the film series. Part of this, I think, can be attributed to the darker colour tones. The comment about rawness doesn't bother me so much- again, PoA is Harry really beginning to get into the dirt and darkness of the adult world.
I think all of them had a part in ruining the continuity. Hogwarts looks different in nearly every film. Harry's hair changes every film drastically. I think alfonsos take could have been perfect though if he had done all the film's.
Tyler Devine-Scott Yes.. and I hope I don’t come across as making the case that this is the only thing that ruined it (for me). There are several factors that played a part in ruining the narrative of the HP saga.
I disagree with the analysis. I would have said: How the Goblet of Fire and Colours Ruined Harry Potter. Alfonso Cuarón actually did the last good film on the series; full of artistry and complexity, something that the absurd idea of a wizarding world needed.
100% it feels out of place ..also hairstyles and everything ..as mark.newell said he wanted new.film.new .in other words he didn't wanna.work.with what others did ..it ignored others ..whereas azkaban improved ..in a darker direction
Chris Columbus was the perfect director for these films, and John Williams was the perfect composer. How ironic that two Americans brought a British literary phenomenon to life like no one else could. Once they allowed British and European directors to take the helm, the series went downhill fast. I never read the books, so I'm open to the possibility that _Philosopher's Stone_ and _Chamber of Secrets_ were also the best of the books and this is why the first two films are the best. I remember becoming disillusioned with the series after I saw _Prisoner of Azkaban_ but I wasn't sure why. I eventually realised that the magic (no pun intended) that was missing was Columbus. His departure, in my eyes, was the fatal blow to the franchise. People say the first two films feel more childlike and innocent, but that's precisely what makes them feel so magical to me. The other films are cold and dark, both in terms of tone and the awful colour grading they were given. Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort was also a bad casting choice, I think. He was much more frightening when he was on the back of Quirrell's head.
Ironically, Columbus COULD make dark scenes if the plot needed them. Spider scenes from Chamber of Secrets easily prove that. But “dark” doesn’t’ equal “bleak”; some filmmakers don’t understand this simple fact.
Of course he could. Voldemort was actually quite menacing in the Columbus films, but Ralph Fiennes turned the character into a joke. He took all the mystery out of him.
Rebooted. You said it best on how the Prisoner of Azkaban looks complete different. I was confused when it came out for the first time and always prefered Chris' version to this day. Then when the Fantastic Beast came, it looks fresh and I love it. I still dream about an actual reboot of Harry Potter in the far future, with correct continuation and same visual across movies. Since LotR has been adapted more than once, why not HP too.
The first Dumbledore will always be the Dumbledore I picture when I read the books. He honestly was the best one as he brought out Dumbledore in his acting. The second one didn't get it right especially with that over the top scene with Harry in Goblet of Fire.
I love that you brought up LOTR with the grading! Hobbiton especially was so well done. It's a fine line between a lush scenic paradise and looking almost cartoony. But still making it fit with the tone of the films in general. Each space is different and iconic but has to fit the larger world. It's kind of what I look at for the ideal.
You put your finger in it. I was pissed after watching POA. I fell in love with the film adaptation under Chris Columbus. The divergence from the original plot, the lack of uniforms ( a pet peeve of mine) and the chaotic and haphazard color grading from POA onward annoyed the hell out of me and did creat a huge disconnect from film to film. The fact of the matter is that Chris Columbus’s adaptations will be considered “classics”. Whereas the next 6 will be largely forgotten , perhaps with the exception POA.
Can we stop with the "Harry grew up that why the colors where Dark and sucked in the later movies" .. they slapped a blue filter over Azkaban, goblet of fire was a little better and yates just turned Harry potter into action movies with really bad lighting. I really wish Chris columbus would've stayed with all the movies but I get that he wanted to see his kids grow up instead of work 24/7 for 10 years. I just don't think the movies are worthy of the saga.
I agree wholeheartedly. I think that were the color grading going to change so drastically that it should have been a progressive move from the fade in to the fade out rather than just an overall change as soon as it starts. It would have given such a foreboding feeling that most viewers would not pick up on had it slowly evolved over the course of the movie leaving us with a darker feeling.
You have good points but I think it was necessary to change cinematography because as harry potter grows up his life gets change and his feelings also so I think all directors have done their work according a vision of change in life,feelings and events. So different colours and cinematography also help us to know the difference.
My biggest complaint had always been with the change in school uniforms. I was able to accept the re-cast in Dumbledore because that was a necessity, and I loved the change in Hogwarts. POA made it feel like a real place. But, for some odd reason I could not accept the change in uniforms and why nobody was commenting on it! I believe Yates managed to correct some of this with the last movie though. In the flash back with Lilly as a student at Hogwarts everyone was in the old robes. By making a point to include the old uniforms just makes me come to the conclusion that in the story itself the school decided to update their wardrobes in POA. strangely enough it makes me love POA all the more.
As a kid I felt the saga finished in CoS, I watched the other ones but they never felt like a sequel or part of what the other two had created. So I didn't care about them and lost the interest on the franchise. It's sad because a grew up with that nostalgic feeling and longing for a continuation that I've never got a chance too see. You nailed the subject, congrats for the essay!
I find it odd how this was the darker movie compared to the first two, but the humor and comedy moments was definitely done a lot more here than with those movies with moments like Aunt Marge being turned into a balloon, the whole knight bus sequence with that insane Jamaican head thing with Harry being slapped around the bus and smacking his face against the window and the old lady taking forever to cross the street, the housekeeper getting blown away by Harry's book when she goes to clean his room at that motel, the fat lady singing HORRIBLY, the psychic teacher bumping into her desk when she stands and when later insulting Hermoine, even the deleted scene with McGonagle in the Gryffindor dorm room with the students and one of the painting figures fall backwards in their picture in a slapstick manner, etc. the list goes on. How ironic all of this was in the darker movie.
Prisoner of Azkaban still looks better than the later movies. Half Blood Prince is too dark, literally, what the hell happened with the lighting in that movie?
I also agree with you. PoA is my favourite Harry Potter book by far, yet the movie less so. While reading the book I feel the warmth and safety from the previous books are still very much present in the third, and then it very gradually get darker and more sinister as it progresses, culminating in the werewolf, Pettigrew’s escape and the dementors. Though in the movie this darkness is overly present since the beginning, complete with Alexandre Desplat’s music, which is very good and true to the feeling of the movie, but to me represent a much to abrupt change from the previous instalments
MsBabbi I agree with that the book starts of with the same warmth as the previous books. But wasn’t it John Williams who made the music? I’m pretty sure he’s listed as the composer on IMDB. But the music style did change as well.. too much harpsichord..
Tomas Stavik yeah, you’re totally right, Alexandre Desplat wrote for the last one, I remembered incorrectly. But that’s the thing, though, with the music, that it changes so abruptly you’d think it’s a different composer all together. Peter Pettigrew’s theme played on harpsichord is well written, but to me the feel of it is way to much of a break from the earlier movies (and latter, it turned out) and it feels more like a thriller than a HP film
I knew I wasn't the only one who noticed all the harpsichord. Honestly, it was an odd decision, and fits more with an original story I'm doing than with Harry Potter. Even though Prisoner is my second favorite Potter film (behind Chamber of Secrets...don't kill me), it felt like an abrupt change from the first two films. The darker and more faded colors, the baroque/medieval music, even becoming less and less like the books...you could say something felt off about it. Regarding the music again...the heavy harpsichord reminds me of Williams' The Witches of Eastwick score, and Prisoner would have an almost identical score to The Witches of Eastwick if that movie didn't use a lot of electronic cues.
Yep, PoA is my favourite book too. Film still annoys the crap out of me; more than any other film I can think of. Music was indeed way, WAY different too. But being a Williams fan, I reckon it was different in an "also good" way. The rest of the film though? I still haven't come up terms with it and I wonder if I ever will. Parts were good; parts were not. But oooh boy, is it uneven!!
I personally dont really enjoy Azkaban either. I feel like the pacing is just terrible and it skips over tons of important scenes from the book etc. also ending the movie with Harry riding on his new broomstick (The Firebolt) makes 0 sense.
Jᴀᴄᴋᴇʀᴄᴏ i read the prisoner of azkaban book recently and they do remove important scenes/information in the film such as the backstory of moony, wormtail, padfoot and prongs who they are and a little bit more of snapes backstory.
So I'm NOT the only one. Thank you for making sense! I fully agree. For me, my imaginary world based on the books fits right in with the first two movies. The other ones though? Not so much...
PoA felt like a Tim Burton film. Making fantasy properties darknfor the sake of stlye doesn't really do anything special for. This was still early enough in the story for things to be a little less dark.
Although I love this movie. I totally understand your point of view. PoA just didn't feel like a Harry Potter movie even though it adapted some of the book scenes really well. There was something missing from the movie and now I know what. I know that the change from warmer tones to darker tones was to mark the starting of the dark era of Harry Potter but it kind of made the movies different from each other. For some reason GoF felt more like a Harry Potter movie than PoA. Edit: Thanks for ❤ my comment , Tomas
Prisoner of Azkaban is actually my favorite of the franchise. But ironically I do agree with you that it unfortunately did set a very different tone for Harry Potter, allowing later movies to stray even further away and eventually forget their roots. But ultimately it was Yates that did it. His directing style is soulless. The cameras may not have moved much in the earlier films, but the characters DID. Yates on the other hand had both his camera and characters motionless and emotionless for 4 movies straight. Harry Potter 3 may have sparked the beginning of changes to come but Yates doused it with gasoline.
Btw in case you didn’t know, order of the phoenix through deathly hallows movies were perfectly in linee with their books tone, and if anything, I think that the deathly hallows book is even darker then it’s 2 movies. And the dumbledore recast was really good, it’s just that Mike Newell wasn’t a good director for the goblet of fire. Also, the Harry Potter world is meant to be dark from the 5th book and on. Although I do have to admit that the halfblood prince movie is kinda bad, the order of the phoenix was the best one.
Watching POA felt like watching a Mirror Universe episode of Star Trek. Cuaron seemed to be more interested in making his own movie more than doing Part 3 of 7. He made everything different looking, dark, colorless and scruffy looking. He also seemed obsessed with muggle clothing.
Yes if annoyed me so much that they didn't wear magical clothes. If looked way too modern. Considering Harry Potter took place in the 90s as well, they didn't dress even like muggles from the 90s.i missed the robes and uniforms.
...Except, they do wear robes around the school and where appropriate? The children weren't wearing robes constantly in the books, especially not on weekends and in leisure, and Cuaron (with the costumers) direct the children in this film to be a lot more particular and evocative of their characters. Malfoy and his crones are a bit devil may care with their application of the dresscode, Ron's discheveledness is pushed to be even more casual, Hermione is really precise and controlled about her wear (and if you look close you can see that she has and even hides the time turner the whole film). This always felt like a complaint that worked against the convincing world building Jo was doing in the books? And while there are some fashions that are clearly not 90s, most of the wear the kids have are nondescript enough to pass for that point in time.
Also...I'm never going to understand how people claim that this movie is colorless. It's certainly desaturated but there are plenty of colors that pop. The film grading applied to this isn't nearly as aggressive in controlling hue as it is in Order of the Phoenix or Half Blood Prince (the latter doing so attractively). The actual range of hues in this film rivals the first two and following film, but it's far more starkly lit than more than half of the series.
