Accio Nitpickium! The Nitpickers Thread

[TTYT]

The place to rant about plot holes you found annoying, things that were different from the book that you found annoying - basically, anything about the movie that you found annoying. Like why the hell does everyone still act like Hogwarts is this incredibly safe place, when all this bad shit keeps happening?

[ShadowDog]

It bothered me that they never really explained how Barty Jr. got out of prison, especially when it was so hyped in the previous movie that this place was almost impossible to escape from.

The fire talky thing bothered me as well.  I don't mind if they want to change magic from the book to the movie to make it cooler, that's fine.  But it's not even consistent from movie to movie.  You have it this way in this movie and the same fucking thing is completely different in the next movie.  And it's the same producers in every movie even if the directors change so what the hell?

[goflyblind]

there's a book about this movie? o_0

[ShadowDog]

Oh ha ha ha. 

[anais.jude]

It bothered me that they never really explained how Barty Jr. got out of prison, especially when it was so hyped in the previous movie that this place was almost impossible to escape from.

They never explained how Sirius did it in the third movie either. I know because I read the book (many, many times!)

Ya know what annoyed me? Jarvis Cocker's lyrics. I know he can write better than "Throw your hands in the air, like a warlock that don't care" or some such rubbish. He basically took the lyrics of the dumbest popular song and added "witch" "warlock" and "troll" into it.

I did like how bored Johnny Greenwood looked though. Probably just thinking about all the money he got paid for the five min of mediocre work

[RoninFox]

I just don't like how they can throw the word magic around to defeat common sense.  "Harry's name came out of the goblet, so it's a binding magic contract"  No other contract would work like that.  It's fraud.  If Harry put his own name in there, he was in disregard of the rules and thus it is fraud.  If someone else put his name in there, then he didn't enter any contract on its own and trying to enforce it is fraud.  They add magic in there so they don't need people in there to make a decision.  We have no power at all over the contest we set up and are running.  We can make all the rules and regulations we want, but the inanimate object we left burning in the hallway has final say 'cause its magic.

Also, notice how everyone fraking cheats constantly, and it's just considered part of the game?  Why is that never really addressed?

[Compound]

It bothered me that they never really explained how Barty Jr. got out of prison, especially when it was so hyped in the previous movie that this place was almost impossible to escape from.

They never explained how Sirius did it in the third movie either. I know because I read the book (many, many times!)

Der. A wizard did it.

But...



Wizard.

(Ah. There's a Simpsons quote for every situation.)

[ShadowDog]

I just don't like how they can throw the word magic around to defeat common sense.  "Harry's name came out of the goblet, so it's a binding magic contract"  No other contract would work like that.  It's fraud.  If Harry put his own name in there, he was in disregard of the rules and thus it is fraud. 

Well, not that you'd know it from the movie, but that was covered in the book.  The Goblet didn't give a crap about modern rules or age lines.  Back in the day when the Goblet was first enchanted, people of any age could enter.

Ya know what annoyed me? Jarvis Cocker's lyrics. I know he can write better than "Throw your hands in the air, like a warlock that don't care" or some such rubbish. He basically took the lyrics of the dumbest popular song and added "witch" "warlock" and "troll" into it.

Yeah that's a pet peeve of mine.  Any time a writer builds a fictional world, they always try too hard like this.  No wizard song would have a reference to magic or some kind of magical creature in every fucking line.  Let's draw a parallel.  Let's say Harry Potter's world was the only world.  There was no muggle world.  And let's say that our world, our reality, was just a fiction created by a wizard author.  Now, in that fictional reality, the author makes up five songs.  Would every line in every song reference things like technology we take for granted but would be new and wonderous to wizards?

Turn on the radio to a random channel and play it for an hour not counting commericals.  How many times are anything like computers, cars, airplanes, cell phones, Ipods, Twitter, etc mentioned in total?  I'd bet anything not more than 5-10 times total in the entire hour of music.  Total.  They're sure as hell not mentioned in every line of every fucking song.  JKR even makes this mistake in her books.  There's some kind of magical reference in every song title she mentions.  Ditto for band names.  How many bands have a technoloy reference in their name?  Jefferson Airplane.  That's one.

That's not how real songwriters operate.  They deal in feelings, common themes, and human nature that remain the same no matter what kind of world you live in.  If there was a real wizard world, most of their songs would sound very much like ours.  Only a few would reference something specific.

[bettertomorrowamy]

[Doctor Who?]

The one on the right looks like me!  Have the Simpson's animators been spying on me?!

[RoninFox]

Oh, and just a general thing about these books and movies that doesn't really start to go away until the last couple volumes.  I'd have to re-read them to give specific examples, it's been awhile.  Harry is a fish out of water for too long.  In the first story or two it makes sense for him to not know things and need a lot of the aspects of the wizarding world explained to him.  This is plausible and useful for the narrative, since it gives an excuse for other characters to fill in exposition, telling both Harry and the audience what is going on at the same time...the thing is the stories keep coming, and Harry doesn't learn about anything well in advance.  Doesn't he have all those books?  Isn't he reading through the summer while shut up in his room?  Doesn't he love the wizarding world so much that it's all he thinks about when forced to live with his muggle relatives?  Sure, once school starts he usually ends up in the middle of the shitstorm so he doesn't have much chance to study, but he always comes off like a dumbass when a new situation is presented to him.  In the last third or so of the "saga" he finally seems somewhat competent and the stuff he doesn't know is at least really big cryptic things that very few master wizards know, but the whole "Ron and Hermione explain something every magical kid would know, amazed he doesn't know it himself" bit got old.

[ShadowDog]

True, but Harry always came across to me as a lazy dumbass who never studied or read anything he didn't absolutely have to.

[arutha1000]

Yeah, I hated how Harry was a lazy loser who cheated off of Hermione, yet we're supposed to believe he's special. Never, and I mean never, in any of the books does he show any special aptitude above the average wizard. They tried to say making a patronus was special, but he teaches everyone how to do it the very next year. Even the Weasley twins show more talent toward exceptional magic than Harry. We're supposed to identify with Harry's exceptional mediocrity, but he really comes off as a spoiled jock who thought himself above the rules who proved to be correct. Even by the end of the series, he never uses any spells the average fourth year could manage.

Yes, I'm a nerd, but it's because I enjoy the Harry Potter series. I just wish it wasn't so full of plot holes, contrivances, and deus ex machina.

If you want to get started on my biggest pet peeve is the series, it's that the magic is inconsistent and just does what the author wants it to. Case in point: how did Sirius get into Hogwarts in book 3? He had no wand, and could only get around in giant, scary dog form and nobody ever saw him. The only ways for him to get in or out require the use of a wand, or walking through the front door of the magically protected Hogwarts. How did it work? Magic...

[RoninFox]

Explain it?  It's magic, I don't have to explain it!

[bratpop]

I did like how bored Johnny Greenwood looked though.

He was thinking, "Someday I'll get my revenge by pounding people with loud, obnoxious percussion in a movie score."

That's not how real songwriters operate.

Yes, exactly. Although most "do the ____ dance" songs are insipidly stupid, there aren't a lot of people who could get away with telling everyone to dance like random, unrelated animals for no reason.

Thank GOD that Jo Rowling did not let them make an entire Weird Sisters album like they wanted to.