March 24, 2011 at 2:00 pm
I'm also not a fan of the Harry Potter books. The movie seemed like a study in ADD, nothing was really connected to anything else and the quidditch or whatever it is called really annoyed me.
And let us not forget the author:
Rowling is perhaps equally famous for her "rags to riches" life story, in which she progressed from living on benefits to multi-millionaire status within five years. As of March 2010, when its latest world billionaires list was published, Forbes estimated Rowling's net worth to be US$1 billion.[7] The 2008 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling's fortune at £560 million ($798 million), ranking her as the twelfth richest woman in Great Britain.[
March 24, 2011 at 2:05 pm
Stefan Krzywicki (3/24/2011)
I'm also not a fan of the Harry Potter books. The movie seemed like a study in ADD, nothing was really connected to anything else and the quidditch or whatever it is called really annoyed me.
Books 1-4 I loved (4 is my favourite), 5 I struggled through, 6 I put down half way through and never picked it up again.
The first couple movies were OK (not great), but when the story got more complex (book 4), the movies didn't keep up. Too much focus on non-important stuff (flying around in bright coloured stuff) and too little on what was actually happening.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
March 24, 2011 at 2:05 pm
bitbucket-25253 (3/24/2011)
I'm also not a fan of the Harry Potter books. The movie seemed like a study in ADD, nothing was really connected to anything else and the quidditch or whatever it is called really annoyed me.
And let us not forget the author:
Rowling is perhaps equally famous for her "rags to riches" life story, in which she progressed from living on benefits to multi-millionaire status within five years. As of March 2010, when its latest world billionaires list was published, Forbes estimated Rowling's net worth to be US$1 billion.[7] The 2008 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling's fortune at £560 million ($798 million), ranking her as the twelfth richest woman in Great Britain.[
I'm not sure what you're saying about her here, but she does annoy me because she keeps insisting she doesn't write Fantasy. That and her actions against fans that have put out materials about her series.
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When you encounter a problem, if the solution isn't readily evident go back to the start and check your assumptions.
--------------------------------------
It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
You ask a glass of water. -- Douglas Adams
March 24, 2011 at 2:17 pm
jcrawf02 (3/24/2011)
Stefan Krzywicki (3/24/2011)
GSquared (3/24/2011)
Kiara (3/24/2011)
Kit G (3/24/2011)
"Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" is one of my favorites. Try out "Citizen of the Galaxy" too. These books hooked me on Heinlein. While I really like "Starship Troopers", it has a bit more of a politcal orientation than an adventure one. Probably easier to hook him onto the book with adventure ones. "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" is also became one of my favorites. Although, I do not have any kind words for his later stuff ("The Number of the Beast", "The Cat Who Walked Through Walls"), but "Friday" was decent. I like Heinlein's classic stuff.The movie "Starship Troopers" was almost as bad as "Dune - the movie based on a title by Frank Herbert" the one that starred Sting. That movie is at the top of my list of absolutely horrible translations from book to movie. (Yes, I really loathe that movie. :-P) "Starship Troopers" was bad, but not as bad as "Dune."
Agreed - my real love affair with Starship Troopers started in college, not prior - for exactly that reason.
The Sting Dune movie? You *had* to bring that up? *shudder*
I didn't actually walk out of the theater, but I came close...
Then again, the only movie I've actually ever walked out on was a horrid comic book adaption of Red Sonja many, many years ago. I occasionally debate trying to find a copy of it and holding a "worst movie EVAH" night... I'm just not sure I want to survive some of the selections my friends would bring...
I did walk out of a showing of Dune. Left the rest of my family sitting in the livingroom, wondering where I'd gone off to... Yeah, I disliked it that much.
A friend of mine walked out of Star Wars Episode One right after the pod race scene. His wife had walked out earlier, she said she was going to the bathroom. He found her sitting in the lobby, reading.
I should have walked out of the first Harry Potter movie, but I didn't 'cause I was with friends and didn't have a book. They probably would have prefered if I had.
After the pod race scene? So...he didn't miss anything then?
And what was so bad about Harry? I thought they did a pretty good job with those, can't wait to see the last. (healthy dose of Movie as Art != Book as Art required, but still)
I read the first Harry Potter book, tried to read the second, couldn't get into it.