@@Goblinprincete You do realise that robes are not just part of the school uniform, they are part of wizard culture? Why should they visit Hogsmeade and all wizard Village in muggle clothing, especially the purebloods.
Sure, but a lot of the tension of the last century of wizard culture is that muggleborn wizards intermingle more and more. This carries over into fashion and is something that JK Rowling even implies with the various items of clothing many characters through the saga wear. On screen, it makes sense that muggleborn children would carry muggle born fashions. Also... th-cam.com/video/vNc43oKqQzg/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/vNc43oKqQzg/w-d-xo.html I could comb through the film if I wanted to spend the time, but there are a number of students just in the Hogsmeade sequence (and plenty of older wizards and witches) who are adorned with robes. The trend is reflected throughout the runtime. It makes sense that one would interpret this as not the majority as well, accounting for Hogwart's diverse makeup (and Dumbledore's commitment to making the demographic of the school more or less as such), and pureblood families in general also being more and more rare on the whole. As with most things in the film, I feel this is a touch more precisely hewn than people give credit, and a bit more respectful of the previous films (as well as the books) than many admit.
What I really HATE of The prisoner of Azkaban movie I that everything is SO MUGGLE, the students between classes use MUGGLE CLOTHES IN HOGWARTS, HOGWARTS!!! EVEN FREAKING DRACO!!! The whole movie felt less magic not because of lights or darkness, it's because there's literally less magic everywhere, and the fact that everything looks dirty doesn't help 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️ I still like the movie, but it's the first one with the mugglelization problem that NEVER disappear...
Rowling never describes a uniform other than a black cloak and a pointed black hat. They wear their muggle clothes under these cloaks. This means they wore hoodies, t-shirts (there’s a part in PoA where it says Harry tucked his hand under his T-shirt), jeans, muggle branded shoes, etc.
1:18 I disagre. I think the reason why these movies are so good is because they feel different. Which makes each of them special. Unlike the Marvel movies which feel like the same and so boring to watch.
why do directors when brought into an established franchise, keep whining on and on about "their vision". if you want to explore "your vision" go make your own movies. pick up a super 8 and go. there's nothing stopping you. but when you accept a contract to work within an existing franchise, you have, have, HAVE to work within an existing framework or the entire thing falls apart. Harry Potter is a case study in WHY such a thing is essencial. bc what the director here did, truly, was give later directors an EXCUSE to deviate. to not care. Yes, he did a great job - for a single film. and bc he got away with it, all the OTHER directors felt free to do whatever the hell they wanted, and even when David Yates directed the final four films, he felt no need to CONNECT them. bc the precident was set, right here
I think the change of colors are related to several things: - the surrounding of dementors throughout the movies - the fact that Harry was growing up and really realized the dangers that awaited him - the isolation of Harry since we see quite a lot of scenes in which he gets isolated from other people (friends or not) -the fact that Harry was getting emotionally impacted about his dark past
Lauren Verkruysse i want to :) but time is of the essence.. i have a full-time job and a 1 year old. But I will make more.. it’ll just take time. Though probably on other topics, not just Harry Potter.
Finally, I thought I’m the only one who doesn’t like the dark shade of this movie. It is harder to watch this movie compare to the 1st 2. I feel like my eyes is fighting for light.
For me, Dumbledore has shifted and or morphed from Harris to Gambon and back to Harris and then to Gambon depending on the scene or even line. More recently though, he's also taken the appearance of Stephen Merchant with silver hair and a long silver long beard. I think Merchant would have been perfect for the role were he older at the time of the making of The Philosopher's Stone. He seems and looks like book Dumbledore: tall, a bit lanky, looks old but has the spark of a much younger man, has an odd sense of humor about him. I'm seriously stunned no one else has mentioned him.
While I do love POA, and it is objectively the best HP movie in my opinion, CoS is my favourite and I think the warm colours suited the tone of the books better. Cuaron didn't care about previous film to film continuity in the franchise and wanted to make "his movie" and make it "different". Remind you of anyone? ...except Prisoner Of Azkaban is infinitely better than Last Jedi. POA is perfect in nearly every single way, except the one problem I have with it is that it is so different
First of all, great video mate. Now, my opinion is that the changing of the style kept the movies fresh and highlighted different issues that the movies wanted to discuss. When I read Harry Potter, I mostly see it in the style of the half blood prince. I think it is another thing that says more about your character and connects you to the series even more personally. I love your take on this and I can completely see, understand and feel it, but I'm just pointing out what I think are the benefits to the changing. I don't think I'm right or wrong and I don't think you are right or wrong, it's just something that I think is personal.
Dora Balog yeah Azkaban and Half Bood Prince are my favorites as well. Not just from a story perspective, but from the Cinematography as well. Both absolutely beautiful yet also maintain a sense of magic, or maybe “sorcery” is a word that matches those movies more. The first two movies are great, but they feel like direct adaptations of the books rather than something that must be seen on a visual level.
Kondō_Kin omg you described it perfectly! Sorcery! I'm always a sucker for dark, mysterious, creepy, halloween stuff. AND when it's combined with something that it's supposed to be combined and fits so perfectly, it's like a cure for tired, bored eyes.
Blaming Cuaron for Yates' choices doesn't make sense to me. Prisoner of Azkaban was reasonably darker than the first two movies with an interesting cinematography. People are too critical of Gambon and base their dislike of his portrayal on one line. As if Gambon came up with it on his own and it wasn't the director's fault that that's how that scene was portrayed. Also, it's unfair to criticise Prisoner of Azkaban using a bad line read from the Goblet of Fire.
Tomas Stavik I'd adore a video on casting in general in the movies, and you can bring that up there. I am not a fan. Just the scene where he grabs Harry and yells "Did you out your name in the Goblet of Fire!?" alone...
Michael Gambon IS a pretty good actor. But since I saw him as that "annoying Dumbledore 2.0" first, I now have a hard time to not be sightly irked when I see him elsewhere.
I'm fine with the movies being darker in terms of plot but I don't think you need to portray that through colour grading. It just made the visuals look more boring for me.
You're definitely right that POA started the series down a darker visual trend, but if you ask me, the visuals of this series really shit the bed with the Half Blood Prince. At least with the other films, the color palette wasn't a distraction. But the absence of color in HBP has always bothered me. Seriously, there's more color in Schindler's List.
Anyone notice that when comparing the different directors' color grading at 8:22, the colors end up representing the Hogwarts houses?! Clockwise from top left: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. Had to pause when i noticed that.
She wasn't actually. Watch the special features of the film, she talks about how a lot of things that Cuaron wanted to introduce felt so extra to her and didn't snap together until she saw the final product. This isn't surprising though, given that she wanted Terry Gilliam to helm the Philosopher's Stone.
I watched this about a year ago and I agreed with you. The longer Ive thought about it, I'm not so sure I can agree... The colouring in each film has created separation and changes in their journey throughout. It slowly changed the look and feel of the world they live in throughout the series. Painting all VERY different films with the same brush so to speak would have been lazy, awkward and completely would have fought against the changing story of the series. By the half blood prince, the colour is virtually gone and finally in the last two films, its dark and cold reflecting the story.
I understand your point, and thanks for taking the time to comment. That might very well be what they were going for. I don't really think it was executed well enough though. The colours, along with design changes, musical changes, narrative changes and character developments (especially Ron's development) were so visibly, and audibly different in almost every movie,. I feel like this makes them more separate, than together, as a cohesive series. I'm actually hoping for a remake in around 10-15 years. But I don't think that will happen..
The change of cinematogaphy in Prisoner of Azkaban was so significant that even John Williams changed the style and didn't use most of the other themes.
John Williams has a tendency to tailor his scores to what is seen in each film rather than focus on an overarching tone or selection of themes. That is the case with POA because the tone and direction are so different than the first two.
I completely agree with you. To change the style that drastically from film 2 to 3 was totally uncalled for and made Prisoner of Azkaban my least favourite. When David Yates came in and brought ridiculously dark colors and that constant Gaussian blur I gave up, that was just silly. It felt like he didn't have a clear visual idea for the story, so he made everything as dark and colorless as possible.
I disagree. I think that like the books, the films grew as the characters did. My memories as a kid are far far different to those I have now. YOu see the entire world differently, and I think the change between films embodies that.
The disconnect was apparent to me with David Yates, prior to this the continuity with the overall cinematography was fairly decent imo. I wish they’d stuck with Alfonso’s vibe in following films, stylised and matured yet still magical and innocent. While Chris Columbus was effective, it lacked something, maybe the sense of fantasy or escapism which I feel Alfonso delivered whilst remaining true to the essence of the HP universe.
I will agree with you on that if Alfonso had made the next movies, that would probably have been one of the best outcomes. Though, I would prefer to see Chris Colombus at the wheel of all the movies, as I feel he has a particular magic about his movies. I, perhaps, feel the opposite about the escapism and fantasy, as Alfonso himself said that he brought a 'raw naturalism' to Harry Potter. Which is exactly what I felt..
Thank you. Prisoner of Azkaban is the most overrated of the saga. Finally someone says it. The adaptation is also underwhelming. The real dread from 1&2 is gone. The Dementors and the hound look great but they don’t hold a candle to Voldie.
omg i didnt know someone actully thought the same way i do about the movies getting to fucking dark. if you look at scenes from the philosopher stone vs deathly hallows its like your watching it almost in black and white.
100% right. Harry Potter as a series was ALWAYS light-hearted. The third movie made it dark. Maybe to people who didn't read HP it was not a problem, but to me - it was a disaster.
Patryk Żukowski Harry Potter is not lighthearted at all, and if you think that, you weren’t focused on the story. It’s a series about death, derived from Rowling’s experiences with death and depression, that include a number of horrible character deaths, relevant sociopolitical themes, stark emotional tragedy, fantasy horror elements, and sometimes shocking violence. The books are far darker than the films. Anyone suggesting that Harry Potter is lighthearted truly has no idea of the series and the story.
Declan Casey I don't have time to tell you all the reasons why you're wrong, but I will say this: HP books always had a lot of funny or light hearted situations. The movies after the first two were serious in tone, the books were not. I always felt good while reading the books. That's why I call them light hearted.
