1. Opening
2. In Noctem
3. The Story Begins
4. Ginny
5. Snape & the Unbreakable Vow
6. Wizard Wheezes
7. Dumbledore's Speech
8. Living Death
9. Into the Pensieve
10. The Book
11. Ron s Victory
12. Harry & Hermione
13. School!
14. Malfoy's Mission
15. The Slug Party
16. Into the Rushes
17. Farewell Aragog
18. Dumbledore's Foreboding
19. Of Love & War
20. When Ginny Kissed Harry
21. Slughorn's Confession
22. Journey to the Cave
23. The Drink of Despair
24. Inferi in the Firestorm
25. The Killing of Dumbledore
26. Dumbledore's Farewell
27. The Friends
28. The Weasley Stomp

quote:

---

Originally posted by gkgyver:
At least they avoided spoilers this time.

---

Funny!

After all, if you've read this book, you know what's going to happen.

This series of films would have benefitted in some ways had the filmmakers waited until the books were complete. From a musical point of view, the composer(s) could have thematically laid the groundwork for the future plots, much like parts of the books were written. To make any comparison, I guess it would be similar to how Shore hinted at themes throughout LoTR. Given the mystery-like nature of parts of Potter, such a structure could probably work wonders in the series. At the very least, the scores would have gained points for technicality. Just a thought...

I think it has the potential to be half decent at least. I wasn't a fan of the first one. I thought the cues were too short and lacked any kind of interest. This one sounds a bit more animated.

I am also liking what I hear vs his "Phoenix" score.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Crono/Kyp:
Looks to be a longer album then "Order"

---

For some obscure reason, no stream- recording program works for me. It doesn't even detect the audio coming from my sound card.

Was I hearing imaginary music all day ...???

Anyway, after listening to a couple of tracks in full, like Malfoy's Mission, Journey To The Cave or the opening, my mild optimism is a bit down again.
Seems like the tracks are really quite short, and not overly entertaining so far.
Hooper's OotP style very much carries over to this, which means very broad musical strokes.

Here, it's almost the exact opposite. Apart from the occasional variation on Hedwig's Theme, and some implied similarities between Ron's Victory and Williams' Quidditch material, HBP is, to my ears, highly unmelodic.

Now, understand this, unmelodic scores do not have to be boring. Normally, I'd take an interesting, non-melodic score over a highly melodic, but bland one.
The problem is just that Hooper's music is in a lot of instances neither melodic, nor interesting - like he expanded upon OotP's Department Of Mysteries sound.
Hooper tried to be mysterious, brooding and intimidating, but fails in the end because his inherent tendency to write tonal music robs the score of surprises and fresh harmonies.
He is apparently more at ease with bolder, and somewhat fluffy music like OotP.

Consequently, the majority of it meanders along, with unengaging, unsurprising, inconsequential string lines, with the occsional crescendo. Pieces like Snape And The Unbreakable Vow, or Malfoy's Mission, get on your nerves quickly because of their non-structure, and are just downright unpleasant to listen to.
And what is it about the tendency to use strange synthetic sounds, or trying to be terribly inventive by "not being so thematic"?
Just-write-bloody-music!

There are of course cues of somewhat thematic nature, like "Ginny", "The Friends" or "Inferi In The Firestorm", and those are the ones helping HBP to a solid *** rating. And yet, I just have to wonder why on earth ANYTHING resembling a theme has to be constantly played by high strings or french horn. "Ginny" especially sounds like music from a mediocre Harry Potter video game.

In a way, it's as much a cliche score as any. And strangely enough, with all the dark, darker, darkest passages, HBP has the astounding ability to sound so fluffy and tingly in places to be woefully inadequate for what should essentially be a more serious movie.

In the end, were I to choose, I'd go for Half-Blood Prince, which is slightly ahead of OotP in my mind.
And that is for the reason stated above: I rather listen to a non-melodic score that is mostly listenable, instead of a bland thematic score like OotP that is a lot more inadequate for the film than this one.

EDIT: Scoring session video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSEgYT28Kks

Oddly enough, James Hannigan's score for the HBP video game is outstanding. Highly melodic and full of fun and dare I say warm, moving, "magical" writing.

Here are a couple highlights, from what I've enjoyed listening to the past couple months I've had the album:

Return to Hogwarts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qokp7IFmzZU

Race Ginny http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr9pI2ATyP4

Wandering Day 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrSK_A2tgfI

Loss at Hogwarts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP8dYpQvLSI

More Potions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-EsRBW6cZc

The Final Battles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRBiCvNfx6o

Sadness at Hogwarts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCULbYQbxkg

Friendship Theme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7-UKjqRr7M

Here's the entire score on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=732293256D87E27A

It's unfortunate that the video game eclipses the film score in pretty much every way... but heck, at least you have the ability to choose which album you want!

Since I am, ahem, *able* to download music from Youtube, this is fantastic!