The stories are centered around a celebrity jock who inherits a fortune from his famous, well-connected parents, and who is thus allowed to break the rules of the school because the headmaster will let him get away with anything. Meanwhile, he's being propped up by a girl who gets no respect despite hard work towards mastery of a difficult subject, without whom Harry would be dead in the first book. Who ends up as being the school hero? The person who did the hard work? Nope. The popular jock with connections and inherited wealth. I dislike the message from that. And it didn't get any better in the first half/third of the second book, so I gave up on them.
The writing is formulaic. The prose unimaginative. The pacing was poor. The characters are carboard cutouts. The message is abysmally bad. And there's nothing anywhere approaching originality in any of it.
I recommend the Redwall Abbey books to parents of kids in the age group Potter is aimed at. Better writing, better stories, better characters, etc.
On the other hand, as a study in marketing, Harry Potter is fascinating. I still love marketing and the science/art of it. Those books (and movies) were put in the middle of an absolute masterpiece in that regard. Proved that well-marketed junk can create fortunes, and I loved seeing the techniques used for that.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
March 24, 2011 at 2:19 pm
Stefan Krzywicki (3/24/2011)
GSquared (3/24/2011)
Craig Farrell (3/24/2011)
GSquared (3/24/2011)
Nah, check the interviews on http://thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.com/2010/09/paul-verhoeven-starship-troopers.html, and so on. Definitely wasn't done that way. Also, the DNA from the book is in every frame of the movie. He skipped the power-armor, but the rest is too closely related to not be a direct descendant. That doesn't make the movie good (though I loved Dina Meyer in it, but I just plain love her as an actress [heck, I loved her in Johny Mnemonic, and that movie SUCKED far worse than this one even]), but it does make it "based on the book".Hey now, Johnny Mnemonic was an awesome movie... if you played Shadowrun. It had as much technical accuracy as 'Hackers', but hey, campy crap is fun too. 🙂
It never did anything but pick on itself. I mean, c'mon, a dolphin doing hack jobs?! That's pure fun!
I played Shadowrun for years. Still disliked JM. Might have been more to do with Keanu "I will one day try to have a facial expression" Reeves than the dolphin, in my case.
Hey, Keanu had facial expressions in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. I think the problem is that that's the only character he can play. In later movies they told him they were "serious" roles, so he tried to look serious and to him that means no facial expressions.
And the funny part is, he hates that he was in that movie. Says he has nightmares that his headstone will say, "He played Ted".
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
March 24, 2011 at 2:26 pm
GSquared (3/24/2011)
jcrawf02 (3/24/2011)
Stefan Krzywicki (3/24/2011)
A friend of mine walked out of Star Wars Episode One right after the pod race scene. His wife had walked out earlier, she said she was going to the bathroom. He found her sitting in the lobby, reading.I should have walked out of the first Harry Potter movie, but I didn't 'cause I was with friends and didn't have a book. They probably would have prefered if I had.
After the pod race scene? So...he didn't miss anything then?
And what was so bad about Harry? I thought they did a pretty good job with those, can't wait to see the last. (healthy dose of Movie as Art != Book as Art required, but still)
I read the first Harry Potter book, tried to read the second, couldn't get into it.
The stories are centered around a celebrity jock who inherits a fortune from his famous, well-connected parents, and who is thus allowed to break the rules of the school because the headmaster will let him get away with anything. Meanwhile, he's being propped up by a girl who gets no respect despite hard work towards mastery of a difficult subject, without whom Harry would be dead in the first book. Who ends up as being the school hero? The person who did the hard work? Nope. The popular jock with connections and inherited wealth. I dislike the message from that. And it didn't get any better in the first half/third of the second book, so I gave up on them.
The writing is formulaic. The prose unimaginative. The pacing was poor. The characters are carboard cutouts. The message is abysmally bad. And there's nothing anywhere approaching originality in any of it.
I recommend the Redwall Abbey books to parents of kids in the age group Potter is aimed at. Better writing, better stories, better characters, etc.
On the other hand, as a study in marketing, Harry Potter is fascinating. I still love marketing and the science/art of it. Those books (and movies) were put in the middle of an absolute masterpiece in that regard. Proved that well-marketed junk can create fortunes, and I loved seeing the techniques used for that.
Since we were also talking about comics earlier, there's a Vertigo series I've been reading, it's been running for awhile now, called Unwritten. It uses the idea of a Harry Potter-like series as its background, but "Harry" from the books is based on the author's son. The story itself is fairly interesting and is an interesting play on fantasy tropes and the Harry Potter series itself. What I like most about the series though is that it is using this adventure story and the Harry Potter phenomenon to explore literary criticism, symbolism, how repeated imagery in literature is linked and how all literature is grounded in the author and in the time and place it was written.