Patryk Żukowski Um, did you read the story? I don’t give a FUCK how you felt reading the story. It had token MOMENTS of lightheartedness and dry humor. Selectively attending to those small moments, and acting like they represent the tone of the series, is fucking ridiculous. It is a drama series. About murder. About death. About sacrificial love. About trauma. About depression. About fascism and bigotry. The films are LIGHTER than the books. They pare down material 1) because it’s too dense to fully adapt and 2) BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT IT WAS TOO DARK That’s why they edited out Pettigrew strangling himself, which is in the book, because they thought it would get them an R rating. That’s why they left out the Half Blood Prince end battle. That’s why they spent more time with teen romance in Half Blood Prince than Voldemort’s dark memories, which are barely included in the films! That’s why they changed the Order of the Phoenix quote, in which Harry wills Dumbledore to kill him, “so [he] can see Sirius again”, into some sappy kid-friendly quote about “not understanding love and friendship”. The books are so much darker than the films, and your denial that the books are dark, and dramatic, is fucking bizarre and not acceptable. They include injury gore, murder, torture, tragedy, mental breakdowns. You’re trying to tell me that a series about death, that has horror elements galore, that is by definition a drama (not a comedy!), that includes the protagonist torturing an individual, that is derived from Rowling’s experiences with death and depression, that Rowling has repeatedly said is a dark story, and a story that got darker as it went along, and a story that stemmed from dark places, that begins with a double murder and the attempted murder of an infant, that contains a high body, that is hugely about a being who feels he can gain power by killing other people, and that ends with an 18 year old sacrificing himself to death for the sake of his entire community in an echo of the Christ story, you’re trying to tell that despite ALL of this, all Harry Potter should be good for, or was good for to you, is some cheap laughs? Did you read Harry Potter? Do you know what Harry Potter is about? The films are lighter versions of the books. And they’re still dark. The whole central conceit of the series is that it’s a coming of age series. That it gets darker and more tragic and intense as it wears on. HOW CAN YOU MISS THAT POINT?! What was the murder of Dumbledore, Cedric, Snape, and Sirius to you? HAPPY TIME? What the fuck? If you have a viscerally negative experience to the tone of the film because “they’re too dark” you need to accept the fact that Harry Potter as a series is too dark for you. Not mischaracterize the text that drastically into something it’s not. You can’t explain why I’m wrong, because I’m right. As right as I can be about tonal content. It’s a series in which the villains are essentially evil, gothic, supremacist terrorists. What about that is lighthearted? What about murder and death is lighthearted? These are the SEMINAL themes of the series according to Rowling. She has called her own books dark. REPEATEDLY. So she’s wrong about the story she wrote? “And tears came before he could stop them, boiling hot than instantly freezing on his face, and what was the point in wiping them off or pretending? He let them fall, his lips pressed hard together, looking down at the thick snow hiding from his eyes the place where the last of Lily and James lay, bones now surely, or dust, not knowing or caring that their living son stood so near, alive because of their sacrifice, and close to wishing, at this moment, that he was sleeping under the snow with them”. That’s a dark, horribly heavy paragraph in which a 17 year old sobs at the foot of his parents graves and wishes he was dead with them.” I think you need to look yourself in the mirror, or at least pick up a Harry Potter book, and accept the fact that you are so wrong about it. It’s not lighearted. It’s a dark drama series. Stop being mad that books about death, that contain death, pain, war, and tragedy, were adapted into dark films.
I loved the movie and its use of color I love how dramatic it was, though I do wish in the epilogue they would have digigraded it similarly to the first time harry went on the hogwarts express to show that harry's future is totally bright and optimistic
It's funny because I had that same feeling of dissonance from the other films of the franchise, but while watching Goblet of Fire. I'll try not to get too theoretical, cause my english isn't very good, but GoF just didn't feel like a Harry Potter film to me, and I think the main reason for this is because it didn't pay much atention to one of the aspects that I most enjoyed in the previous films - and even in some of the later ones: Hogwarts. I loved seeing those kids interacting with that magical world. It felt like I was there with them, exploring each mysterious corridor and discovering the most intriguous secrets. This enviroment got stuck in my imagination as a child. But GoF basically ignores all that to emphasize the triwizard tournament and the teenage romantic dramas. I mean, I get it, the characters are growing and leaving the childish mentality behind, but there was no need to kill the atmosphere stablished in the previous films and, by the way, recovered in Order of the Phoenix, what only reinforces my point.
I never liked the Prisoner of Azkaban movie. Part of it was stylistic whiplash but another part was just how much they changed from the book. Of course the major plot points are still there but everything in between was changed or omitted to such a degree that I couldn't even recognize that this was (at the time) my favorite of the Harry Potter books. In the words of the Dom of Lost in Adaptation, Curion's biggest mistake was to "Try to turn the author's story into his story instead of telling his own story or just telling the author's." I can't confirm this but I heard that Curion didn't even want to read the books before he started filming and had to be convinced by his friend, Gulliemo del Toro. Ok, rant over
Imagine a world where Alfonso slowly transitioned into his dark and extremely cinematic style over a couple movies and then took over completely to finish a cohesive set of movies.
I always thought the slow moving and darker look of the Prisoner Of Azkaban Film was because of the presence of the Dementors
Same
and the series getting darker and getting out of being for childrenish. I think darker look is so fit for this
Kent Banyan Me too! I think the foggy aesthetic looks kool and fits the look of the series good with how the dementors keep breeding
Exactly, this is the first time Harry deals with his inner demons regarding his parent's death, which manifest as creatures of literal depression.
I wish Cuaron directed all of the Potter movies after the third one.
Half-blood prince colour grading is really weird
That's the only Yates film I enjoyed. They did it to resemble rembrandt's work and succeeded incredibly. HP5, HP7pi/p2 and the beasts movies all look the same, depressingly dark. I miss the warm colours from Columbus movies.
@@novaknadal3204 Yeah it looks amazing. There's always dark lighting behind the warm oranges, there's always a sense of dread behind the comedic tone.
I agree I Never Liked The Grading In Half Blood Prince It Looked To Unnatural where as Order Of the Phoenix I Thought looked Great
It is inspired from the artist Rembrandt. It is the film that really stripped the life out of series. It was a transition from childhood to adulthood for the characters and I love every second of it. Beautiful colouring/cinematography.
The dark colours make perfect sense. It's not like the first 2 films, where everything is fine.
I think Chris Columbus' movies are the only ones where you feel like "yep, this is how I pictured this world!".
They’re the only two that I can enjoyably watch. I honestly hate the changes that were made after the first two. The change in Hogwarts uniforms, the muggle clothes, the change in the school grounds, the colors… ugh
In my opinion, Alfonso Cuaron is the best director in the series. He managed to give Harry Potter a darker tone while still maintaining its magical wonder. David Yates, I feel, went too heavily in the last two movies.
I feel like Cuaron`s raw naturalism (his words, not mine) kind of takes a little away from the magical aspect of it. But... I would very much be down with seeing the entire series directed by Cuaron. Then it would be more coherent.
In terms of quality of work.. I can agree that Cuaron was the best director of the bunch. Miles better than Yates. More modern than Chris Columbus. And more daring than Mike Newell.
I liked David Yates's Half blood prince. It was probably only time when Yates got more creative and whole movie has more magical feeling and melancholy atmosphere + some of the best OST in the whole series. (Thought colour grading and blurring is too much sometimes)
@@TomasStavik Mike Newell was daring... but in all the wrong ways. He butchered the Goblet of Fire.
@@АлинаКостылева-ф2ч The 6th movie is in my opinion the worst of them all. It is so incredibly unfaithful to the book. Normally, I'm not really the person that would complain about this, especially since I grew up with the films more than the books, but the backstory of Voldemort being traded for the burning of the burrow and unnecessary romance is just maddening. Also, the battle in the final act of the book where Dumbledore is killed is also oddly tame compared to the book. I think this is weird, since you would think that making sure all the action is on the screen is high on the list of a director.
@@kerrbeeldens also about the final act of HBP. In the books there is a reason the death eaters are fleeing because of the battle that ensues. but going by the film however there is no reason why they just flee and not take the chance to grab Harry when he is right there following them. Like yeah Snape says no to Bellatrix killing him but she would not just go without taking Harry to Voldemort.
Chris Columbus filmmaking style is criminally underrated
Yes indeed. At least nowadays. He is legit.
In the last films I could see less and less..
Adliad adliad Hehe... true..
Maybe time for glasses then? :)
Ah yes, that wondrous epic showdown that looks like white dots moving on a black screen in an "exciting" way...
Yeah there were many moments in the last movie where I literally could not see what was going on because it was too dark
Adliad adliad i rewatched all the films recently and by the time i got to deathly hallows i could barely see anything particularly in the dark forest scene.
Honestly what made the first harry potter great was that i WANTED to be there in that universe, despite the immense danger. It just communicated so much awe, and desire for purpose.
Yes
@@migmogg8087??
Personally, I would have liked to have seen the golden warmth and timeless cinematography of the Columbus movies blended with the hard lines and texture of Cuarón's style, something like Ridley Scott's Gladiator mixed with The Fellowship of the Ring and just a splash of Pan's Labyrinth.
Dumbledore in the books was always described as wearing colorful clothing. I always hated in the movies after the 2nd film he always wore G R E Y.
To be honest I think it was Goblet that ruined the movies, not Azkaban. I remember feeling so disappointed when it came out. I was disappointed with the world cup, which I know many people were, with the way that Gambon acted in not just that scene but pretty much all of them and the way that the tasks were, how they cut out most of the maze even though that was my favourite part. There are parts of Azkaban I don't like, such as how they designed Hagrid's house but I find it to be tbh the best of the movies.
I'm with you on this one, GoF is my least favorite as well, however I didn't mind Gambon's acting most of the time. The *one part* from GoF is a tad annoying in retrospect, but I think it may have been more to add to the dramatic effect that the directors seem to go for as the series progresses. If he was actually gentle and calm in that scene, it may have felt too soft for the tone and mood of the film, if that makes sense. I also know what you're saying about Hagrid's hut, but for some reason I kind of prefer the way it was set up in the other movies than the first two. I don't really know why, and it may just be because PoA is one of my favorite films in the series and I liked the use of the sort of establishing shots used when the trio would run down the stairs/hill to his hut, or the fact that they were so comfortable with Hagrid that the distance of his hut from the school itself kind of felt like it was being used as a way to escape certain school or magic-related troubles, or a place to sit and think or talk things out. I don't know if I'm making much sense, but I do honestly feel like PoA was one of the best films from the series, if not the best. Same with OotP. I LOVE the colors, the directing, everything.
I agree. I hate that Azkaban changed so much. But it still felt like Harey Potter. The colors still had saturation, the music felt triumphant and medieval and it honored the story pretty well. Goblet of Fire felt nothing like the book and had little artistic style to it.
Couldn't agree more! Azkaban was actually very decent imho. After that, the franchise fell victim to the infamous adaptation-freedom (as I like to call it). Characters we know from the books are somewhat changed or distorted in order to put the emphasis on the main characters. It happened in LOTR (Gandalf getting owned by the Witchking...luckily, Extended Edition only) and also in HP (duel of Voldemort and Dumbledore in which D. was struggling to gain the upper hand...quite the opposite can be found in the book)
Goblet was horrible. The other ones much better.
Gambon didn't start acting like Dumbledore until Half-Blood Prince
Well said!
HP 1-2 gives you a feeling thats similar to what you feel at Christmastime! Very magical!
HP 3 gives you a feeling like you had a fun weekend, in October. Its spooky and fun. But not as magical.
HP 4-6 gives you a feeling like you had a nice dessert. Its fun but that feeling isnt there. Did you notice?
HP 7-8 gives you a feeling like you ate a piece of stale halloween candy, in a pitch black room. It taste alright. Better than nothing, I guess.
Also, that HP theme that we all love so much, was very heavy in 1& 2, so we immediately associate that music to a magical feeling that was produced in those 2 films. With every film afterwards, that theme is used less and less. Mirroring how each one felt less and less magical.
ps. But if you read all 7 books, you noticed that they all still had that magical feeling. And THATS what the movies shouldve been like. Despite Voldemort being after Harry, when you read "meanwhile at Hogwarts" you sighed with relief and your mind conjured up a grand magical castle with floating candles and ghosts floating through the halls. All that is missing from 5-8 movies.
