We have all thought about it, discussed it, argued over it. If we could have taken over with dictatorial authority, exactly what would we have changed in the Harry Potter films? Here are my top 10 changes – what are yours?
The films, of course, were never going to be perfect – and they certainly weren’t helped by the fact that the books weren’t completed when filming began. Still, there are always things you wished had made it in, and other things that made you wonder why they had bothered in the first place.
Personally I’m a firm believer that a lot could have been rectified by giving Maggie Smith all the screentime, but in the absence of that, these are the 10 things I would change given the chance.
1. Bring back Ron Weasley
This one belongs right at the top. In the books, Ron Weasley was, amongst other things: funny, brave, unsure, dim and helpful, often simultaneously. In the films, Ron Weasley was mainly confused. Maybe he was wondering the same thing as me – why had they given all of his lines to Hermione? The films make Ron out as the awkward third wheel, but from the books we know it should be Harry and Ron BFFs for life.
Sure Hermione is great, who doesn’t love Hermione? But Ron has the common-sense, and the insight to everyday Wizarding life, that idealistic Harry and supersmart Hermione often lack. It was great to see a powerful female role-model, it’s just a shame they had to downgrade Ron to achieve it. He’s Harry’s best friend, a fabulous character, and deserved to be more than just the weird guy lurking while Harry and Hermione had important conversations.
2. Buy Michael Gambon the books
Mike, I promise, they don’t even take that long to read, and it will really be worth it. The many personalities of Gambon!Dumbledore (including Anger Management Dumbledore in Goblet of Fire) almost gave me whiplash. It’s a shame, because Gambon is a wonderful actor, but as he didn’t take the time to read the source material, and no one bothered to fill him in, he was very hit-and-miss.
With a character that is so obviously a fan favourite, it was so essential to get him right, and it was just never quite there. For me, his best moments were in the Kings Cross scene, and it made me dream of how good his performance could have been. Seriously, buy the man an audiobook or something, he could have listened to it in the make-up chair while they glued on those kilometres of hair.
3. The ‘Deathly Hallows’ Mess
The most complicated book was split into two parts to cover all of those twisty plot points, and yet most of the time seemed to be a dedicated to a montage of camping and dancing. These last two films could have their own list, but I’ve restricted it to my three top picks.
3a. Exploding people
I’d like to thank Warner Bros. for taking the time to make sure I got my 3D money’s worth. That must be it, what other justification could there be for floating little bits of Voldemort, Bellatrix and Nagini into my face? I must have missed the chapter in Deathly Hallows where Harry learned “forget this magic business, just blow him up.” This was just unnecessary, not to mention expensive. Voldemort may be evil, but he wasn’t a piñata to blow apart.
3b. The Voldemort-Harry showdown
Why they decided to make the culminating fight a Benny Hill-style chase (complete with Harry’s brilliant idea of assassination through cliff jumping), I couldn’t tell you. It must have seemed very cinematic and thrilling on paper. You know what would have been more cinematic and thrilling? Having Harry and Voldemort battle it out in front of everyone, while Harry explained the entire point of the series to Voldemort and everyone else.
3c. What are the Deathly Hallows?
This one isn’t just personal taste – it was the name of two films. So at some point, it would have been nice to have been given an explanation of what was going on here. If you hadn’t read the books, I expect you’d be asking: if the wand was super-powerful, how could Harry snap it so easily? What was that stone he dropped in the woods? Didn’t he have an invisibility cloak before, what happened to that? What was actually the point of the Deathly Hallows?
4. Where were The Marauders
Oh, so many problems. Without even getting into the semantics of why 21-year-old-dead-James was played by a forty-something actor, where was this storyline? If we hadn’t spent quite so long with the shrunken heads in the beginning of Prisoner of Azkaban they could have easily fit this in. The revelation about the Marauder’s map and James’ animagus form were both incredibly influential during Harry’s maturing.
This omission echoed throughout the subsequent films. The importance of patronuses, the life debt of Peter Pettigrew, the parallels between Harry and James, the uneven relationship between Harry and Sirius, and even Lily and Snape – all things we could never really hear about, because they skipped it in Prisoner of Azkaban. And when they had the chance to make up for this in Order of the Phoenix, they didn’t even include the most essential “Mudblood” part.
