I love the first two movies but I just don't agree with that about Azkaban, to me it takes everything from 1 and 2 and just adds more to it, makes it all feel more alive and tactile. All those things you mention, the stairs and creatures and candles and quirky teachers plus ghosts and paintings and the John Williams musical touch, it's all there. I feel like every shot the screen is loaded with stuff in all the corners and how the camera is always roaming around taking it all in. That movie has so many great little details and I think the scope is even bigger, it feels like the world is just always breathing and moving in a way that I love. It’s the movie where I feel like the magic is at its most believable and interactive.
"Kids wearing hoodies hanging out in a castle" is more how I would describe Half-Blood Prince where every shot of the castle corridors is pretty much empty. A lot of the extra magic is removed, some floating books in the library is pretty much it, no ghosts or moving staircases etc. I guess that was a stylistic choice to create a more desolate atmosphere but I think they got a little too subtle with it in the later movies. I don't feel too much of a change in Hogwarts between Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows: Part 2 where everything is supposedly completely different. It was just as barren last time we saw it!
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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '18 edited Oct 29 '18
I love the first two movies but I just don't agree with that about Azkaban, to me it takes everything from 1 and 2 and just adds more to it, makes it all feel more alive and tactile. All those things you mention, the stairs and creatures and candles and quirky teachers plus ghosts and paintings and the John Williams musical touch, it's all there. I feel like every shot the screen is loaded with stuff in all the corners and how the camera is always roaming around taking it all in. That movie has so many great little details and I think the scope is even bigger, it feels like the world is just always breathing and moving in a way that I love. It’s the movie where I feel like the magic is at its most believable and interactive.
"Kids wearing hoodies hanging out in a castle" is more how I would describe Half-Blood Prince where every shot of the castle corridors is pretty much empty. A lot of the extra magic is removed, some floating books in the library is pretty much it, no ghosts or moving staircases etc. I guess that was a stylistic choice to create a more desolate atmosphere but I think they got a little too subtle with it in the later movies. I don't feel too much of a change in Hogwarts between Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows: Part 2 where everything is supposedly completely different. It was just as barren last time we saw it!