There are TP collections of the beginning of the series now, in case anyone wants to check it out. Some libraries carry it too.
--------------------------------------
When you encounter a problem, if the solution isn't readily evident go back to the start and check your assumptions.
--------------------------------------
It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
You ask a glass of water. -- Douglas Adams
March 24, 2011 at 2:27 pm
GSquared (3/24/2011)
Stefan Krzywicki (3/24/2011)
Hey, Keanu had facial expressions in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. I think the problem is that that's the only character he can play. In later movies they told him they were "serious" roles, so he tried to look serious and to him that means no facial expressions.And the funny part is, he hates that he was in that movie. Says he has nightmares that his headstone will say, "He played Ted".
Ha! That was his best movie!
I suppose no actor, artist, writer or musician wants their earliest works to be their best.
--------------------------------------
When you encounter a problem, if the solution isn't readily evident go back to the start and check your assumptions.
--------------------------------------
It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
You ask a glass of water. -- Douglas Adams
March 24, 2011 at 2:37 pm
Stefan Krzywicki (3/24/2011)
GSquared (3/24/2011)
Stefan Krzywicki (3/24/2011)
Hey, Keanu had facial expressions in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. I think the problem is that that's the only character he can play. In later movies they told him they were "serious" roles, so he tried to look serious and to him that means no facial expressions.And the funny part is, he hates that he was in that movie. Says he has nightmares that his headstone will say, "He played Ted".
Ha! That was his best movie!
I suppose no actor, artist, writer or musician wants their earliest works to be their best.
I would vote for The Matrix on that one. 'First time that I know of where the mind/body problem is brought to life in a movie. (It was used in an old Twilight Zone episode, but it was only in theory and subtle.)
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. - Stephen Hawking
March 24, 2011 at 2:52 pm
GilaMonster (3/24/2011)
Stefan Krzywicki (3/24/2011)
I'm also not a fan of the Harry Potter books. The movie seemed like a study in ADD, nothing was really connected to anything else and the quidditch or whatever it is called really annoyed me.Books 1-4 I loved (4 is my favourite), 5 I struggled through, 6 I put down half way through and never picked it up again.
The first couple movies were OK (not great), but when the story got more complex (book 4), the movies didn't keep up. Too much focus on non-important stuff (flying around in bright coloured stuff) and too little on what was actually happening.
You should skip ahead in 6 and read the end, it's really pretty interesting how she wrapped it up. the whole "we're wandering around and can't figure out what to do while Ron acts like a wanker" section took WAY too long, but it's pretty good once it's done.
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March 24, 2011 at 2:58 pm
GSquared (3/24/2011)
I read the first Harry Potter book, tried to read the second, couldn't get into it.The stories are centered around a celebrity jock who inherits a fortune from his famous, well-connected parents, and who is thus allowed to break the rules of the school because the headmaster will let him get away with anything. Meanwhile, he's being propped up by a girl who gets no respect despite hard work towards mastery of a difficult subject, without whom Harry would be dead in the first book. Who ends up as being the school hero? The person who did the hard work? Nope. The popular jock with connections and inherited wealth. I dislike the message from that. And it didn't get any better in the first half/third of the second book, so I gave up on them.
The writing is formulaic. The prose unimaginative. The pacing was poor. The characters are carboard cutouts. The message is abysmally bad. And there's nothing anywhere approaching originality in any of it.
I recommend the Redwall Abbey books to parents of kids in the age group Potter is aimed at. Better writing, better stories, better characters, etc.
On the other hand, as a study in marketing, Harry Potter is fascinating. I still love marketing and the science/art of it. Those books (and movies) were put in the middle of an absolute masterpiece in that regard. Proved that well-marketed junk can create fortunes, and I loved seeing the techniques used for that.
Won't disagree that Redwall is MUCH better writing, but think HP is a fun read, and well tuned to a kid who would grow up reading them, transitioning from kids books to adult themes as the series progresses.