You can still make a movie about dark things with out turning the color grading all the way down to...
"what the heck is going on? Are we watching the audiobook?
I think this video is just an opinion , not an essay . Prisoner of Azkaban is the most loved Harry potter movie by fans and critics . Whenever I read the books I visualize the Hogwarts in Prisoner of Azkaban not the first two movies because i loved Alfonso’s vision and mostly the colors which continued to the next movie as well till David Yates . He directed 4 movies and each movie a different color pallet. So the problem of colors in franchise is with David Yate’s vision , not Alfonso’s .
Farnaz Liravi «An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument - but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story.» from Wikipedia.. I’d say I’m pretty much covered.
I express many times how good Alfonso’s look is. His vision is not really the problem. It’s the disconnect with Columbus’ look.
And Mike Newell actually brought the harsh contrasts and pale skintones back a lot. Goblet actually felt like a step in the right direction (as far as Columbus’ vision went).
And I also talk about (criticise) David Yates in the video. But the point here is that Alfonso was the first one who started with the «too different look». Which set a precedent for the next directors of continual changes in the look.
Prisoner of Azkaban probably came closest to capturing the essence of Hogwarts, even if plot-wise it wasn't that faithful. I think out of all the movies it does the best job cinematically of blending dark and whimsical elements, which is what HP is meant to be about IMO.
That's a valid, subjective opinion. As is my video essay :)
A lot of fans may feel the 3rd movie was the best. And yes, it did do certain things well. But my favourite movies are always going to be the first two. They just had that magical feel, and also a rich and memorable soundtrack. I absolutely hate Gambon's Dumbledore as well.
Yes, as people turn into adults, things change. But I wish it was done in a manner consistent with the first two movies. The third movie was drastically different than the first two.
I wish Columbus directed everything from start to finish, John Williams composed the whole score and Richard Harris did not die.
>Prisoner of Azkaban is the most loved Harry potter movie by fans
by most fans, doesn't mean they're right. I hated this movie when it came out, and still hate it now. it's nothing like the feeling the books had, in a bad way. It just feels like a generic hollywood product.
>I think this video is just an opinion , not an essay
what else is a video essay supposed to be? absolute fact? because there's no such thing in art.
When people complain about Gambon they only ever mention that one scene. Gambon aside from that scene was a great Dumbledore. That said, when I read the books I imagined an older Jude Law so I’m ecstatic that he’s Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts films.
Archerpool that was the absolute worst scene, I’ll give you that. He was at his best in Deathly Hallows. So I’m not saying he wasn’t good in any scenes. But overall he felt way too whiny, fragile and not authoritative, like Harris was (in a very humble way).
Gambon’s interpretation was nothing like the Dumbledore in my head..
Tomas Stavik but that’s kinda the issue with any adaption. And a adaption should alter the book.
c17sam90 i’m all for adapting books to scripts. I know what it entails, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t wrong ways of adapting... in Gambon’s case, I personally thought it was pretty bad adaptation.
Tomas Stavik i hated Harris as a child. He was too old looking in movement and over all look. Too weak at that stage of his life as actor. If they had Richard Harris of the late 80’s it would a be a different story. Reading the overall Dumbledore story Gambon makes more sense to me. He can do the light and do the dark. Partly because he had scripts that required both sides and costumes that hat both sides of the character. The character as performed by Harris I can’t see doing the darker side or even being very intimidating to anyone over the age of 4.
While I do hate Gambon in the Goblet of Fire (I hate everything about that movie aside from Harry's hair and the first task), I will admit he does well in certain scenes. I would have preferred Harris to have lived on to continue the role, but we all must die sometime. Personally, I would have chosen a different actor than Gambon, though; Patrick Stewart, Ian McDiarmid, or Michael Caine would have been good choices, but I really think Sam Neil would have been the perfect fit.
1,2 and 4 were the only films with warm colours. 3 holds a special place in my heart because while it's still dark in its colours it's also bright and clear unlike the Yates films that are hard to see, almost as if the budget ran out on the lighting.
Dumbledore grabbing Harry seemed more like a directorial mistake then the actors decision.
It was the actor's decision. Gambon never bothered reading the books and felt he needed to impose his own personality onto Dumbledore. He didn't act as Dumbledore, he acted as himself pretending to be Dumbledore. That's the difference.
I agree on the color, I did like the Columbus palette the best, it had a innate wimsy to it. Through I think the main reasons the movies feel so inconsistent is because of the change in reality and reactions of the characters. While the book had time to shift from a child escapist fantasy to a more realistic tone, a movie can't change the rules of its reality. In the Harry potter series the tone shift wasn't handeled gracefully. The movies therefore feel less consistent, at least to me.
Mister Twinkles strictly observational, I prefer Azkaban.. hands down... though I do like PS and CoS.
And I kind of agree with you on what is the main reason. I didn’t try to claim that these points (in the video) was the only and/or main reasons for the disconnect in the narrative.
Nor did I claim you did. It very intersting though, you brought up good points, I never really considered the possibility that the color pallette could contribute to dissonance. Yet it does explain a lot of feelings I had on the last 4 movies. They should feel more in tune, given they have the same director, but something was a little off.
I get why you like Azkaban (it's my favorite movie), it nails the realism and feeling it's going for. I just really liked the bright vibrant colors of philosopher which, like you said, is mostly preference.
Mister Twinkles Agreed. Even though Azkaban is visually more appealing.. CoS is actually my all time favourite HP movie.
Mister Twinkles
I just wish the change was more gradual. To me, it feels like the grading is:
1. Happy
2. Happy
3. (PoA) Dark
4. DARK
5. Dark
Etc.
Daniel did talk about the dark turn the harry Potter movies made when Alfonso came in but hey..the first two movies are when harry is a child. From the azkaban one, he's entering the main plot..or...you get it right? So the dark colour grading complimented the dark twist in the story.
Mrinal Singh I don’t really agree. But it’s OK if you disagree with me :)
PoA is darker, yes. But it wasn’t that much darker. The plot in CoS is pretty frikkin dark as well...
Tomas Stavik that's the thing that lacks in the netizens today 😂 two people CAN HAVE different opinions 😂😂😂 but they'd just fight back again and again to prove Thier point! Anyways. Great video. And yes when you compared the scenes from the movies on screen together...the change was VISIBLE ENOUGH.
While I agree that the tone of the lighting needed to be changed with the mood... there's also a bit of a problem. It needed to be more gradual. Or maybe the movie's tone was different from the books, and I am just remembering the movies wrong.
At least in the books, there wasn't a huge difference in Prisoner of Azkaban. Sure, some themes were a bit darker. But there was just as much levity and charm as the first two. The tone of the lighting needed to be more dynamic, not necessarily darker throughout. Have it dark during the scenes that are more dark. Have it brighter when the tone is brighter.
Having a dark theme during certain scenes was certainly needed. But there wasn't enough light where there should have been. This is of course a lot more pronounced in Year 4 and onward. (The fourth movie has a lot of problems of its own.)
And the "Harry is a child" doesn't sit right with me as much. Sure, it's pretty accurate for the first two films. But he doesn't have a sudden change in maturity as soon as the third book comes around.
The problem isn't necessarily that there was a darker lighting scheme, it's that it came too early in the series. And they didn't know when to change it.
Prisoner of Azkaban had good lighting, and some of it was actually dynamic, but I think it was too much, too soon. That sort of lighting would be good around the fifth book, at least to me.
Later on, it's more of a color filter than actual mood lighting. Almost like watching a movie in greyscale.
Sorry for the apparent rant. I am actually fine with you having a different opinion, I just thought I would explain why I thought otherwise.
It's actually the music that is more of a problem for me. (Just the lack of consistency with the themes, and the more "action movie" scores don't appeal to me as much as what John Williams did with the first two. It makes them seem like each movie is a separate entity instead of a continuous series.)
Allen Holloway This was such an Impressive and nice take on my comment! I loved it and yes Thanks for correcting me there, the change in lighting should've been gradual.
Allen Holloway you make much more sense than me and one thing I really like in this thread- PEOPLE ARE OKAY WITH ME HAVING A DIFFERENT OPINION! GOD ITS SO HARD TO SEE THAT THESE DAYS.
I feel like the changes could also show Harry’s growth as a character coming from a kid to an adult
Cody Malloy absolutely an argument. Hope someone makes a video on it :)
But he's not an adult, he's just a teenager, barely a teenager actually, he's just 13...
Are you kidding? I've seen very mature themed movies that are far more colorful and vibrant than the directional change into these ugly color schemes.
LOTR was a very dark film, and yet they managed to give it Life & Beauty & vibrance. HP just lost its sparkle.
Also, its very tiring how everyone wants 'their vision'. Thats just a lame excuse.
Why would Dumbledores beard change just because the actor did?
If Daniel couldnt film any of the movies and got replaced, would the new actor not wear glasses, bc the new actor is giving it 'his interpretation'
Tomas did a great job pointing out how LOTR feels like a proper trilogy, whereas HP just seems to decline with each movies.
Btw, HP propbably has the worst ending of any major franchise. Harry and the crew just seemed so depressed. No celebrations were shown. Just a patheic lame send off of their kids. "Well son, I hope you like the school. Youre named after one of those dead teachers. Now behave. Ok?" Ron and Hermione also look frumpy and depressed.
Its sort of like "We fulfilled all our dreams... now what? Whats the point of life?"
Not to mention the very last seconds of the credits when the music plays. Listen and you'll see what I mean. Its like the composer didnt finish or was cut off. 7 & 8 arent canon in my book.
You nailed it. I always felt like the post-CoS movies weren't really Harry Potter anymore because of the shift in tone and colors. Chris Columbus and John Williams gave the franchise a very recognizable look and atmosphere, so while Azkaban is more artsy, it doesn't look like it's part of the same universe. They changed the logo, the school uniforms, the look of Hogwarts, Hagrid's house and didn't seem to care about the incoherence. The Colombus movies had colors but everything that came afterward was so dark and blue/greyish. I guess they wanted to show the growth of the characters but it just made the movies feel disjointed from each other. I wish Harry Potter hadn't became one of those countless desaturated, gritty-looking franchises.
Agreed, agreed and fully agreed! They had such a great start and so many makings of greatness. And then... ended up not living up to their potential at all...
It's exactly how I feel too
I also didn't like how they just stopped wearing school uniforms! Thank you for mentioning it, I thought I was the only one
THANK YOU!! Couldn’t agree more!
Also, it became clear that they were not filming on location anymore (maybe a couple of scenes), and began shooting almost everything in studios with green screens.
Implying that bright coloured movies arent saturated...
I for one, am super glad that the rest of the Harry Potter films don't look like the two first ones. If anything, PoA saved Harry Potter.
After CoS, Harry is almost forced to grow up faster than other kids, and I think that the change in style really reinforces that. The films do get darker and darker as Harry matures more and more. I'm glad the films are each distinctive from one another - I feel it would be rather boring if they all looked the same! :)
Regarding the grade with LoTR, they shot and edited the films basically all at the same time, so it was reasonably easy to change the style for all of the films if you wanted to. Harry Potter was filmed over a decade so it would've been impossible to do it the same way as LoTR.
