I’m bummed about that. He writes Hermione as strident, not bossy. And poor Ron…please don’t turn him back into a dope! Let him be funny and brave!
OotP was hands down the best so far. A great director can only work with what (s)he’s given. I wasn’t paying attention to the movie hype (I think there was something else going on…dh?) ;) so when I saw the movie I was floored at the difference. I remember coming out of the theatre saying “Who was behind this?” Editing, pacing, acting… all important stuff.. but you can only polish a turd so much.
DESTINATION (eerie cave with greenly-lit central island, somewhere on a wild coast), DETERMINATION, DELIBERATION. ACCIO KLOVES! ACCIO GAMBON! ACCIO LITTLE BOAT! LEVICORPUS KLOVES AND GAMBON, MOBILICORPUS TO BOAT! ZOOMICUS BOAT TO ISLAND! Hey Michael, Steve – how’s the water? Just stick a hand in and let me know, why don’t ya… IMPERIO! STICK YOUR HAND IN THE WATER, CHAPS!
mad, bellatrix-like cackle!!!!
@Danielle: First of all you make me sick. I think you’re just saying stuff to piss people off on purpose, because i just watch OOTP again yesterday and that scene after the kiss with Cho is still as funny as it was the first time I saw it and since you clearly have problems understanding perfectly clear British dialect i will translate the scene for you:
Ron: So how was it? Harry: Wet…she was sort of crying. Ron: That bad at it are you? starts to laugh. Hermione: I’m sure Harry’s kissing was more than satisfactory…Cho spends half her time crying these days. Ron: You’d think a bit of snogging would cheer her up. Hermione: Don’t you understand how she must be feeling? ron and harry exchange confused looks Hermione: Well obviously, she’s feeling sad about Cedric and therefore confused about liking Harry and guilty about kissing him…conflicted because Umbridge is threatening to sack her mum from the ministry and frightened of failing her OWLs because she’s so busy worrying about everything else. Ron: One person couldn’t feel all that…they’d explode. Hermione: Just because you’ve got the emotional range of a teaspoon.
There now you what they’re saying. happy now? That scene just like the whole movie is great and all of their acting is excellent. I hope you’re not expecting them to be George Clooney or Julia Roberts because if they were that good then I think it would take away from the whole realness of the friendship. Whatever flaws they do have makes the characters they play more real and therefore more relateable and likeable. So I love them and I think they all are perfect.
@Andrea: Okay i didn’t understand that whole turd thing at all, but i do agree with on you on how good movie 5 is. it’s hard for me to pick a favorite because i love all the movies, but number 3 and 5 are definitely at the top of my list.
I think i need to watch the movies again because i dont see what you guys mean about hermione taking over ron’s shine. if anything, i thought the first 4 movies were really close to the books. Wait except the 3rd movie. Can you give me an example of when Hermione took over Ron’s shine?
Guys, what is this “Ron-hater” business? The fact is, in the action-oriented scenes of the Harry Potter books, Ron has never done much. He’s there for the dialogue (basically bickering with Hermione and being Harry’s friend, and coming up with laughably stupid theories), not the action.
But he had his chess scene in PS/SS. Did Kloves choose to petrify Ron and keep Hermione in COS? No. That was the book where Ron got more “screen time” if you will. Then JKR put Ron out of action during the time-turner scene of POA, so Hermione got that lost time back, Ron had gotten his time to shine in COS, now it was Hermione’s turn in POA. And this is where the problem seems to lie: it feels like people are crucifying Kloves because he’s given a couple of Ron’s lines to Hermione. Need I point out that Ron was moaning on a bed with a broken leg while said lines were being delivered. Well, guess what, POA was Hermione’s book, and Hermione’s film. It was her catch up if you will, since she was out of action at the end of COS. Then on to GOF where Hermione and Ron are balanced again. Actually, they were a lot more equal in GOF than they were in OOTP, Hermione got considerably more dialogue and a lot more action in the OOTP screenplay.
And what’s this Kloves is a Harry/Hermione shipper rubbish? There was a massive amount of Ron/Hermione foreshadowing in GOF and even more in POA (they held hands!) and Kloves wrote for both of them.
Goldenberg was the rubbish one, no wonder he didn’t come back (probably wasn’t asked based. Order of the Phoenix was a horribly paced film with horrible characterisation. It’s a wonder Harry managed to expel Voldemort. The scene with Hermione laughing was about the only scene in the whole movie in which anyone laughed. I hate how they wanted the movie to be dark for the sake of being dark. Yes, Voldemort’s back. Umbridge has taken over Hogwarts. That doesn’t mean every ounce of happiness has been sucked out of the world, and I hardly felt any of OOTP’s light in the film, all I saw was the darkness.
I think Kloves has done perfectly fine. So Hermione got some of Ron’s lines in POA. Big deal. Grow up. Get over it. Hermione is a more important character in the films, she actually does impressive magic and has greater knowledge and insight which is more important in a visual representation, when the various sideplots involving Ron being jealous, stupid or pigheaded are removed.
MattyJM, POA was not hermione’s book. It was Harry’s. All of them are.
As for Ron, he actually was there alot more than for the dialogue. I suppose I should mention the Shrieking Shack, it was Ron that stood up to Sirius, while injured, and stated that he would have to kill them (Hermione and him) to get to Harry. And in the book it was never cowardly.
In OOTP book, Ron was referenced several times to have participated in battles and to have done quite well. He was not cowardly.
Ron is a flawed character, like all the characters in these novels. But to sugest that Ron is really just “jealous, stupid or pigheaded” does not match the books. (IMO)
Ron is an interesting character too a great many of us.