I'll give you the jock part, although that never really hit me that way, but I think the real message in the series is that Harry is NOT a superstar, he really doesn't know what the hell he's doing, and without the help or influence of others, he never would have been famous, (Voldemort decided which child was the prophecied one and made Harry who he was by killing his mother) never would have achieved what he needed to (Ron and Hermione (and Dumbledore) help him pass just about every obstacle everywhere, excepting dumb luck), and in the end, THAT is the message he's been trying to communicate to everyone, and what differentiates him from the evil he's fighting. Crowdsource FTW 😉
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How best to post your question[/url]
How to post performance problems[/url]
Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]
"stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."
March 24, 2011 at 3:01 pm
mtillman-921105 (3/24/2011)
Stefan Krzywicki (3/24/2011)
GSquared (3/24/2011)
Stefan Krzywicki (3/24/2011)
Hey, Keanu had facial expressions in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. I think the problem is that that's the only character he can play. In later movies they told him they were "serious" roles, so he tried to look serious and to him that means no facial expressions.And the funny part is, he hates that he was in that movie. Says he has nightmares that his headstone will say, "He played Ted".
Ha! That was his best movie!
I suppose no actor, artist, writer or musician wants their earliest works to be their best.
I would vote for The Matrix on that one. 'First time that I know of where the mind/body problem is brought to life in a movie. (It was used in an old Twilight Zone episode, but it was only in theory and subtle.)
You mean the first one, right? Or maybe two? I got goose-bumps at the end of the second, thinking they were going to add another layer of control to everything, and the possibilities that could unfold, and then they laid that third piece of crap on us, and now it's just hard for me to watch in general.
and on a related but unrelated point for the Matrix/Star Wars: http://www.thedoghousediaries.com/?p=2639
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How best to post your question[/url]
How to post performance problems[/url]
Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]
"stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."
March 24, 2011 at 3:06 pm
jcrawf02 (3/24/2011)
GilaMonster (3/24/2011)
The first couple movies were OK (not great), but when the story got more complex (book 4), the movies didn't keep up. Too much focus on non-important stuff (flying around in bright coloured stuff) and too little on what was actually happening.You should skip ahead in 6 and read the end, it's really pretty interesting how she wrapped it up. the whole "we're wandering around and can't figure out what to do while Ron acts like a wanker" section took WAY too long, but it's pretty good once it's done.
No thanks.
By half way through I was wanting to bash half the main characters' heads against the dungeon wall. Repeatedly.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
March 24, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Side note: I use max posts per page... and we've hit 500 pages. 🙂
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
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March 24, 2011 at 3:21 pm
jcrawf02 (3/24/2011)
mtillman-921105 (3/24/2011)
Stefan Krzywicki (3/24/2011)
GSquared (3/24/2011)
Stefan Krzywicki (3/24/2011)
Hey, Keanu had facial expressions in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. I think the problem is that that's the only character he can play. In later movies they told him they were "serious" roles, so he tried to look serious and to him that means no facial expressions.And the funny part is, he hates that he was in that movie. Says he has nightmares that his headstone will say, "He played Ted".
Ha! That was his best movie!
I suppose no actor, artist, writer or musician wants their earliest works to be their best.
I would vote for The Matrix on that one. 'First time that I know of where the mind/body problem is brought to life in a movie. (It was used in an old Twilight Zone episode, but it was only in theory and subtle.)
You mean the first one, right? Or maybe two? I got goose-bumps at the end of the second, thinking they were going to add another layer of control to everything, and the possibilities that could unfold, and then they laid that third piece of crap on us, and now it's just hard for me to watch in general.
and on a related but unrelated point for the Matrix/Star Wars: http://www.thedoghousediaries.com/?p=2639
Yes, the first one was great. After that, it lost my interest.
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. - Stephen Hawking
March 24, 2011 at 3:40 pm
jcrawf02 (3/24/2011)
GilaMonster (3/24/2011)
Stefan Krzywicki (3/24/2011)
I'm also not a fan of the Harry Potter books. The movie seemed like a study in ADD, nothing was really connected to anything else and the quidditch or whatever it is called really annoyed me.Books 1-4 I loved (4 is my favourite), 5 I struggled through, 6 I put down half way through and never picked it up again.
The first couple movies were OK (not great), but when the story got more complex (book 4), the movies didn't keep up. Too much focus on non-important stuff (flying around in bright coloured stuff) and too little on what was actually happening.
You should skip ahead in 6 and read the end, it's really pretty interesting how she wrapped it up. the whole "we're wandering around and can't figure out what to do while Ron acts like a wanker" section took WAY too long, but it's pretty good once it's done.
Wasn't that book 7 that you are referring to?
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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