murfSTUFF

Well, the final film premiered last night. But since I wrote this before seeing it, I can’t really talk about it yet. Instead though, I’m going to shift from the books for a bit and talk about the films. Most Potter fans, myself included, tend to regard the books and films on different levels and almost treated as two separate entities. For though the principal story is the same, they are treated with different focuses and details. Any book fan will tell you “Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot & Prongs” are, but anyone who has only seen the movies will have no idea.

But let us not dwell on the differences of mediums, for what makes a good book and what makes a good film are two very different things. Let’s talk about something the films did right, and that only films can do: Casting. Who plays what character? Did they do a good job? While some of the casting is spotty, some of it is spot on. Let’s discuss.

Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall)

If any actor matches the description of their character to a tee, it is Maggie Smith. Supposedly Rowling imagined Smith in the role from the beginning and its not hard to see why. She carries the character with such a weight and gravitas that you really feel like she is strict, if understanding professor who cares about the well being of her students. She doesn’t look or feel out of place and its easy to place Smith into that part in the books. To me, they are practically one and the same.

Kenneth Branagh (Gilderoy Lockhart)

The egocentric and bumbling Lockhart is a generally annoying character who I quite dislike in the book. Branagh does a great job portraying him as the pompous idiot he is. I like the movie version of Lockhart a bit better, because he is more entertaining in his ineptitude. He still comes off as a arrogant toe-rag to be sure, but Branagh makes it fun to watch rather than the in the book, where I looked at scenes with Lockhart with a certain derision. He’s still the same character, with the same traits, but Branagh makes him fun to watch.

Brendon Gleeson (Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody)

Gleeson delivers a great performance as Moody. I say this with the thought in mind that he also has to not just play Moody, but has to pretend to be someone else pretending to be Moody (at least in the fourth film). He plays the tough, paranoid and grizzled veteran to a tee. I had a hard time imagining exactly how Moody acted in the books, but Gleeson brings such a presence to the character it’s hard to forget it. He perfectly pulls off a person who has seen his share of horrors and knows his way around a battle.

Imelda Stanton (Dolores Umbridge)

Stanton may not entirely look the part, but she plays it with such gusto. As stated before, Umbridge is one of my favorite villains (because she is so detestable) and Stanton’s performance is out of the park. With that sickeningly sweet demeanor, with that vicious underside, Stanton brings the character to life in a way I didn’t think was possible. Just as I wanted to throttle Umbridge, I doubly felt the same about her in the movies. Seeing her get her comeuppance not once, but twice, was wholly a satisfying experience.

Alan Rickman (Severus Snape)

There’s no other way to say this: Rickman is Snape. Out of all the great casting this series has done, out of all the wonderful characters, Snape was so perfect from day one that I find it really hard to imagine anyone else in the role because no one else could do it in the way that Rickman can. I wish I could elaborate more on it, but I don’t think its possible to say anything more than its “perfect.”

[The Friday Five is murf's weekly series on GeekLore. If you enjoyed this article, and want to see more geeky goodness from murf and others, please check out www.geeklore.net.]

Share the murfSTUFF goodness!

•