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Hands up who dislikes Harry Potter...


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Guest OsRavan

well. to be honest. I thought the first 2 better. they are clearly *kids8 movies not adult movies. but they are good kids movies. the third one was just plain bad. and boring. felt like leaving the theatre

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well. to be honest. I thought the first 2 better. they are clearly *kids8 movies not adult movies. but they are good kids movies. the third one was just plain bad. and boring. felt like leaving the theatre

I agree. Too much was omitted from the book in the third movie.

I enjoy reading J.K. Rowling much in the same way I like ASOIAF. Her writing is very polished, as I never get the sense that she is aspiring for "beautiful" prose at the expense of a flowing, entertaining story. Even though the story is somewhat juvenile, what she does, she does well. I haven't read many authors besides Martin who have the same grasp over what a story should be like.

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mm...six books, zero character development. gaping plot holes. voldemort as a villain? laughable. if Ron and Hermione arnt reconciled, married and have ten kids by the last book I'm chucking it out a window. weird, weird , pointless meandering story lines that end up nowhere. nothing happens. she obviously got in over her head with the series and is now just hastily trying to tie everything up and failing miserably. theres been all this buildup and nothing to show for it.

man if my fanatic HP friends read this they would KILL me. not that the HP fans here now won't.

I'm actually sort of inclined to agree with you on some points. The only character who has had any significant developments is Harry, and that was just from innocent child to angsty teen to resolved hero. Voldemort is not really an interesting character (especially after book 6), I find the 'lesser' villians to be much more interesting: Draco, Bellatrix, Wormtail, Snape (debateable), etc. The Ron and Hermoine relationship is cute, but is getting really, really old. There's a lot of crap I just don't care about: Horcruxes, especially.

However, I love the books. I think they're really fun. I don't expect them to be the next classic book series, I just enjoy them as a better-than-average children's fantasy series. So, uh, I guess my point is, fanatic HP fans can be critical of the series too. ;) Except the scary ones. But as I already mentioned, these people scare me. A lot.

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I liked the first book; thought she created an interesting world, sort of Willy Wonka-ish.

The series has become repetitive. Every book is Harry uncovering a mystery, Harry getting shat on for a few hundred pages, then Harry saving the day. And the Harry/Ron/Hermione sleuthing storylines are just the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew with wizard hats.

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the question is if we dislike the book or thecharacter? ;)

the books are childish but not entirely boring (that means you can read it if its summer and you dont have another book or a todays newspaper) , just saw the first two movies , first was nice , second was utter bullshit.

about Harry himself , i think he is a nice lad ...

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Guest OsRavan

i do have to say being a tutor for kdis who are torubled academicly. i tutor kids who have never read a singel book in their entire lvies.. school assighned or otherwise... except for harry potter. and by the 20th kid who tells yo uthis.. you start to appreciate harry potter more.

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I liked the books for what they were, children/young adult literature. As others stated, entertaining, light reading. I think starting with book 4 she needed to edit the books down to the length of the first 3. There really is a lot of unecessary filler and slow plot points in 4, 5, and 6 for a supposed childrens/young adult book. It was like she thought a long book would earn her more respect in the adult community or something. I agree that they are overhyped, but it's kind of funny how the haters out there get so worked up about it. It's light reading, don't try to hold it to ASOIF standards, for shit sake. Instead, do what Litterally Exagerated hinted at, focus your anger at a real hack out there like Dan Brown. His stuff is supposed to be for adults and gets all kinds of undeserved hype. My wife is a teacher, and we have seen many kids who weren't readers before now reading because of this series. The result is they are now reading more other books as well. This can't be a bad thing.

As far as the movies go, I'm not a huge fan. I think the casting is fine, but the directing and feel of the films come off like made-for-tv movies. I actually thought the 3rd one was the best made and directed of all of them.

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Crow, go find a 'I like HP thread!' :P

Uhh, I don't think anyone here has said adults disliking HP is a bad thing. We're all far too afraid of the wrath of Cerys/Lyanna to say such a thing. So enough with the elitist comments :)

Needle:

My point was directed from this statement by no stranger to valyrian steel:

Love the books, ambivilant about the movies, dislike the rampant commercialization, afraid of most adult fans.

Plus, in the past there have been a number of anti-HP threads on these boards, people getting upset about awards given to the series, etc.

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I find the books moderately interesting. The first was quite enjoyable, the second was pretty bad, the third was okay until the lame ending, the fourth meandered but eventually become okay and the fifth was pretty good (I strictly get them in paperback only though). The films are strictly kids only though. The first was passable but I found the second to be so bad I turned it off about a third of the way through and have no inclination to watch the others.

The best thing about HP is that it gets kids into reading. The bad thing is that it gets them into reading more HP. Try suggesting that they read something else and they react with horror. What REALLY annoys me are the adults like this, people well into their 20s or older who will happily sit down and read HP but react with horror when you point them at something really good like Martin or Vance.

Drives. Me. Nuts.

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Who is Dan Brown???

For myself, I think the HP books are juvenile and dull*. I stated once before that I thought that anyone reading them seriously over the age of 25 was deficient or deluded. However, I got severely chastised by the HP-lovers. However, I still secretly think that. If it makes me elitist, I really don't care.

*Yes, I have read them all. I read them to my son. He is eight, so it is perfectly valid for him to like HP.

I do like the novels for the fact that they are getting the 8-12 year old set to enjoy long series; so they are valuable in that regard.

Dan Brown is the author of The Da Vinci Code, and its' predecessor, Angels and Demons

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As far as movies go they are standard entertaining kids fair nowhere near goonies or back to the future but perhaps the golden age of family films is over.

As books predictable, poorly characterised dogswill. Fantasy 4 the lowest common denominator if they were described as kids books I could accept it but this mass potter love is ridiculous 'ooh its sooo good' go the classics section in your library and read a real book. Potter is of no significance true it could be viewed as enjoyable to some but it is of little worth it will only probably encourage 2 dozen hacks to right parodies for the next twenty years. I like to read books not marketing machines by some menopausal maniac.

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As far as movies go they are standard entertaining kids fair nowhere near goonies or back to the future but perhaps the golden age of family films is over.

As books predictable, poorly characterised dogswill. Fantasy 4 the lowest common denominator if they were described as kids books I could accept it but this mass potter love is ridiculous 'ooh its sooo good' go the classics section in your library and read a real book. Potter is of no significance true it could be viewed as enjoyable to some but it is of little worth it will only probably encourage 2 dozen hacks to right parodies for the next twenty years. I like to read books not marketing machines by some menopausal maniac.

...

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I thought the third movie was much better than the other two, as it trimmed a lot of the subplots from the book and pretty much stuck with the main storyline.

My main complaint with the books is that very issue (too many meandering subplots that go nowhere, like the whole house elves freedom movement thing), especially starting with the fourth book.

My kids love them, and have read them many times. I've read through them once or twice, can pretty much take them or leave them (though I do enjoy the gray character of Snape) -- but I greatly appreciate them for the simple fact that these books do greatly appeal to children, and it does get them reading -- and that's a wonderful thing! :)

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