Now that I have listened to HBP repeatedly, trying to make out a few things to like about it, I actually consider it worse than OotP.
Presenting a cue like "The Friends" for a finale is essentially insulting.

PS: Heard it now. Hannigan's music beats Hooper's like *that*. The only thing I don't feel comfortable with is the heavy chorus.
The friendship theme is fantastic.

By the way, isn't "Loss At Hogwarts" based on Doyle's Hogwarts march?

I think the Potter movies are seriously lacking in "warm" music. Yes, they are getting darker, but "warm" doesn't have to mean "lighthearted and fluffy". All these low rumblings and tinkly sounds get on my nerves.

From a comingsoon.net review:

quote:

---

Nicholas Hooper's score continues to make one forget all about John Williams."

---

What a joke!

Oh! And I got this from the-leaky-cauldron.org:

quote:

---

RA (Richard Alexander)
DH (David Heyman)
RA: Hi, First I want to say thank you for your amazing work.
DH: Thank You.
RA: In a recent interview John Williams said that he would love to come back and bring his musical storytelling "full circle". Will he come back for Deathly Hallows?
DH: The question is will John Williams come back? I'm a huge fan of John Williams he did three of the scores and I think he is amazing. He came up with some of the themes that have carried on. We have talked to John Williams and a lot of it will depend on his schedule for [Harry Potter] seven part two. If we can make work , and that's a big if, for his schedule and ours then yes.
RA: Great, thanks.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by StarlessWinter:
How can there be no theme for the Horcruxes? Or even Dumbledore?

Oh! And I got this from the-leaky-cauldron.org:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=1 face=arial>quote:</font><HR size=1>RA (Richard Alexander)
DH (David Heyman)
RA: Hi, First I want to say thank you for your amazing work.
DH: Thank You.
RA: In a recent interview John Williams said that he would love to come back and bring his musical storytelling "full circle". Will he come back for Deathly Hallows?
DH: The question is will John Williams come back? I'm a huge fan of John Williams he did three of the scores and I think he is amazing. He came up with some of the themes that have carried on. We have talked to John Williams and a lot of it will depend on his schedule for [Harry Potter] seven part two. If we can make work , and that's a big if, for his schedule and ours then yes.
RA: Great, thanks.<HR size=1></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Message edited by StarlessWinter on 07-14-2009]

---

The star of the film by FAR is the cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel. Gorgeous stuff. An outdoor scene involving a creature's funeral, in particular, is beautifully lit, and there are many creative shot compositions.

As "dark" as this film tries to be (and succeeds in doing so occassionally), it is littered to the max with teenage soap-opera subplots of which one can only handle so much. If I heard one more "aww!" from girls in the audiences, I was going to scream. There's so much focus on this stuff that the rom-com elements practically become the entire story. Many of the serious, darker (and far more interesting) bits are glossed over, and a would-be-epic scene in a cave isn't nearly as scary as it should be. That said, the climactic tower scene is well-done and features some great acting, although the closing of the film lacks any sort of emotional punch. This is due, no doubt, to the lack of attention to emotion and character development in most of the previous entries. The resulting covering-up of the tracks inevitably feels last-minute.

quote:

---

Originally posted by gkgyver:
You can't really blame the film for having lots of romance. After all, that's the book.

---

That's true, but did they even leave out any of the romance from the book? I can certainly think of many darker aspects they ignored. Oh well. This is one of Rowling's books with a split personality, I think. It depends on what sort of story you like to watch/read, and I just happen to like the darker stuff.

[Message edited by StarlessWinter on 07-16-2009]

At first it bothered me that they are so "explicit" (trying to avoid spoilers ...) with the scene at Borgin and Burke in the beginning, but if you don't show that item, the solution in the end makes no sense to the common audience.
Same thing with Malfoy in the Room of Requirement.

The only thing that really got on my nerves was the finale on the astronomy tower. SO totally not the book!

Also Harry retrieving the memory, why did they deviate so much here?
Slughorn had a fish from Lily? What?

"If you don't give it to me, that bowl will always remain empty."

Um, it remains empty, even after he gave Harry the memory.

Also, the beginning, with Harry at the diner ... that made my toe nails stand up.
It is a mystery to me: here you have a book with 600 pages, around 50 pages of perfect introductions, and you have to pull stuff out of your ass?

quote:

---

Originally posted by gkgyver:
To be honest, the romance works very well. Some parts were hilarious! If Rowling gives you a free pass with her writing, you might as well use it.

---

Actually, I find that Rowling likes to use her I'm-being-incredibly-cheap-and-lazy-but-try-not-to-notice pass entirely too often, especially with the final book.

quote:

---

Slughorn had a fish from Lily? What?

---

I thought this was the loveliest part of the whole movie. Broadbent {and Tom Felton, who as Malfoy blew me away) own this film.

quote:

---

Also, the beginning, with Harry at the diner ... that made my toe nails stand up.

