They're kids learning magic for the first time. It's also child actors inhabiting those roles for the first time.

First Charms Lesson | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | "It's leviosa not leviosaaa" - Ron whacking with the wand like he's beating dust out of a rug at 00:38. Very ungoofy and practical.

And why isn't goofy and impractical a positive? You said you wanted whimsy.

Your opinion is objectively subjective.

Just entirely inventing bullshit right here.

Alan Rickman defined the role. I still think the concept of a black Snape is fucking stupid, but I'll wait to see the actor in the role before judging beyond that.

 

Yeah, I'm a bit baffled at the comments of this being too dark. It was perfectly fine on my end.

Someone did a comparison with the original too: https://www.reddit.com/r/HarryPotte...his_is_how_the_new_harry_potter_series_looks/

Honestly, it looks a tad bit darker in a few scenes, but not nearly as bad as what some people are making it out to be. I wonder if they have older devices and it looks darker to them. The bigger change is how crisp it looks compared to the original, and that is going to be because it's no longer filmed using film.

As for acting... the children actors here are significantly better than HP & SS. Apparently filming the original movie was a CHALLENGE, as the trio couldn't stop breaking into laughter and smiles, along with Emma Watson mouthing all the characters lines. This is why there are so many cuts in the movie, because they had to piece it together to make it work.

I felt there was a tremendous amount of whimsy in the trailer (the roaring blanket, wizards chess, the classes), and Hogwarts feels a bit more real and lived in. Herbology looks incredible, and I enjoyed seeing them in their insane yellow robes for it.

 

No, it's too awkward to be whimsical. If a wizard has to do a mini-dance to use his wand, then magic loses its magic. Can you imagine what the Dumbles vs Voldy duel will be like if this is how magic works in this series? 4xMacarena 2xDab for epic fireball?

After reading millions of words of teenagers mastering spells primarily through spells, theory and willpower, it's very difficult to accept a swish-heavy system.

If I'm not mistaken, we haven't seen any adults cast spells yet!

I actually really like that part. It shows how callous Ron is and how effortless that sort of magic is for most people. I find that very goofy and pragmatic and in line with Movie!Ron's character.

They are fairly skilled actors. Harry has done a movie or two, Hermione was in a stage play and the audiobook. I think they're trying their best to follow instructions. Anyway, it's all in the air right now. I personally don't like the acting, especially in that scene.

 

The reddit link compares screenshots of the movies to publicity photos of the TV series.

Most scenes in the trailer are alright. Some scenes are really badly lit.



I dislike these scenes. They have so much gray in them. They should either be darker or lit in a different manner.
Image 1: McGonagall's hair vs the background
Image 2: Snape's face vs outfit vs the background
Image 3: Ron's hair vs the sofa vs tree
Image 4: Non-lit side of Harry's face vs background
Image 5: Dumbledore's beard and the wall behind it
Image 6: Very gray background on the left. The bed's pillar looks super weird.



I like these scenes.
Image 1: This should be bad, but it isn't! It's dark and not well-lit but it's not gray. The subject is visible. We know that the room is supposed to be empty and unused, and that's what it looks like.
Image 2: Blues and reds, but we finally have good color separation. It looks vivid and clear.
Image 3: Looks awesome! The background is just as dark as it needs to be.
Image 4: Ron's hair is visible even though the background is a similar shade.

And overall, the colors are muted and everything looks dark. Just imagine turning on a really strong flashlight in the six bad scenes and shining them on the characters. Does it look white or does it look muted in your mind's eye? For me it hits a limit and I just can't see a way to make the scene brighter without blowing up the highlights. The movies don't have this problem, they're just better lit. It's like the TV show continued the trend of darkening scenes, like the final four movies.



I really like these scenes! Nothing is muddled.

 

All of this cinematography discussion, and I'm just here happy that Ravenclaw's banner is actually correct. An eagle.

 

I'm not a fan of the special effects that I saw in the trailer, some of them look very obviously cgi in a way that even 15 year old Hollywood special effects beat out. I suppose that I should reserve judgement until I see more though. Nostalgia may be having an effect on my memory too. That troll though...


It's just not it for me. Perhaps it is of a technically higher quality than the film design, but it looks very phase four marvel slop to me. They should have asked Christopher Nolan if they could borrow his Cyclops puppet if they wanted to make a creepy eyeless creature.

One of the things that makes the Harry Potter films so good is the score. Some of those songs are lightning in a bottle. I hope that the show takes heavy inspiration or reuses some of it if they have the rights.

I just didn't feel the sense of joy some people here and elsewhere seem to be feeling at the trailer. Part of it is probably that seeing new actors take the place of old characters I'm very attached to is somewhat jarring. The first movie is actually older than me, so I never had a chance to form a mental image of the characters separate from their film versions when my mother was reading the books to me or when I was rereading them later. I'm sure that I'll get used to them if I watch the show, but atm it feels like a high budget fan remake to me.

I don't think that PS is a great fit for a 10 hour HBO series, I think that they will quickly wear the plots that are there thin and find themselves inventing tedium. I'm also not even remotely convinced that HBO will make 70 episodes of this. They love to cut budgets and episode counts on even highly successful shows, early on, and Paramount went into heavy debt to acquire WB and HBO earlier in the year, and that company is owned by cutaholic venture capitalists.