#3 - Hollywood Trends
Ok, look. I know I said I was going to keep writing about Harry Potter, and that this should be about Chamber of Secrets , but I really can't be bothered. If you're still curious: the book is great, the movie is fine. Sound familiar? What I had to say about Sorcerer's Stone can pretty easily be applied to any of those books/movies. There's no point in writing the same thing seven times. BUT, that does lead to an interesting discussion about why that is - specifically, why the Harry Potter movies have the problems that they do. My theory (if you'll indulge me) is that they're all reactionary. Let's take a few steps back. Hollywood, for better or worse, has always had a tendency to create and follow their own trends. A movie will come out, make a billion dollars, and then be followed by a dozen films trying to emulate that same success. Sometimes this works, and then Hollywood has two billion-dollar movies. But usually, audiences are privy to what...