It's okay to change the picture with his grown process. But not so drastically fast. And not through the whole movies in nearly every scene. It's like if the movie want to say: grow older means, you have to give up all the colour and brightness of your life, because the world is bad and you have to see the darkness in everything and at some point, you'll always be depressive and embittered. I wonder where Harry get's the strength to fight against the dark ones day by day, if the only thing he is experiencing is darkness all around him? This has nothing to do with maturity. There are evel forces responsible for that. They called inappropiate directors.
I respectfully disagree. The target audience is mainly children, but PoA and GoF kind of changed the tone. (Pun not intended.) When characters started dying, and the movies became less about fooling around at Hogwarts, the movies really changed. When Hermione punched Malfoy, you could really *feel* the mood change drastically.
@@luer2202 Sorry, but can you imagine dementors in a bright, saturated, sunny movie? How about Voldemort's return (ok I know it's in the evening, but the colors could have been saturated)? The books themselves take a dark turn in Prisoner of Azkaban with a "mass-murderer" on the loose, dementors around Hogwarts all the time (on the whole dementors are FAR darker than the basilisk which just kills you instantly, seeing as the dementors are able to suck the happiness out of people, and the dementor's kiss results in a fate worse than death), Harry seeing the Grim all over the place, Harry hearing the murder of his parents every time he gets too close to a dementor, for most of the book, the reader believes that the person responsible for Lily and James' death was their friend and secret keeper, is Harry's godfather, and is out to kill him and to bring Voldemort back, part of the prophesy about Voldemort's servant returning to him and Voldemort rising again is fulfilled when Pettigrew escapes, and the injustice of Buckbeak's case. I also might have missed some things. The color saturation is fine in this movie (at least compared to Half-Blood Prince where it's hard to see a lot of stuff on screen), and quite frankly, justified.
8:13
Interesting. Almost as if Mike Newell tried to imitate Chris Columbus and David Yates drew inspiration from Alfonso Quarón.
Oh my god THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! You have no idea how much I appreciate this video! The dissonant coloring of the Harry Potter movies has irked me for YEARS and everyone I try to talk about this with has just rolled their eyes. They think I’m being knit-picky and call me “nostalgic” for the Columbus films. I don’t really even mind PoA’s change of cinematic style as much as the godawful, dreary, and desaturated palette. It just felt so jarring and out of place! Plus it certainly doesn’t help that PoA also redesigned the architecture of Hogwarts and put a greater emphasis on the characters wearing modern clothing rather than the familiar school uniforms. It was too different and too sudden to mesh with the narrative whole and I’m so glad someone is finally pointing that out!! Bless you!
Kaitlin Dimick I agree too! ❤
I can only comfortably and enjoyably watch the first two movies
I think the darkening of the lights after Harry Potter 3, is what made the movies so great.
Minimeister317 That’s Ok :)
I'm quite the opposite. I'll take screenshots from Order of the Phoenix through Deathly Hallows 2 and run them through my photo editing software to lift that dark filtering and saturating the color to see what they'd look like with a different cinematographer. It's amazing how much color is buried in these later movies. It makes me wonder how much of a different viewing experience the series would have been if say all the movies had the same brighter, more vibrant look and a John Williams score throughout.
I dissagree
You don't need that coma but yeah I actually agree with you
comma splice
The first two films have a lot more 'magic' to it. The colours, the school uniforms, their storylines in context with the whole, the old Dumbledore, the settings (Hogwarts and diagon alley, hagrid's hut and the forest..)
With that said, cuaron was the best director and created the best film; but definitely initiated a tonal shift, for the worst, in my opinion.
joeyxcorvusy I agree.
I think that Chris Columbus’s style very much defined the feel of films from the late 80s and 90s, the ones that most of us were brought up on. He directed the Home Alone films, Gremlims, the Goonies and Ms Doubtfire, which are all classics from the era as well .
Great essay - deserves more views. I've just been writing a video essay on this exact topic (but from a musical standpoint!) - so it's so great to hear your views on colour grading and cinematography. I completely agree - I recently watched all 8 films and was totally bothered by the inconsistencies. More than just the colour grading - there are just so many inconsistencies in those films, you can't buy into it actually being a cogent series.
Also, I even remember as a kid loving the first two films in the cinema, and being distinctly disappointed by the 3rd film onwards. I wasn't critically aware of why the third disappointed at the time, but I just knew that it had lost the 'magic' of the first two. Don't get me wrong, it's fabulous cinematography. But it's just too big a leap from the first two in terms of style
I completely agree, and your experience is very similar to mine.
Would be cool to see how your essay turns out :)
The music also changed a lot from the two first movies to the third one as well, even though it's still John Williams who scored it. My favourite scores are possibly the two first and then Goblet of Fire, although the theme from Williams is the most memorable, and beautiful, melody
About the music? Bring it on! Big-time Williams fan here.
I do believe the music saved PoA for me as it was still as excellent as what came before. But indeed still a massive change of tone.
After Williams left, the music really took a nose-dive. Until Fantastic Beasts, that is...
Video's out now - take a look at my channel!
@@pieterboelen2862 Rubbish. Hooper did good for the 5th and 6th ones, and Desplat killed it for DH part 1 & 2.
@@groot8950 I'm really happy you managed to enjoy their scores more than I did! They do indeed have good parts to them; no doubts about that. :-D
Even though PoA is one of my favorites BECAUSE it was dark, you brought up some good points about the change in tonality due to such a drastic change. In my opinion, because of the progression of the story, PoA should have been a tiny bit brighter but then GoF should have been the quality of darkness that Alfonso brought to PoA since it's the first time someone dies in the series.
PoA stands out as my favorite movie (except maybe HBP) because the direction was so stylized, however. I thought the first two movies established the universe, but not much was being said as a director other than solidifying the universe. The interactions between actor and audience felt like watching a play, removed from the situation as an observer, rather than interacting through the big screen on a personal and emotional level. Alfonso took the established universe and breathed that realism into the characters for me and showcased the characters uncomfortably; close and with all flaws. I felt like PoA was full of more magic and intrigue than the first two movies.
Time and life and death are huge themes that the color palette carries well, especially for a kid's franchise. The audience needed to be informed that the tonality was all about to start changing and the stylization carried that message. As soon as those opening credits rolled we knew something had shifted. After Harry defeated the Basilisk and nearly died after CoS, he is only just starting to understand what being Harry Potter means and the weight of the world is starting to build the foundation on his shoulders. We are not meant to forget what happened after the events of movie/book 2 and I appreciated that even though Harry is only 13 in PoA, the series was beginning to be taken more seriously with more adult color themes.
I agree with actually most of what you are saying. Especially that 1 & 2 feels like watching a play. The child actors were just getting into acting.. So many scenes feel quite rigid... I'm not gonna lie and say that nostalgia isn't a part of why I cherish the first two movies that much.. But I would only wish the direction of the next movies would be sort of line with the same color palette, all the while contributing with more realism in the acting, showing the flaws of the characters, and making it gradually darker in tone..
EDIT: Oh.. and thanks for the long reply :) I like when people get involved in the discussion!
the change from CoS to azkaban was just far to sudden, it should have been a more subtle and gradual growing of dread and unease with a slowly changing colour palette, but instead what we got is the movies going straight from warm, children's fare to grimdark edginess with no warning whatsoever, and it's jarring and throws you out of the film, especially when they change literally EVERYTHING at the same time, from the colour grading to the direction to the music style, the sudden abandonment of established musical themes, the change in costuming from wearing robes and school clothes all the time to modern casual clothing that doesn't really fit the universe. Remember, in the books, even GoF wasn't *that* dark until the last few chapters, most of the book is about a school competition, in fact I'd argue that some of the shock value of GoF's twist ending was ruined by making the films grimdark immediately after CoS.
I totally agree.
XamoebabrainX
Harry Potter is not a kids franchise. Toy Story is a kids franchise
This is something HP film viewers get so wrong.
The first two films might stick out as what Harry Potter is to you, but the collective tone of the series is far more similar to what Cuaron, and even Yates created than to what Columbus created.
Also, I think the longer running nature of the series and the fact that the book series was written as a tonal gradient from light to dark, from immaturity to maturity, here had to be some significant changes in how the film looked, and the cinematography of the films changed a lot. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t “look or feel like” a Harry Potter Film to me. It still very much did. But the spirit of the story changed.
After all these years, I still LOVE the first two movies. I like the third. And the rest I gradually like less, dislike and hate for the unbeareble lifelessness and colourless pictures of the former magnificent, wonderful and BRIGHT magical world of Harry Potter.
To me it wasn't the same world anymore, and I still hate what they did to it.
The CIRCUMSTANCES were bleek and dark in the later books. Not the whole WORLD it took place in!
It would have been such a great way to show how bleek and dark it was compared to the colourfullness of the first two movies. Now everything was bleek and dark, making nothing stand out as such anymore, making it way less effective in my opinion.
All this made me love the books all the more, where I can picture it as I want, because different than the narrator, I will not let those directors hatred of normal light and colour change the way I see the HP world.
We have the same thought!!! I 2000%agree!!!the first 2are my favorite!!! I'm actually in the middle of watching all of the movies with my dad (he's never seen any of them) and I'm remembering all the criticism I had the last time I watched them! The first 2are for ever my favorites!! We've only gotten to the forth movie so far but my dad is also agreeing with me lol
Hi Cecilia
That's funny :D
I'm in the middle of watching them all with my boyfriend, and he's never seen any of them!
We're also reading all the books together. He's never read any of them either.
To be honest he is reading them TO me... So lovely
@@Keyboardje I hope he loves them as much as we do!!! I'm going to be watching movies 5 and 6 this weekend... If my dad was a reader have him read them too but that's never gonna happen so I have a friend reading them for the first time she's just starting book one!!! I'm sooo excited for her!!! Then I'll have her watch the movies as well!!!! Every one must love Harry Potter!!!!
Agree completely! This dark shades makes you depressive and agressive at some point. It's a horrible feeling to stare all the time at a dark screen. It's a total mess. Someone should tell this to the directors or to warners brothers. They should bring a new, over-painted and brighter version of the movies to the cinema. Maybe they can rescue some of the feeling.
Good point and idea Lu Er!
I've heard the movies are digitally altered to be the way they are now, so I think it might be possible to undo that, or to use the original movie recordings.
I would buy those at once if they were available!
And for good measure they would have to be with all the deleted scenes too! :)
I can't even watch the Deathly Hallows movies during the day or even in a normally lit room, which is annoying. It hard to see anything in the last few movies.
I am currently doing a rewatch of all the Harry Potter movies with a friendd of mine and just watched the order of the Phoenix and while I do enjoy all of the films, I just just feel myself getting more and more disconnected from the world as the movies go on and I did not know why.
Now I know why I have this nostalgic feel when a watch the first two movies. I love the adaption of Chris Columbus and while it is not perfect it is the version I think of when I think about Harry Potter, it is what I feel when I read the books.
Cuaron made an amazing movie, just not a great continuation of the Harry Potter universe.
I just wished that Columbus continued the series. People always say that Columbus would not be able to integrate the darker stories into his films. I disagree, the second film was already getting slightly darker compared to the first and I think we would see the same in POA.
This would be a more gradual and natural change of tone, but I am just rambling and thinking out loud at this point. I just think we would have an AMAZING series at hand if Columbus or Cuaron did the entire thing. Thanks for the video and sharing your thoughts.
