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Calvin Trager: I've always kind of felt the Harry Potter movies should count as a separate form of visual media because I don't think they work particularly well on their own, but they make outstanding companions to the books. If you're a fan of the books, there's not much fault to find with the movies. And I should add a caveat to what I'm about to say with an acknowledgement that I'm very fond of both the books and the movies, so I'm stepping outside myself a bit to offer this criticism. I think the films rely too much on the audience's familiarity with the source material to smooth over aspects that, taken on their own, would be cited as signs of sub-par filmmaking. Maybe I should say screenwriting instead of filmmaking, because the actual visual elements are what work the absolute best. What I find lacking when I consider the films on their own are things like overarching cohesion, dialogue, establishing character motivation, and the like. For me the movies have always felt like a strung-together collection of scenes that portray key moments from the books, and that's it. Personally I don't need much more than that but I've always wondered how the movies could possibly be satisfying to someone who didn't already know what they were looking at.

David Mumpower: Out of curiosity, did you have the same criticism of The Lord of the Rings trilogy?

Calvin Trager: It may not be the comparison you're looking for, because I didn't read the LOTR books and I thought the movies held together on their own just fine.

Marty Doskins: I agree with Calvin on the Lord of the Rings movies and I'll give you another example like this. I think that the movie Twilight works well on its own. I haven't read the book yet, but the movie made sense to me. I'm also on the same page with Calvin in that if you haven't read the Harry Potter books, while still being entertained, you probably didn't get what was happening in the film. The flow just isn't there. It's more like a bunch of scenes hooked together rather than a developed story.

David Mumpower: Oh, Marty. Marty Marty Marty. You've gone native on us.

Jason Lee: I enjoyed the film but frankly, and I think a lot of people who read the books will agree with me, I think the filmmakers have laid themselves a REALLY hard road for them for movies 7 and 8. All I could think of while watching the movie was how many KEY pieces of information they left out. Far be it from me to adopt a pouty sneer while whining, "THAT'S not how it was in the book!", but in knowing how the seventh book comes out, it will not be easy to tie up all the loose ends while doing Rowling's work justice. That's all I'm saying.

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