Part 1 and Part 2 – The Screenplay Script
I need to get something off my chest, there’s something you really need to know, full disclosure. The Cursed Child is the first harry potter book I have ever read. Now that fact may shock some people, I may lose a little respect and my opinion might not be considered worthy, by some. But I am going to attempt to give it anyway, think of it what you will. One way to look at it is this, the fact that this is my first HP reading, the fact I have not read anything from J.K. Rowling means I am both unconnected to her writing and to the written world of HP, so my review could be seen as unbiased. I know that this isn’t written by J.K. Rowling, so some say I wouldn’t be able to compare to the original HP series anyway; but as this is a screenplay script, well, I think we can say that writing style is out of the equation. Why haven’t I ever read a HP book? Why is this my first? Well, the books were all released during my “reading hiatus”, the period of my life (pretty much from end of school to now, about 20 years) where I just didn’t read a thing, so I guess I just missed them. I’m changing this now as my literary renaissance has begun, but for now this is the first I have read as I am off to see the stage show in Melbourne in a few months’ time and thought it would be good to know a little of the story first. So that’s me and my HP ignorance out of the way, let me give you my thoughts on this book.
On the back of saying I have never read a HP book up until now, I’m going to say this, I am still a massive HP fan! As far as the none reading HP fan can be, I guess. Loved all the movies, loved the story and the characters, loved the setting, loved the adventure, loved Hogwarts, loved the entire wizarding world… just loved it. So, as most fans would have done, I was excited when I read that this story was coming. What would it be? Where would the story go? I spent many a moment letting my mind wander, exploring the possibilities of what could be. Knowing of the conclusion to the Deathly Hallows, with the final scenes of Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny seeing their children off to Hogwarts, I rightly expected The Cursed Child to involve these same children in a possible “next generation” situation. I wondered how they would compare to the original gang and would they be able to carry on the tradition, would the legacy be tarnished by this attempt to continue the story? Well, as it turns out, I didn’t really have to worry about any of those things, and this is both a relief and a disappointment.
Yes, the children of the original HP gang are involved, and you could say that 2 of them actually play central rolls seeing they are the cause of the trouble the story is premised on. But at no point did I actually feel like they were about to break out and turn the story on it head, pull their wands out and lead us into a spell casting magic fight the likes of which will sweep us up onto a broom and into the next generation of young wizarding adventures. In fact, at times it seemed like they were playing at being “Timmy down a well” and their misadventures were just a plant, an excuse for the “old gang to get back together one last time”. This did not feel like a new story, it did not feel like a steppingstone between the old guard and the new, it felt like a HP version of a reunion special. The new characters, the children of the “old gang” are quite simply useless. The relationship between Harry and his son is developed a lot, and I think an attempt has been made to, for want of a better word, blood the new characters into the series, but in the end without the originals being wheeled out it would have fallen flat. So, I’m saying the new characters are weak, but the old characters carry it through the story, or do they? As the story isn’t the best either.
Without spoilers or divulging too much of the plot, there is a time turner involved, allowing time travel. This is both the saving grace of the story as well as one of its faults. Time travel allows the characters to return to previously used scenes and situations in the HP timeline, one of the more interesting aspects as this creates some Back to The Future type moments of trying to avoid interaction with themselves. What this also creates is the terrible feeling that you are being served up a rerun special, the type sitcom writers would produce every now and again, where you end up watching (or in this case reading and experiencing) previous episodes through flashbacks. The story flowed through these points and it worked well, but you couldn’t help but feel it was a little cheap, a little unimaginative. What this lack of imagination did, however, was let you build the atmosphere from memories of the previous stories as you, the reader, had been there before. By the time I got through these scenes, my appreciation of the story had grown, but then I realised the book hadn’t done anything but relive an old story and I had created the feelings and the atmosphere myself. This was good, although I think it was a happy coincidence.
It must be said that by two thirds of the way through I managed to see past these flaws, and the final twist the story gives is acceptable. While I’m not totally blown away as it does have some serious let downs, it does have some interesting points. I said earlier that this was my first, that I had not read a HP book before. Well I still feel like I haven’t read a HP book, this is more like a spin off or, as I said before, a reunion episode. I look forward now to reading some real Harry Potter.
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