Thank you very much! My thoughts exactly.
i wish the rest of the movies were like the first and second one... It actually made me so sad that those books with so deep meaning were ruined...
In the first 2 they actually tried to include most of the book. The rest of the films ruined Harry Potter, leaving out so much
Yes, but the first two books were much shorter. Take the fifth book, which is three if not even four times longer than the first. They could include only so much detail, so many scenes in the later movies so to not make them five hours long.
When you think of it HP books are not the best type of book to adapt and transform into movies. Just like any other major literary works, because of the sheer amount of information in them. And ironically they are the best stories everyone wants to see on screen.
I love HP books and movies, Chamber and Half Blood Prince being my favourite I think, and I'm not even mad that they cut so much from the sixth movie. You can't have everything.
I do not believe that the problem in the later movies was that they didn't include most of the book. They have a time limit, but the art of transferring a book to a movie was well made in the first two movies in my opinion. Some things that were added in the first movies which were not included in the first two books were as they should have been. For example, in the end of the first book when voldemort said There is good or evil, only power and those too weak to seek it looked nice in the movie and it bonded good in the character of voldemort, it didn't change what we had in mind as voldemort. Or in the second movie, the quidditch scene where Harry and Draco were chasing the snitch and Draco crashes. Or the duelling club scene which was different than the book but still didn't alter the importance of the scene, such a good transfer to a movie. Those details with music, direction, cinematography eventually make a piece of art, a good transfer without spoiling the delicacy of the books' story.
What I felt about the rest of the movies is that, the direction realised that harry potter is a big money thing, so they made the movies' spells for examples be like star wars shotguns, voldemort acting was very bad in my opinion as well, in addition to many others. They just looked to me like cheap movies, trying to get as many viewers as they can, spoiling that delicacy. Or the directors were just narrow.
That’s going a bit to far
At the time of the first and second they didn’t even knew what would happen. I think they did a great job. Also John Williams and how he transformed the music.
This is my favorite movie of the saga, and for the reasons the nerdwriter listed, but I agree with you: I remember seeing this at the theater in 2004 and keep getting annoyed at like how the uniforms slightly changed, the wands (while the new ones look cooler) were different and hagrids house were in a different spot.. so yeah you’re totally right it break the narrative that was building up.
pettywise
‘Slightly’
tbh though its suggested that the uniforms change every once in a while just like in real british schools. Its possible that they were redesigned just because it was time.
Everything about the world that was built was different- all the stuff you mentioned, plus the whomping willow, fat lady. Somehow the only part of that castle that survived all 8 movies without a director feeling the need to reboot it was the defense against the dark arts classroom
Interesting take. Not an opinion I necessarily agree with but definitely food for thought.
Ryan thanks :) I’m cool with that.
For me, the real disconnect is with GoF. For a book with such dark undertones (showcasing the first time we see real death and vivid, malicious intent) the film seems almost light-hearted, playful. Especially when you put it in between PoA and OotP, there's a huge jump that isn't really bridged.
I think also that part of the reason why there's such a sudden shift in tone from CoS to PoA is to symbolise the darkening world Harry lives in. He's 13 in PoA and beginning to realise where he stands in the wizarding world and beginning to catch glimpses of the real darkness. It's no longer men with a face on the back of their head chasing after a glimmering stone, nor magical memories controlling a giant snake- PoA introduces themes of justice (or injustice) and political motivations. Not to mention the dementors, which invoke in Harry his worst memories- ones he wasn't previously conscious or aware of. Of course there are the brighter moments, but what really makes PoA stand out is its ability to bring emotional depth to the film series. Part of this, I think, can be attributed to the darker colour tones.
The comment about rawness doesn't bother me so much- again, PoA is Harry really beginning to get into the dirt and darkness of the adult world.
I think all of them had a part in ruining the continuity. Hogwarts looks different in nearly every film. Harry's hair changes every film drastically. I think alfonsos take could have been perfect though if he had done all the film's.
Tyler Devine-Scott Yes.. and I hope I don’t come across as making the case that this is the only thing that ruined it (for me).
There are several factors that played a part in ruining the narrative of the HP saga.
I disagree with the analysis. I would have said: How the Goblet of Fire and Colours Ruined Harry Potter.
Alfonso Cuarón actually did the last good film on the series; full of artistry and complexity, something that the absurd idea of a wizarding world needed.
100% it feels out of place ..also hairstyles and everything ..as mark.newell said he wanted new.film.new .in other words he didn't wanna.work.with what others did ..it ignored others ..whereas azkaban improved ..in a darker direction
Chris Columbus was the perfect director for these films, and John Williams was the perfect composer. How ironic that two Americans brought a British literary phenomenon to life like no one else could. Once they allowed British and European directors to take the helm, the series went downhill fast. I never read the books, so I'm open to the possibility that _Philosopher's Stone_ and _Chamber of Secrets_ were also the best of the books and this is why the first two films are the best.
I remember becoming disillusioned with the series after I saw _Prisoner of Azkaban_ but I wasn't sure why. I eventually realised that the magic (no pun intended) that was missing was Columbus. His departure, in my eyes, was the fatal blow to the franchise. People say the first two films feel more childlike and innocent, but that's precisely what makes them feel so magical to me. The other films are cold and dark, both in terms of tone and the awful colour grading they were given. Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort was also a bad casting choice, I think. He was much more frightening when he was on the back of Quirrell's head.
Ironically, Columbus COULD make dark scenes if the plot needed them. Spider scenes from Chamber of Secrets easily prove that. But “dark” doesn’t’ equal “bleak”; some filmmakers don’t understand this simple fact.
Of course he could. Voldemort was actually quite menacing in the Columbus films, but Ralph Fiennes turned the character into a joke. He took all the mystery out of him.
Rebooted. You said it best on how the Prisoner of Azkaban looks complete different. I was confused when it came out for the first time and always prefered Chris' version to this day.
Then when the Fantastic Beast came, it looks fresh and I love it.
I still dream about an actual reboot of Harry Potter in the far future, with correct continuation and same visual across movies. Since LotR has been adapted more than once, why not HP too.
Dawn-Shade I would kill for a reboot tv show. It can’t be done well in movies!
HBO series quality with a book span a season, yes
@@Dawn-Shade Yes please 🙏
Careful what you wish for.
No fuckin way. HP series is just fine as they were. ( I READ SOME BOOKS NOT ALL)
The first Dumbledore will always be the Dumbledore I picture when I read the books. He honestly was the best one as he brought out Dumbledore in his acting.
The second one didn't get it right especially with that over the top scene with Harry in Goblet of Fire.
I love that you brought up LOTR with the grading! Hobbiton especially was so well done. It's a fine line between a lush scenic paradise and looking almost cartoony. But still making it fit with the tone of the films in general. Each space is different and iconic but has to fit the larger world. It's kind of what I look at for the ideal.
Darker color grading has been a trend for movies for a while now, but personally loved the color grading of the later Harry Potter movies.
You put your finger in it. I was pissed after watching POA. I fell in love with the film adaptation under Chris Columbus. The divergence from the original plot, the lack of uniforms ( a pet peeve of mine) and the chaotic and haphazard color grading from POA onward annoyed the hell out of me and did creat a huge disconnect from film to film.
The fact of the matter is that Chris Columbus’s adaptations will be considered “classics”. Whereas the next 6 will be largely forgotten , perhaps with the exception POA.
Can we stop with the "Harry grew up that why the colors where Dark and sucked in the later movies" .. they slapped a blue filter over Azkaban, goblet of fire was a little better and yates just turned Harry potter into action movies with really bad lighting. I really wish Chris columbus would've stayed with all the movies but I get that he wanted to see his kids grow up instead of work 24/7 for 10 years. I just don't think the movies are worthy of the saga.
I agree wholeheartedly. I think that were the color grading going to change so drastically that it should have been a progressive move from the fade in to the fade out rather than just an overall change as soon as it starts. It would have given such a foreboding feeling that most viewers would not pick up on had it slowly evolved over the course of the movie leaving us with a darker feeling.
You have good points but I think it was necessary to change cinematography because as harry potter grows up his life gets change and his feelings also so I think all directors have done their work according a vision of change in life,feelings and events. So different colours and cinematography also help us to know the difference.
Faizan Ashraf That’s Ok :)
Thanks for taking the time to look at it and then giving your opinion!
My biggest complaint had always been with the change in school uniforms. I was able to accept the re-cast in Dumbledore because that was a necessity, and I loved the change in Hogwarts. POA made it feel like a real place. But, for some odd reason I could not accept the change in uniforms and why nobody was commenting on it! I believe Yates managed to correct some of this with the last movie though. In the flash back with Lilly as a student at Hogwarts everyone was in the old robes. By making a point to include the old uniforms just makes me come to the conclusion that in the story itself the school decided to update their wardrobes in POA. strangely enough it makes me love POA all the more.
Why do you have only 810 subs? While watching the video I honestly I was watching someone with kone 2 million subs. You deserve more
Thanks mate! Appreciate it!
As a kid I felt the saga finished in CoS, I watched the other ones but they never felt like a sequel or part of what the other two had created. So I didn't care about them and lost the interest on the franchise. It's sad because a grew up with that nostalgic feeling and longing for a continuation that I've never got a chance too see. You nailed the subject, congrats for the essay!
You nailed it
I find it odd how this was the darker movie compared to the first two, but the humor and comedy moments was definitely done a lot more here than with those movies with moments like Aunt Marge being turned into a balloon, the whole knight bus sequence with that insane Jamaican head thing with Harry being slapped around the bus and smacking his face against the window and the old lady taking forever to cross the street, the housekeeper getting blown away by Harry's book when she goes to clean his room at that motel, the fat lady singing HORRIBLY, the psychic teacher bumping into her desk when she stands and when later insulting Hermoine, even the deleted scene with McGonagle in the Gryffindor dorm room with the students and one of the painting figures fall backwards in their picture in a slapstick manner, etc. the list goes on. How ironic all of this was in the darker movie.
My feelings explained! Thanks for uploading this, I could literally watch at least an hour more of your Potter films observations :)
La Pooh Thank you!
Prisoner of Azkaban still looks better than the later movies.
Half Blood Prince is too dark, literally, what the hell happened with the lighting in that movie?
PoA looks great! Hands down!
I also agree with you. PoA is my favourite Harry Potter book by far, yet the movie less so. While reading the book I feel the warmth and safety from the previous books are still very much present in the third, and then it very gradually get darker and more sinister as it progresses, culminating in the werewolf, Pettigrew’s escape and the dementors. Though in the movie this darkness is overly present since the beginning, complete with Alexandre Desplat’s music, which is very good and true to the feeling of the movie, but to me represent a much to abrupt change from the previous instalments
MsBabbi I agree with that the book starts of with the same warmth as the previous books.
But wasn’t it John Williams who made the music? I’m pretty sure he’s listed as the composer on IMDB. But the music style did change as well.. too much harpsichord..
Tomas Stavik yeah, you’re totally right, Alexandre Desplat wrote for the last one, I remembered incorrectly. But that’s the thing, though, with the music, that it changes so abruptly you’d think it’s a different composer all together. Peter Pettigrew’s theme played on harpsichord is well written, but to me the feel of it is way to much of a break from the earlier movies (and latter, it turned out) and it feels more like a thriller than a HP film
I knew I wasn't the only one who noticed all the harpsichord.