5. Amp up the love factor
Oh yes, the awful kiss between Harry and Ginny in Half-Blood Prince. They were supposed to be soulmates, but I guess they didn’t feel too strongly about it. I demand the sweeping camera shot, packed Gryffindor Common Room (pay those extras, dammit) and ridiculous orchestral overture. At this point of the film, I’d just put up with over an hour of flashbacks and half-explained backstory, I think I deserved a little romance.
Similarly in Deathly Hallows, it’s like WB didn’t really want me to believe in Harry and Ginny, certainly neither of the actors did. At least they got the Ron and Hermione kiss in there. I was worried it was going to be downgraded to a chaste handholding and letter of courtship. As for Ginny and Harry, well, Harry and Dobby had more chemistry on the beach.
6. Desperately Seeking Weasleys
One of the most wonderful experiences of the books was that we got to get really mad at the Dursleys for starving, mistreating, and generally being jerks to Harry, and then find out about the utopia of the Burrow (and wish we could live there). Who didn’t want their own hand on that amazing clock? Seriously. So JKR created a generation of kids wishing they were ginger, and yet in the films I struggled to remember why.
Sure the Burrow seemed more fun that the Dursleys, but so did that creepy deserted playground in Prisoner of Azkaban. Maybe WB had a Weasley quota they weren’t able to exceed for each film. I can only assume who those two guys at the back of the Egypt photo are, because no one bothered to tell me. After all, Bill only really turned up once Percy had disappeared, and Charlie didn’t exist.
7. Please explain the Horcruxes
Remember that part of Deathly Hallows Part 2 where they had the wonderful scene explaining in detail how Harry survived in the forest and managed to kill Voldemort at the end? No, me either. We may have caught glimpses of the “pig for slaughter” speech in the Pensieve, but it was unfortunate that they went to all the effort of filming the Kings Cross scene just to tell us nothing.
It would have been nice to know why taking the blood was a big deal, about the “essence divided,” and the twin wands who couldn’t battle each other. Additionally, the finding of the locket in Order of the Phoenix, and Harry actually seeing the diadem in Half-Blood Prince, might have been squeezed in.
8. Film ‘The Other Minister’
This is one of my favourite chapters in the entire series, and I can understand how it would have been cut for pacing. But you can’t cut one of the only scenes that illustrates just how widespread the threat from Voldemort has become, and replace is with…nothing? Nothing, in this case, being a very poor kidnapping attempt by the Death Eaters at the Burrow, where the main aim seemed to be making everyone run through tall grass.
Without any signs indicating the dangers to the Muggle world, the audience was left thinking that Voldemort is sure going to a lot of effort to take over a school. Which is the longwinded way of saying I lied, and actually don’t understand why this was cut. Imagine bumbling Fudge attempting to explain everything to the Prime Minister? It could have been the funniest scene in the entire series. This chapter could have been in there word for word.
9. Everything about Dumbledore
I’m sure we all remember the revelations we felt while reading Deathly Hallows and learning about the eerie parallels between Dumbledore and Harry’s stories. Too bad as a movie goer Dumbledore’s past never even got a look in, which is amazing given how much WB loved their flashbacks. Where was his guilt, his naive friendship with Grindewald and his draw to power?
We never got to see the moment of revelation where Harry truly understood his mentor, and became the better man in dealing with things that Dumbledore could not (ahem, Master of Death). If WB needed some tips as to where to slip in all of this essential information, maybe in those really boring camping scenes, or in the ‘why did they bother filming this at all’ cameo of Dumbledore’s brother at the end of Deathly Hallows.
10. Everything about Voldemort
While I’m talking backstory, let’s not forget Voldemort. The attempts in Half-Blood Prince were admirable but not altogether helpful. In fact, the Pensieve scenes were more like an eager kid who had learned a cool party trick and insisted on repeating it over and over again. While Riddle’s incestuous ancestors were not essential to the plot, I’d call the damaging non-relationship with his parents character motivation, which seems important.
You could argue that it wouldn’t matter how much of this story was included, because Harry didn’t get to pace in a circle and outsmart Riddle anyway. Book Harry had to understand Riddle in order to defeat him. But given there’s no payoff in the films for the flashbacks they did include, maybe they should have spent some of that Pensieve-effect money on making Daniel Radcliffe look more like a vaguely convincing 30-something in the Epilogue.
If you could go back to the beginning
