TV Retrospective: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes season 1 episodes 16-20 review

Guilty Pleasures #18 - Harry Potter Month: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2

In my Death Note review I posed the question "what makes a good adaptation?" I never really answered the question, the answer is different for every person. My personal opinion is that it must capture the tone and feel of the source material and contain just enough of the plot to satisfy any future stories, whilst telling a complete story in its own right (it should never be a requirement to read a book or watch a series to understand a movie). It cannot be an exact copy of the source material. With a book, you can be content reading it for hours, maybe even days, that’s not the case with a movie, where 3 hours is pretty much the limit and even then it has to be a special movie that can last that long.

The Last Airbender is a terrible adaptation above all because it fails to capture the tone and feel of the source material. It’s a terrible movie for its cr*ppy pacing, constant exposition, lack of character, nonsensical plot elements etc. Death Note fails to me to capture the feel of its source because it fails to capture Light in the manor it was hoping to thanks to its ending plot-twists. I realise some of these are subjective but we’re here to talk about the Deathly Hallows part 2.

The later Harry Potter stories have in some ways struggled with my criteria because filming started prior to the book series being finished (filming for the Philosopher’s Stone began in 2000, the final book didn’t come out until 2007) plot points that become relevant later are often left out. Prime example is Bill Weasley whose appearance in part 1 was rather out of nowhere.

Made with whatever was left of the $250million after the first part was done (they were filmed concurrently) this film broke box office records, breaking $1bn at the box office, the highest of any Harry Potter movie and why wouldn’t it? The series has always been a strong performer at the box office and naturally people would flock to see the final instalment in this very long-running franchise. But does that mean it’s any good? Well, let’s dive in. 

For this review, I will be drawing comparisons to the book but I stand by my opinion that a movie should stand or fall on its own merits as well.

Harry Potter Month - Mini Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1

We’re coming down to the end now as we have the penultimate entry to Harry Potter Month and the last of the mini reviews. I suppose before we start I should make my opinions clear on the subject of splitting stories over multiple movies. I think for this film it was necessary. Unlike previous books, where it was easy to cut things out, this book was fairly linear in its structure, that meaning that most if not all of the story was focused on a single plot-line rather than having sub-plots that could be cut out of a movie. I however don’t see necessity of it for every novel adaptation. I have not read or watched the Hobbit but I struggle to believe a 300 page novel needs 3 movies to tell the entire story. As for the latest superhero movies that are up to this, I’ll reserve my judgement until I’ve seen them.

But back to the movie itself, this and part 2 were given a joint budget (they were shot back to back) of $250m, the movie went onto make $960.3m at the box office, the second highest of any Harry Potter movie. It was reasonably well accepted critically earning 78% rotten tomatoes and 65 on metacritic. But let’s dive in

TV Retrospective: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Season 1 episodes 11-15

Harry Potter Month - Mini Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

We’re counting down to the end, those of you waiting for a long review of a Harry Potter movie need wait only a little longer, but first we need to look at a lie I might’ve told. Last time I said that the Order of the Phoenix was my least favourite of the Harry Potter movies, that might’ve been true when I was younger but looking at it now, I see this as a contender, for reasons I’ll explain momentarily.

By far this is the movie with the biggest budget, $250m was given, it made $934.4m at the box office, a marginal improvement over the last one. Critically successful, it holds 84% on rotten tomatoes and 78 average on metacritic but let’s dive into my own opinions

Harry Potter Month - Mini Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Political changes are a particularly difficult thing to write about when writing a children’s story. All too often it’s the case of portraying one side as the heroes whilst the others the villains, like Amon and Kuvira in Korra. Suffice it to say this is my least favourite of the Harry Potter books, not to say it was bad, but I’ll explain what I mean in the review.

David Yates steps into the director’s chair for this film, he’ll be the director of all the remaining Harry Potter movies. And the daunting trial for this movie is that it’s the longest book of the series, ironically converted into the shortest movie (counting the 2 deathly hallows movies as one anyway)

Movie made $939.9m on a $150m budget, but appraisal was a tad more mixed with a 71% on rotten tomatoes.

TV Retrospective: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Season 1 episode 6-10

Harry Potter Month - Mini Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

So, we’ve made it to the fourth film, the first one to get a 12 (the UK equivalent of a PG-13 rating) in the UK. Why the change now? Partly it’s because of much darker content that more-or-less begins with this movie. Partly, and I’m only theorising here, is the introduction of a law in the UK that changed the 12 rating in cinemas to 12A, allowing children under the age of 12 to see such movies, providing they’re accompanied by an adult.

But that’s politics, we also have our third new director, Mike Newell after the director of the third movie Alfonso Cuarón denied stepping up for another movie. The movie was given a $150m budget and its performance was an improvement over the third, $896.9m earned in the box office. Critics enjoyed the movie, 88% rotten tomatoes rating and 81 on metacritic, for all that matters, it’s time to give my view.

Harry Potter Month - Mini Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Chris Columbus steps down as director and there are some significant changes in style as a result, most of which stick throughout the remaining films. Obviously the death of Richard Harris resulted in a recast for Dumbledore. Sir Michael Gambon took the role.

It was produced with a $130m budget and made $796.7m at the box office, which, whilst still successful, is the least of any Harry Potter movie. I’ll suggest a possible reason for the boost when I do the review for the next film, but let’s take a look at this one first.

Harry Potter Month - Mini Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

So we come to the second adaptation of a JK Rowling Novel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. 

Interestingly this movie only had a $100m budget as opposed to the $125m for the first one, the film made $879m, an admirable performance but still below that of the first one.

Critical response was also positive, 83% on Rotten Tomatoes although only 63/100 on metacritic, the least of any Harry Potter Movie. But I’m not here to judge on other’s opinions, I’m here to give my own, so let’s dive in.

Harry Potter Month - Mini Review: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

It’s Harry Potter Month. 

Where I do mini reviews of all but one of the Harry Potter because like hell am I doing long reviews of movies that are within the realms of 2 and a half hours long. In fact, I’m only really doing a long review of half a movie… OK, I’m going off a bit here but let’s just say that the Harry Potter films do question the myth that children have short attention spans.

So where better to start than the first movie: Harry Potter and the Philsopher’s (or if you’re in America Sorcerer’s because... I really don’t care, the books were written by J K Rowling in England, it’s Philosopher’s) Stone.

Released in 2001 the movie was given a $125m budget and naturally was a success, grossing $987m in the box office, the second highest of any of the Harry Potter movies.

Just a final note before I begin, I haven’t reread the books for the purposes of these reviews, I’m judging the film on its own merits, not as an adaptation (although for some intent, I will reference areas of the book that I remember)

Batman: Arkham Knight Review

I've spent quite a considerable portion of the last two weeks playing this game and have managed the following

1. 100% of main game
2. 100% of new game +
3. 100% Red Hood Pack
4. 100% Harley Quinn pack
5. 9/9 stars Scarecrow Nightmare missions

To do a review justice, I will have to talk spoilers eventually. But I'll discuss gameplay first for those who don't want spoilers for the full game

TV Retrospective: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Season 1 episodes 1-5

With Avengers: Age of Ultron having come out only a few months back, it’s time I think to look at the Avengers cartoon

NO NOT THAT PIECE OF SH*T (Season 2 review coming when season 2 is done)

No, for this retrospective we’ll be looking at the full and complete run of Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

Because of the long season lengths and the fact that I have other shows I want to do retrospectives on I will do each series in 5 parts (so 10 overall) so let’s dive into the first 5 episodes of the series.