Honestly, it was an odd decision, and fits more with an original story I'm doing than with Harry Potter. Even though Prisoner is my second favorite Potter film (behind Chamber of Secrets...don't kill me), it felt like an abrupt change from the first two films. The darker and more faded colors, the baroque/medieval music, even becoming less and less like the books...you could say something felt off about it.
Regarding the music again...the heavy harpsichord reminds me of Williams' The Witches of Eastwick score, and Prisoner would have an almost identical score to The Witches of Eastwick if that movie didn't use a lot of electronic cues.
Yep, PoA is my favourite book too. Film still annoys the crap out of me; more than any other film I can think of.
Music was indeed way, WAY different too. But being a Williams fan, I reckon it was different in an "also good" way.
The rest of the film though? I still haven't come up terms with it and I wonder if I ever will. Parts were good; parts were not. But oooh boy, is it uneven!!
I personally dont really enjoy Azkaban either. I feel like the pacing is just terrible and it skips over tons of important scenes from the book etc. also ending the movie with Harry riding on his new broomstick (The Firebolt) makes 0 sense.
Jᴀᴄᴋᴇʀᴄᴏ i read the prisoner of azkaban book recently and they do remove important scenes/information in the film such as the backstory of moony, wormtail, padfoot and prongs who they are and a little bit more of snapes backstory.
So I'm NOT the only one. Thank you for making sense! I fully agree. For me, my imaginary world based on the books fits right in with the first two movies. The other ones though? Not so much...
Pieter Boelen thanks!
I think the problem that it was too sudden in film three, it could have been more gradual
Exactly!
PoA felt like a Tim Burton film. Making fantasy properties darknfor the sake of stlye doesn't really do anything special for. This was still early enough in the story for things to be a little less dark.
The films are okay....the books will always be the best though
Although I love this movie. I totally understand your point of view. PoA just didn't feel like a Harry Potter movie even though it adapted some of the book scenes really well. There was something missing from the movie and now I know what. I know that the change from warmer tones to darker tones was to mark the starting of the dark era of Harry Potter but it kind of made the movies different from each other. For some reason GoF felt more like a Harry Potter movie than PoA.
Edit: Thanks for ❤ my comment , Tomas
Manya Goyal I 100% agree
Prisoner of Azkaban is actually my favorite of the franchise. But ironically I do agree with you that it unfortunately did set a very different tone for Harry Potter, allowing later movies to stray even further away and eventually forget their roots.
But ultimately it was Yates that did it. His directing style is soulless. The cameras may not have moved much in the earlier films, but the characters DID. Yates on the other hand had both his camera and characters motionless and emotionless for 4 movies straight. Harry Potter 3 may have sparked the beginning of changes to come but Yates doused it with gasoline.
Yes! This is how I feel as well. PoA is a really great film, independently.
Yates was a horrible choice for the films.
I still think the Half-Blood Prince has the worst color grading in the series. Everything looks too brown.
Just goes to show it’s all a matter of personal preference because it’s right next to Azkaban for my favorite of the series.
It wasnt the color grading. It was moving Hagrids house and whomping willow
My least favourite is the Halfblood Prince, until the end it’s rather boring.
Btw in case you didn’t know, order of the phoenix through deathly hallows movies were perfectly in linee with their books tone, and if anything, I think that the deathly hallows book is even darker then it’s 2 movies. And the dumbledore recast was really good, it’s just that Mike Newell wasn’t a good director for the goblet of fire. Also, the Harry Potter world is meant to be dark from the 5th book and on. Although I do have to admit that the halfblood prince movie is kinda bad, the order of the phoenix was the best one.
I actually have a video on The Order of The Phoenix. It's my favorite book :)
Watching POA felt like watching a Mirror Universe episode of Star Trek. Cuaron seemed to be more interested in making his own movie more than doing Part 3 of 7.
He made everything different looking, dark, colorless and scruffy looking. He also seemed obsessed with muggle clothing.
Yes if annoyed me so much that they didn't wear magical clothes. If looked way too modern. Considering Harry Potter took place in the 90s as well, they didn't dress even like muggles from the 90s.i missed the robes and uniforms.
...Except, they do wear robes around the school and where appropriate? The children weren't wearing robes constantly in the books, especially not on weekends and in leisure, and Cuaron (with the costumers) direct the children in this film to be a lot more particular and evocative of their characters. Malfoy and his crones are a bit devil may care with their application of the dresscode, Ron's discheveledness is pushed to be even more casual, Hermione is really precise and controlled about her wear (and if you look close you can see that she has and even hides the time turner the whole film). This always felt like a complaint that worked against the convincing world building Jo was doing in the books? And while there are some fashions that are clearly not 90s, most of the wear the kids have are nondescript enough to pass for that point in time.
Also...I'm never going to understand how people claim that this movie is colorless. It's certainly desaturated but there are plenty of colors that pop. The film grading applied to this isn't nearly as aggressive in controlling hue as it is in Order of the Phoenix or Half Blood Prince (the latter doing so attractively). The actual range of hues in this film rivals the first two and following film, but it's far more starkly lit than more than half of the series.
@@Goblinprincete
You do realise that robes are not just part of the school uniform, they are part of wizard culture?
Why should they visit Hogsmeade and all wizard Village in muggle clothing, especially the purebloods.
Sure, but a lot of the tension of the last century of wizard culture is that muggleborn wizards intermingle more and more. This carries over into fashion and is something that JK Rowling even implies with the various items of clothing many characters through the saga wear. On screen, it makes sense that muggleborn children would carry muggle born fashions.
Also...
th-cam.com/video/vNc43oKqQzg/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/vNc43oKqQzg/w-d-xo.html
I could comb through the film if I wanted to spend the time, but there are a number of students just in the Hogsmeade sequence (and plenty of older wizards and witches) who are adorned with robes. The trend is reflected throughout the runtime. It makes sense that one would interpret this as not the majority as well, accounting for Hogwart's diverse makeup (and Dumbledore's commitment to making the demographic of the school more or less as such), and pureblood families in general also being more and more rare on the whole.
As with most things in the film, I feel this is a touch more precisely hewn than people give credit, and a bit more respectful of the previous films (as well as the books) than many admit.
Does anyone recognize the piano music playing at 10:14 and onwards?
Final Fantasy piano collection if I'm not mistaken ❤
What I really HATE of The prisoner of Azkaban movie I that everything is SO MUGGLE, the students between classes use MUGGLE CLOTHES IN HOGWARTS, HOGWARTS!!! EVEN FREAKING DRACO!!! The whole movie felt less magic not because of lights or darkness, it's because there's literally less magic everywhere, and the fact that everything looks dirty doesn't help 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
I still like the movie, but it's the first one with the mugglelization problem that NEVER disappear...
I felt that too. A little bit at least.
YESSS. I like Prisioner of Azkaban, but I always regreted that from that point onward the Wizarding World became a little bit to mundane looking
Rowling never describes a uniform other than a black cloak and a pointed black hat. They wear their muggle clothes under these cloaks. This means they wore hoodies, t-shirts (there’s a part in PoA where it says Harry tucked his hand under his T-shirt), jeans, muggle branded shoes, etc.
1:18 I disagre. I think the reason why these movies are so good is because they feel different. Which makes each of them special. Unlike the Marvel movies which feel like the same and so boring to watch.
why do directors when brought into an established franchise, keep whining on and on about "their vision". if you want to explore "your vision" go make your own movies. pick up a super 8 and go. there's nothing stopping you. but when you accept a contract to work within an existing franchise, you have, have, HAVE to work within an existing framework or the entire thing falls apart. Harry Potter is a case study in WHY such a thing is essencial. bc what the director here did, truly, was give later directors an EXCUSE to deviate. to not care. Yes, he did a great job - for a single film. and bc he got away with it, all the OTHER directors felt free to do whatever the hell they wanted, and even when David Yates directed the final four films, he felt no need to CONNECT them. bc the precident was set, right here
I think the change of colors are related to several things:
- the surrounding of dementors throughout the movies
- the fact that Harry was growing up and really realized the dangers that awaited him
- the isolation of Harry since we see quite a lot of scenes in which he gets isolated from other people (friends or not)
-the fact that Harry was getting emotionally impacted about his dark past
Will you be making more of these videos? They’re great!
Lauren Verkruysse i want to :) but time is of the essence.. i have a full-time job and a 1 year old.
But I will make more.. it’ll just take time. Though probably on other topics, not just Harry Potter.
Finally, I thought I’m the only one who doesn’t like the dark shade of this movie.
It is harder to watch this movie compare to the 1st 2. I feel like my eyes is fighting for light.
For me, Dumbledore has shifted and or morphed from Harris to Gambon and back to Harris and then to Gambon depending on the scene or even line. More recently though, he's also taken the appearance of Stephen Merchant with silver hair and a long silver long beard. I think Merchant would have been perfect for the role were he older at the time of the making of The Philosopher's Stone. He seems and looks like book Dumbledore: tall, a bit lanky, looks old but has the spark of a much younger man, has an odd sense of humor about him. I'm seriously stunned no one else has mentioned him.
Connor Nyhan that is possibly a brilliant theory... never thought of that
I feel like the last five movies are simply bluish grey. They have no longer the sparkly, nostalgic feeling
While I do love POA, and it is objectively the best HP movie in my opinion, CoS is my favourite and I think the warm colours suited the tone of the books better.
Cuaron didn't care about previous film to film continuity in the franchise and wanted to make "his movie" and make it "different". Remind you of anyone?
...except Prisoner Of Azkaban is infinitely better than Last Jedi.
POA is perfect in nearly every single way, except the one problem I have with it is that it is so different
I agree wholeheartedly... about TLJ as well...
I accicedently read video title as: "why Azkaban's colors ruined Harry Potter's hair" and I just couldn't stop Laughing.
First of all, great video mate. Now, my opinion is that the changing of the style kept the movies fresh and highlighted different issues that the movies wanted to discuss. When I read Harry Potter, I mostly see it in the style of the half blood prince. I think it is another thing that says more about your character and connects you to the series even more personally. I love your take on this and I can completely see, understand and feel it, but I'm just pointing out what I think are the benefits to the changing. I don't think I'm right or wrong and I don't think you are right or wrong, it's just something that I think is personal.
Dora Balog yeah Azkaban and Half Bood Prince are my favorites as well. Not just from a story perspective, but from the Cinematography as well. Both absolutely beautiful yet also maintain a sense of magic, or maybe “sorcery” is a word that matches those movies more. The first two movies are great, but they feel like direct adaptations of the books rather than something that must be seen on a visual level.
Kondō_Kin omg you described it perfectly! Sorcery! I'm always a sucker for dark, mysterious, creepy, halloween stuff. AND when it's combined with something that it's supposed to be combined and fits so perfectly, it's like a cure for tired, bored eyes.
Blaming Cuaron for Yates' choices doesn't make sense to me. Prisoner of Azkaban was reasonably darker than the first two movies with an interesting cinematography.
People are too critical of Gambon and base their dislike of his portrayal on one line. As if Gambon came up with it on his own and it wasn't the director's fault that that's how that scene was portrayed.
Also, it's unfair to criticise Prisoner of Azkaban using a bad line read from the Goblet of Fire.
that Dumbledore casting criticism don't make sense
funky juggles There’s more where that came from. But this video wasn’t about that.. so here it was just a side point.