---

Join the club.

In the end, I have to say the only thing that keeps me from embracing this movie as much as the first and the fourth (Azkaban is still a league of its own) is the total lack of music with impact.

The disappointment as nothing to do with omissions or deviations...having never read the books neither of which have any relevance for me. The movie suffers from a ponderous and inconsistent screenplay, lacking flow and any form of concise narrative. Transformers may have had an incoherent plot, but it at least had one.

As others have said, the romantic elements certainly work, but the amount of screentime dedicated to them in a 2.5 hour runtime is embarassing.

I will say that the crafting of the film was masterful and the performances were among the best so far. The music was serviceable but not astounding. Not terrible as some have suggested but leaves very little impression.

Obviously Half Blood Prince was a setup book (and a bit of a sellout by Rowling to extend this series longer than necessary) but they compounded that inherent problem by focusing on the wrong elements. I feel like I walked out of 2.5 hours having seen about 45-minutes worth of story.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Quill:
Obviously Half Blood Prince was a setup book (and a bit of a sellout by Rowling to extend this series longer than necessary) but they compounded that inherent problem by focusing on the wrong elements. I feel like I walked out of 2.5 hours having seen about 45-minutes worth of story.

---

Thank you for saying this, because I think it's something that some people really can't see. The series is already overlong, but length wouldn't be that much of an issue if the films actually conveyed the series' ongoing plot (rather than appeared as a set of separate stories with only vague connections) and even tried to give a sense of emotional/moral meaning to the story.

Fans of the book try to argue that these middle, setup installments are necessary for "character development". But there is little to none. Many scenes of characters talking to each other do not equal development; that term requires a change in something.

The Harry Potter books are just that, they are books, meant to be read - and enjoyed over a considerable time span.
Movies have the goal to present a concise, entertaining, self-contained story that engages for two hours, give or take.

The problem is always to condense the story of the book, and essentially recreate the feeling you had while reading the book, only the film has much less time to do so.

Things that are engaging in a novel aren't necessarily as captivating on celluloid.

And as the books, or the story, became more and more entangled and complicated, it was harder and harder for screenwriters and directors and editors to find a red line, a hook to hang the delightful side stories on, if you get what I am saying.

The first four books lent themselves to film making very well, since they are not so complex. They are rich, chock full of charming details, but when you cut away some of it, you still had enough richness left, and lost nothing of the plot.
The plots had subtle twists that, if left off from the film, did no harm to the core story.

With Order Of The Phoenix, all that changed. It is considerably longer than PoA, and not only that; it has so many side stories that affect the main storyline and the main character, that you could make the movie 30 minutes longer, and it still would not do it justice.
And I think that clearly shows in the film. It's probably the pivotal book in the series because it sets up and explains so many things, and my honest opinion is that no movie could have transported that.

As it is, I strongly feel OotP to be the most redundant film of the series. The audience learns nothing about the main story; nothing that matters anyway. It tells us about the prophecy, but as it is never explained what it actually means - on the contrary, it is treated very profanely - you may as well have left it out.
The film focuses on Dumbledore's Army, as if that was terribly important.

I feel like with OotP, the MOVIE series lost control over its own storyline, and Yates was just trying to make the movies as coherent as possible.

Now about HBP.
In the series of novels, you cannot just say it is redundant.
Just because there doesn't happen as much as in the previous books does not mean it is unimportant. Getting to know the backstory of Voldemort is fascinating to read; without it, book seven would be much less powerful.
It is setting up the intriguing Horcrux storyline, not to mention Snape's development.
The romance had to happen at some point, and the love stories work quite well in the book.

It is just that the book doesn't lend itself to a movie as well as the previous ones, and yet it is a fully deserving entry in the book series, and it has to happen in the storyline.
Seven is a magical number, and I have no doubt that Rowling had seven books in mind once she published the first one because it is fitting.
It is the nature of this that the story eventually becomes very complex and provides lengthy insights into characters and motivations, something that may not be quite in line with the early Potter films, but that is nevertheless necessary.

The romance, for the most part, is also character development, and even if it is often carried out on a humorous level.
Draco is major character development.

I just think you have to clearly differentiate between the movies and the books, what the one medium does, and what the other is good at. A book can deviate from the story once in a while, and delve into a juicy side story for some relief. A movie can only do it to some extent.

By the way, is it just me, or is the total absence of Hermione's parents one of the very few BIG "Huh?"s in the series?
I mean, they don't even get a mention. It came to me during HBP, when Hermione talks about them at the Slug party.
Ron's parents are big in the story, Harry's parents obviously are, as well as his stepfamily. Draco's family has impact. Neville's family is repeatedly mentioned. Seamus' parents, even Hannah Abbott's family gets its five seconds of fame.

Wouldn't it be a great dramatical injection, if they, being muggles, had been killed by Death Eaters?