Potter Factor: The most obvious successor to Harry Potter's kiddie blockbuster throne, not least because it's directed by Chris Columbus of the first two HP films.
Sidestepping Potter stuffiness for moments of fun satire (AC/DC's 'Highway To Hell' and Lady Gaga's 'Poker Face' have no place in Potterland, as they do here), Jackson brings the formula kicking and screaming into present day America for a more contemporary Hollywood party.
Still, all the classic Potter concerns, such as our lead's relationship to lightning and massive CGI monsters, are present and correct.
If It Featured Harry Potter Characters: Hermione's parents are kidnapped by Voldemort, who has killed Hades and taken up residence in the Greek Underworld. With Harry and Ron by her side, she attempts to find an entrance to the hellpit.
First, though, she's got to defeat Bellatrix Lestrange, who's stolen Medusa's power and is going around town turning everbody to stone...
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Comments
ChrisWootton
Feb 9th 2010, 12:31
So basically we can thank Harry Potter for supplying us with a decades worth of absolute s**te
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pimpernel
Feb 9th 2010, 16:26
I'd agree the sucess of Harry Potter encouraged studios to make these films, but with some of them, 'The Chronicles of Narnia' for example, it's more that Harry Potter was influenced by them (considering they came first). But that's just pedantic.
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bentgaga
Feb 9th 2010, 22:19
oh harry
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Hadouken76
Feb 10th 2010, 11:42
i would say the Narnia films were inspired by the LOTR trilogy, (new zealand, fantasy creatures, big battles)
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DontPanic
Feb 10th 2010, 18:54
Ahm... you had a couple of misses there. I'm not sure when the book of Eragon came out so it might aswell be inspiered by the four-eyes, but The Chronicles of Narnia is by a book that's way older than HP. Actually I can clearly remember that there was a British TV show on The Chronicles of Narnia that I watched in my childhood so... yeah.
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joshwinning
Feb 12th 2010, 18:59
@DontPanic, @pimpernel Agreed. The argument here is that while the Narnia books obviously pre-date Mr Potter by very almost half a century, the decision to commission the movie(s) was entirely based on Harry's box office success. Those bandwagons are pretty attractive, after all.
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AJAiken
Feb 13th 2010, 13:05
@joshwinning Walden Media, the production company behind Narnia, were in talks with the C. S. Lewis estate before "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" even came out. The deal was finalised in the aftermath, but as you would expect Walden had to deal with a whole host of other companies looking for something similar to LOTR and HP. The fact that those films were being made may have had something to do with Walden's original interest, but it was only after LOTR and HP were released that they became so incredibly successful.
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