Tomas Stavik I'd adore a video on casting in general in the movies, and you can bring that up there. I am not a fan. Just the scene where he grabs Harry and yells "Did you out your name in the Goblet of Fire!?" alone...
yeah gambon did nothing wrong he was probably just doing what mike newell wanted him to do. #BlameMikeNewell
GoF was my least favourite movie anyway.
Michael Gambon IS a pretty good actor. But since I saw him as that "annoying Dumbledore 2.0" first, I now have a hard time to not be sightly irked when I see him elsewhere.
I'm fine with the movies being darker in terms of plot but I don't think you need to portray that through colour grading. It just made the visuals look more boring for me.
You're definitely right that POA started the series down a darker visual trend, but if you ask me, the visuals of this series really shit the bed with the Half Blood Prince. At least with the other films, the color palette wasn't a distraction. But the absence of color in HBP has always bothered me. Seriously, there's more color in Schindler's List.
Mike Burns I did mention that. But I focused more on the caytalyst which eventually lead to just that
Anyone notice that when comparing the different directors' color grading at 8:22, the colors end up representing the Hogwarts houses?! Clockwise from top left: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff.
Had to pause when i noticed that.
JK Rowling actually said this was her favorite Harry Potter film.
Was she being polite?
That means Cuaron and Rowling have the same Vision.
abc def hahaha
She wasn't actually. Watch the special features of the film, she talks about how a lot of things that Cuaron wanted to introduce felt so extra to her and didn't snap together until she saw the final product. This isn't surprising though, given that she wanted Terry Gilliam to helm the Philosopher's Stone.
I watched this about a year ago and I agreed with you. The longer Ive thought about it, I'm not so sure I can agree... The colouring in each film has created separation and changes in their journey throughout. It slowly changed the look and feel of the world they live in throughout the series. Painting all VERY different films with the same brush so to speak would have been lazy, awkward and completely would have fought against the changing story of the series. By the half blood prince, the colour is virtually gone and finally in the last two films, its dark and cold reflecting the story.
I understand your point, and thanks for taking the time to comment. That might very well be what they were going for. I don't really think it was executed well enough though. The colours, along with design changes, musical changes, narrative changes and character developments (especially Ron's development) were so visibly, and audibly different in almost every movie,. I feel like this makes them more separate, than together, as a cohesive series.
I'm actually hoping for a remake in around 10-15 years. But I don't think that will happen..
The change of cinematogaphy in Prisoner of Azkaban was so significant that even John Williams changed the style and didn't use most of the other themes.
Adervae is that true? It was because of the cinematography?
John Williams has a tendency to tailor his scores to what is seen in each film rather than focus on an overarching tone or selection of themes. That is the case with POA because the tone and direction are so different than the first two.
Not sure that would be directly related to the cinematography. I'd assume Williams talked directly with the director about what to do for this film.
I completely agree with you. To change the style that drastically from film 2 to 3 was totally uncalled for and made Prisoner of Azkaban my least favourite. When David Yates came in and brought ridiculously dark colors and that constant Gaussian blur I gave up, that was just silly. It felt like he didn't have a clear visual idea for the story, so he made everything as dark and colorless as possible.
Gaussian blur... Love it! It's so true!
I disagree. I think that like the books, the films grew as the characters did. My memories as a kid are far far different to those I have now. YOu see the entire world differently, and I think the change between films embodies that.
Anthony Paull That’s Ok :)
The disconnect was apparent to me with David Yates, prior to this the continuity with the overall cinematography was fairly decent imo. I wish they’d stuck with Alfonso’s vibe in following films, stylised and matured yet still magical and innocent. While Chris Columbus was effective, it lacked something, maybe the sense of fantasy or escapism which I feel Alfonso delivered whilst remaining true to the essence of the HP universe.
I will agree with you on that if Alfonso had made the next movies, that would probably have been one of the best outcomes. Though, I would prefer to see Chris Colombus at the wheel of all the movies, as I feel he has a particular magic about his movies.
I, perhaps, feel the opposite about the escapism and fantasy, as Alfonso himself said that he brought a 'raw naturalism' to Harry Potter. Which is exactly what I felt..
Thank you. Prisoner of Azkaban is the most overrated of the saga. Finally someone says it. The adaptation is also underwhelming. The real dread from 1&2 is gone. The Dementors and the hound look great but they don’t hold a candle to Voldie.
omg i didnt know someone actully thought the same way i do about the movies getting to fucking dark. if you look at scenes from the philosopher stone vs deathly hallows its like your watching it almost in black and white.
I find the later movies to be too dark--literally too dark, I mean. Sometimes it's actually hard to see what's happening.
Never really tought about this, this is a great essay with good points, i subscribe
I love it that you brought this up, always felt somewhat similar.
Jake Tuschak thanks :) Nice to read some positive comments every now and again :)
I think them being visually distinct is good.
100% right. Harry Potter as a series was ALWAYS light-hearted. The third movie made it dark. Maybe to people who didn't read HP it was not a problem, but to me - it was a disaster.
Patryk Żukowski
Harry Potter is not lighthearted at all, and if you think that, you weren’t focused on the story.
It’s a series about death, derived from Rowling’s experiences with death and depression, that include a number of horrible character deaths, relevant sociopolitical themes, stark emotional tragedy, fantasy horror elements, and sometimes shocking violence.
The books are far darker than the films. Anyone suggesting that Harry Potter is lighthearted truly has no idea of the series and the story.
The Harry Potter books managed to be both light AND dark at the same time. That's what makes them so very good!
Declan Casey
I don't have time to tell you all the reasons why you're wrong, but I will say this: HP books always had a lot of funny or light hearted situations. The movies after the first two were serious in tone, the books were not. I always felt good while reading the books. That's why I call them light hearted.
Patryk Żukowski
Um, did you read the story?
I don’t give a FUCK how you felt reading the story. It had token MOMENTS of lightheartedness and dry humor. Selectively attending to those small moments, and acting like they represent the tone of the series, is fucking ridiculous.
It is a drama series. About murder. About death. About sacrificial love. About trauma. About depression. About fascism and bigotry.
The films are LIGHTER than the books. They pare down material 1) because it’s too dense to fully adapt and 2) BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT IT WAS TOO DARK
That’s why they edited out Pettigrew strangling himself, which is in the book, because they thought it would get them an R rating. That’s why they left out the Half Blood Prince end battle. That’s why they spent more time with teen romance in Half Blood Prince than Voldemort’s dark memories, which are barely included in the films! That’s why they changed the Order of the Phoenix quote, in which Harry wills Dumbledore to kill him, “so [he] can see Sirius again”, into some sappy kid-friendly quote about “not understanding love and friendship”.
The books are so much darker than the films, and your denial that the books are dark, and dramatic, is fucking bizarre and not acceptable.
They include injury gore, murder, torture, tragedy, mental breakdowns. You’re trying to tell me that a series about death, that has horror elements galore, that is by definition a drama (not a comedy!), that includes the protagonist torturing an individual, that is derived from Rowling’s experiences with death and depression, that Rowling has repeatedly said is a dark story, and a story that got darker as it went along, and a story that stemmed from dark places, that begins with a double murder and the attempted murder of an infant, that contains a high body, that is hugely about a being who feels he can gain power by killing other people, and that ends with an 18 year old sacrificing himself to death for the sake of his entire community in an echo of the Christ story, you’re trying to tell that despite ALL of this, all Harry Potter should be good for, or was good for to you, is some cheap laughs?
Did you read Harry Potter? Do you know what Harry Potter is about? The films are lighter versions of the books. And they’re still dark. The whole central conceit of the series is that it’s a coming of age series. That it gets darker and more tragic and intense as it wears on. HOW CAN YOU MISS THAT POINT?! What was the murder of Dumbledore, Cedric, Snape, and Sirius to you? HAPPY TIME? What the fuck?
If you have a viscerally negative experience to the tone of the film because “they’re too dark” you need to accept the fact that Harry Potter as a series is too dark for you. Not mischaracterize the text that drastically into something it’s not.
You can’t explain why I’m wrong, because I’m right. As right as I can be about tonal content. It’s a series in which the villains are essentially evil, gothic, supremacist terrorists. What about that is lighthearted? What about murder and death is lighthearted? These are the SEMINAL themes of the series according to Rowling. She has called her own books dark. REPEATEDLY. So she’s wrong about the story she wrote?
“And tears came before he could stop them, boiling hot than instantly freezing on his face, and what was the point in wiping them off or pretending? He let them fall, his lips pressed hard together, looking down at the thick snow hiding from his eyes the place where the last of Lily and James lay, bones now surely, or dust, not knowing or caring that their living son stood so near, alive because of their sacrifice, and close to wishing, at this moment, that he was sleeping under the snow with them”.
That’s a dark, horribly heavy paragraph in which a 17 year old sobs at the foot of his parents graves and wishes he was dead with them.”
I think you need to look yourself in the mirror, or at least pick up a Harry Potter book, and accept the fact that you are so wrong about it.
It’s not lighearted. It’s a dark drama series. Stop being mad that books about death, that contain death, pain, war, and tragedy, were adapted into dark films.
Declan Casey I achieved Catharsis while reading this, good job
i actually really like that colour tone changes it's cool come on
I loved the movie and its use of color I love how dramatic it was, though I do wish in the epilogue they would have digigraded it similarly to the first time harry went on the hogwarts express to show that harry's future is totally bright and optimistic
Filmsparks
Have you heard of Cursed Child?
His future is totally bright and optimistic. Even without CC, it would be foolish to say that
Declan Casey I'm not saying it wasnt bright, but I wish the colors showed it, and I don't count that fanfiction piece of shit as canon!!
It's funny because I had that same feeling of dissonance from the other films of the franchise, but while watching Goblet of Fire. I'll try not to get too theoretical, cause my english isn't very good, but GoF just didn't feel like a Harry Potter film to me, and I think the main reason for this is because it didn't pay much atention to one of the aspects that I most enjoyed in the previous films - and even in some of the later ones: Hogwarts. I loved seeing those kids interacting with that magical world. It felt like I was there with them, exploring each mysterious corridor and discovering the most intriguous secrets. This enviroment got stuck in my imagination as a child. But GoF basically ignores all that to emphasize the triwizard tournament and the teenage romantic dramas. I mean, I get it, the characters are growing and leaving the childish mentality behind, but there was no need to kill the atmosphere stablished in the previous films and, by the way, recovered in Order of the Phoenix, what only reinforces my point.
I never liked the Prisoner of Azkaban movie. Part of it was stylistic whiplash but another part was just how much they changed from the book. Of course the major plot points are still there but everything in between was changed or omitted to such a degree that I couldn't even recognize that this was (at the time) my favorite of the Harry Potter books. In the words of the Dom of Lost in Adaptation, Curion's biggest mistake was to "Try to turn the author's story into his story instead of telling his own story or just telling the author's." I can't confirm this but I heard that Curion didn't even want to read the books before he started filming and had to be convinced by his friend, Gulliemo del Toro. Ok, rant over
Imagine a world where Alfonso slowly transitioned into his dark and extremely cinematic style over a couple movies and then took over completely to finish a cohesive set of movies.
Way better!
You just put my untangle thoughts for Harry Potter saga into words..
Anyone knows where I can find color corrected versions of Harry Potter movies??