Just because the filmmakers don’t, in some people’s opinion, have the skill or inclination to make films that are somewhat more complex than typical Lead Hero + Lead Female + Stupid sidekick does not mean that we shouldn’t voice concern or disappointment or that our opinions our invalid or that we should “get over it”. Perhaps you should “grow up” and accept that other people have valid opinions.
Kelly: I think you need to reread the books and rewatch the movies with an objective eye before you proclaim yourself and Violet Baudelaire as “winners” like a child. What exactly did MattyM say that was innaccurate? I am with some of the other fans who have commented that Ron’s character has not been as abused by the filmmakers as some would have us believe. To be upfront, I adore Ron as a character, particularly because he is flawed. I sometimes feel, that the perception that Ron is misrepresented in the movies is more a result of the lack of equal attention that Rupert Grint receives in the media compared to Emma and Dan. Why can’t some fans just accept Ron for who he is and wait patiently for him to come into his own in the time frame that Jo herself has designed, instead of pressuring and criticising the filmmakers.
J: Exactly. The movies fall into cliche with the main trio and mold them to fit that stereotype and we should definitely be able to voice our discontent over that. There does not need to be a female character that is superfab and a stupid goofy sidekick to tell a good story. No, it really is not okay for Hermione to be more important in the movies. She’s not in the books. It’s not that all of Ron’s subplots need to be there (not all of Hermione’s are either), it’s that he needs to act like himself in the ones that are there. There’s no reason they couldn’t balance the trio equally even with having to cut some subplots here and there. And indeed Hermione was more involved at the end of PoA in bookverse as Ron was in CoS but they certainly super-sized her part there in the movie, completely (which they did not do with Ron at all). As for Ron and Hermione’s role being equal in GoF? Um…
Hermione is not that active in battle situations really. She’s not much more active than Ron at all (who should be noted, ended up helping in “revolutionizing” the auror department in Rowling’s version). And to the commenter that insinuated that Ron left in DH because he was cowardly (therefore matching movie Ron), I think you need to reevaluate the text. Ron leaving certainly displayed he was far from perfect and needed to complete his character maturation, but it was not due to cowardice at all.
GingerLibby: I agreed with Violet’s comment (rather excitedly, I admit) and disagreed and Marty’s snark about Ron’s subplots being about being pigheaded and stupid. I think that if that’s all you think of Ron’s subplots, you do need to reread the books closer (ergo the comments about Hermione being more important in battle). That’s childish?
On the last paragraph- if the complaints about Ron's characterization in the movies started after DH then I might agree with you. However, the problem has been present for years and years longer than that. It's not as if fans are looking back from DH and saying "that's not Ron" because they now have the knowledge of the person he ends up being. They are saying he's not Ron because they're comparing the source material from when Ron was the same age he is in whichever particular movie.I sometimes feel, that the perception that Ron is misrepresented in the movies is more a result of the lack of equal attention that Rupert Grint receives in the media compared to Emma and Dan.
I sort of agree with this and sort of not. I feel like the trio was pretty evenly represented in media through CoS. However, PoA changed that. I blame the PoA movie for kicking it off and the media for perpetuating it and keeping it going- thus making the moviemakers think that is what is wanted.
J: As someone who truly wants to understand others’ points of view, as my own could be misguided or biased and I freely admit this, please provide me with some examples as to when the films portrayed Ron as stupid beyond what the books have depicted. Also, let’s all be realistic here. Ron spends a great deal of time in the books feeling inadequate. How are we supposed to understand his feelings of insecurity and low self-esteem if the filmmakers don’t set it up properly. He is ashamed of his lack of money, he doesn’t do well in his classes all the time, he is a nervous wreck before Quidditch, and Jo herself says he doesn’t really mature until DH. Also, what exactly is wrong with being someone’s sidekick? Frodo had Sam, Hamlet has Horatio—these characters are beloved not because of the amount of screentime or awesome lines that they have, but the friendship and support they offer the hero. Those of us who aren’t preoccupied with the films’ seeming misrepresentation of Ron that viewers like you see, still see the Ron that we love for who he is in the movies. All of this being said, I do admit that the line exchange in PoA was unfortunate, but I’m not sure if that one moment has destroyed film Ron just as much as I don’t think that the angry Dumbledore in GoF has destroyed Dumbledore’s character in the movies. These are singular scenes, please try to be objective and look at these films as a whole.
I just wanted to reiterate something I said in a previous post:
“Ron is not always brave hero Ron. In DH, he leaves Harry and Hermione because he is having second thoughts. He’s not perfect and I like him that way. Nevertheless, Ron does stand up for his friends in POA. He tells off Malfoy more than once and he tells his friends to run from the Grim and to run away from Sirius Black even though he would be left behind.”
He also fights with Harry in GOF yet still provides him with the help he needs to prepare for the first task. He feels insecure throughout this book/film because of Harry’s fame and fortune as well as Hermione being with a famous Quidditch player. He nervously answers Moody’s questions about the Imperius curse, but so do Hermione and Neville. In OOTP, Ron clearly stands up for Harry on several occasions. In other words, the films have given us a gradual development of Ron’s loyalty and courage.
Can someone please tell me all of the chivalrous moments of glory that have been maliciously removed? Other than one or two lines per film because if Ron’s courage is dependent on a couple of lines than I don’t think it stands out as a particularly strong character trait until the later books and the yet to be released final films.
Awwww, I really liked Michael Goldenberg’s work on OotP. But whoever writes the script, I hope the strike ends soon so we can get to it.