Harry Potter 3

[A_Sapp]

Got to see HP 3 today - totally rocked! A new director makes a huge difference and really freshened up the series - my favorite of the 3 so far. I also think this is Williams best score out of the three as well - freakin' genius!

[Bernard Asselin]

I'll see it tomorrow, can't wait!

[One Track Music]

Just saw it. I totally agree. Listen for the flute during the bird flight. So much more subtlety in this score.

[bouche]

yes it had wonderful moments, but the medieval bits were a suprise... still not sure about them. harpsichords??? recorders?? sounded a little like Blackadder!!!

The movie though - finally a convincing HP flick! Cuaron is very talented

[T Parks]

still not sure about them. harpsichords??? recorders?? sounded a little like Blackadder!!!


:) That was EXACTLY what I was thinking!. Anyway, I really enjoyed the film and the music worked well with it.

[fozzy]

Just saw it. I totally agree. Listen for the flute during the bird flight. So much more subtlety in this score.


I'll be seeing it tonight. Keep my ears open for that.

[JonFairhurst]

The biggest surprise for me was the zany jazz during the Knight Bus scene. They used some jazz styles in a couple other places as well. It shows that they were willing to take some risk. Yes!

I didn't care so much for the colorization. The pushed whites reminded me more of the Mexico scenes in Traffic than of a haunted castle. But again, it was nice to see them take some risk.

Overall it was entertaining and nicely done - with some unexpected flavors.

[Pingu]

I thought the film sucked. The casting was totally at odds with the way I'd envisioned all the characters, except Madame Trelawney. But I agree that JW was at his best. I particularly loved the jazz number for the spectral bus. It was incredibly close to the final movement of John Adam's Chamber Concerto, which is just one of my favourite pieces of all time.

I can only hope Chris Columbus takes back over the reins in future.

[JonFairhurst]

The casting was totally at odds with the way I'd envisioned all the characters, except Madame Trelawney...

But Pingu, the only other new characters were Lupin, Black and Pettigrew. I can see how you might not like Lupin, but I doubt that many could play Black as well as Oldman, and the actor who played Pettigrew was certainly rat-like and only briefly on screen. All of the other major characters were cast during the Columbus reign.

I see how one can take issue with Cuaron's direction, but not with his casting - except maybe for Lupin (who I thought was pretty solid - especially with the scars).

[seanmccoy]

Saw it yesterday, and felt it was as good as the first two in its own way. Cuaron added some dark humor and a bit more general angst, which was interesting. Some major explanations were left out, obviously for the sake of time (what else is new?), but curious nonetheless. And the score was brilliant and different in response to the different look and feel Cuaron added. Williams is not a one-trick pony. I agree that the flute solo for the bird was brilliant. (did I say "brilliant" again?) Interesting about the harpsichord---during the movie my five year old asked specifically what that instrument was. Guess we don't listen to enough concerti grosso around here.

[Rob Elliott]

Haven't seen the movie yet but picked up the CD and was very pleasantly suprised of how 'daring' JW was on it. Trying to 'see the scene' by just listening. I was particularily impressed with the jazz feels in a couple of cues - very daring for an HP movie.

Rob

[karimelm]

Man, that guy is so impressive - even in his 70's, his music is daring, inventive, and brilliant. I especially loved the woodwind writing - when was the last time you saw a movie with such high quality flute writing? Even compared to the great score of Lord of the Rings - Return of the King, what James Galway played was very stale by camparison to William's here. He's a genius.

[Steve Rees]

I really like the score. It doesn't rely too heavily on themes from the previous films, so we get lots of new material (something I enjoyed about the score to 'The Return of the King' too).

The 'Knight Bus' cue is likeably bonkers. Is it me, or can you hear a bit of the 'March of the Villains' from 'Superman' hinted at in there?

My only (very minor) gripe is that 'Mischief Managed', presumably the end title music, is largely a collection of the other cues on the album edited and cut together, rather than the reworked versions of the themes that John Williams used to do for his closing titles music (like say 'The Empire Strikes Back').

The album seems to be mastered at pretty sensible level too. I'm so used to people trying to blow me out of my seat that listening to this one was a real pleasure. There's a huge dynamic range on offer.

Looking forward to seeing the film!

Steve

[Rob Elliott]

Yea Steve,

The dynamics were very impressive (on the CD). I haven't seen the film yet - does the dialog and FX stample it into oblivion?

Rob

[SteveHanlon]

the best of the three IMO. Felt like a story with FX and not FX without a story. Music was lovely and not intrusive.

Agreed that this new director pumped some life into it.

[David Govett]

"My only (very minor) gripe is that 'Mischief Managed', presumably the end title music, is largely a collection of the other cues on the album edited and cut together, rather than the reworked versions of the themes that John Williams used to do for his closing titles music (like say 'The Empire Strikes Back')."

We should probably cut him some slack this time. He was running late on Speilbergs film (Terminal) because of HP-3. Sounds like he is juggling a bit. It kind of does my heart good to see JW actually miss a deadline now and then. His lifetime of perfection in music was starting to get old! :)

The film was perfect for me. I've been re-reading the book and I like what they have done. They made changes and left off the un-nessesary stuff and improved the humor a bit. I found myself continuing to read the book further after seeing the film and though, "you know, I like the film version of this scene better". For example, in the book, he has a real short flight on Buckbeak and he does not enjoy it at all. In the film, that scene simply rocked and he was really enjoying the flight! I personally liked that better than the book version. Several things like that. The music was perfect of course because John Williams did it! "He who can do no wrong in film scoring"
A bit biased perhaps? Nahhhhh!

Later
Dave

[Nick Batzdorf]

Isn't it pretty much normal to use themes from the score for the end titles? What else would you use, other than a song?

[JonFairhurst]

Isn't it pretty much normal to use themes from the score for the end titles? What else would you use, other than a song?

I thnk Dave's complaint wasn't that they used the themes, but that they just replayed the recorded cues.