The I hate David Yates thread

Naw I loved the last four films. The only film I did not enjoy was the-film-that-hairstyles-forgot Goblet of Fire. Half Blood Prince is my favourite of the films and made me cry the most (Dumbledore dying and having to drink the water from when he and harry were in the cave). I like Deathly Hallows Part 1 too, for me that captured the feeling of the books the most.

I thought the first two films were the worst and they were directed by none other than Percy Jackson film maker, Chris Columbus.

I thought the perception of Harry and the rest of the characters worked for the film including the styles. But Goblet of Fire was a bit of a mess of a film tbh.

Agree OP. I always thought this. Going from PoA, IMO the best of the adaptations, to GoF, IMO one of the worst, was very jarring with the difference in quality. Really don't know why they didn't hire Alfonso Cuaron for more cause he nailed Prisoner of Azkaban (incidentally my favourite HP book).

Seraph said:

Agree OP. I always thought this. Going from PoA, IMO the best of the adaptations, to GoF, IMO one of the worst, was very jarring with the difference in quality. Really don't know why they didn't hire Alfonso Cuaron for more cause he nailed Prisoner of Azkaban (incidentally my favourite HP book).

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Agreed. I thought PoA was the best adaptation. GoF was terrible! Yes the hairstyles were dreadful, but it was just a bad adaptation of the book. While I understand a lot was going on in that book, the movie left so much out!

I agree with fireluxlou too though, the first two movies were horrible. I didn't mind 5-7.2 though. After Columbus, anything was an improvement!

I'm with fireluxlue, the only film I did not enjoy was Goblet of Fire. I thought all the movies were well done and entertaining and well, you can't please everyone. I'm sure you will find others who agree with you, but I personally can't say those films were horrible when I compare it some of the CRAP that is out there. Someone can always pick things apart to death, but for me it was fulfilling entertainment as a whole. Guess I won't be joining on the Yates hate bandwagon. Sorry. Personally, my favorites of all the films were POA and OotP.

I think Yates did truly beautiful work, and turned what were essentially companion pieces (the previous films - minus PoA ) into films in their own right. My only complaint is he didn't understand female characters. He thought that because Hermione was a girl she must be the heart of the films, the emotional core. But actually that was always Ron. In the last film, when they thought Harry was going to his death, it should have been Ron giving him that big final hug, not Hermione.

You can see in how he also does the romance, they are all very airy fairy, kind of Twilight-esque, when in the books the romance is about people having stuff in common and getting along. Ginny and Harry were good partners because they were friends, she was spunky and funny, not all strange and ethereal.

But aside from that, nope, I thought Yates was a real craftsman and did some beautiful work.

I think, it seems to me from your posts here, that you wanted all the films to have the colour and joie de vivre as the first four did. But I think that would be wrong (in my estimation) as as of 5 the books changed drastically, became much darker and much more complex emotionally. They weren't the same kind of books as the first few. It's possible that it's not that you don't like Yates, you don't like the second half of the Potter series.

I guess I just feel that all the directors sacrificed important plot for things of their own creation. Everyone goes on about how marvelous PoA is but it is responsible for one of my biggest pet peeves in the entire film series, in that they never explained who the mauraders were, nor that James Potter's animagus was a Stag. Those are actually both incredibly important points that could easily have been made at the end when Lupin was leaving. But they left it out. I understand leaving out some elements and adding new more cinematic ones, I am not a fan of cookie cutter books to movies (which is why I find the Narnia films so dull), but I really don't like when a very important plot point and character development point is left out.

I guess what I'm saying is, yup Yates changed stuff. But I didn't think he did it any more so or any worse than the directors that came before him. I also appreciated the minimalist acting. The kids weren't kids anymore and they shouldn't be acting like kids.

Just my opinion of course .