Do you have the links to some of those articles or interviews - I think that’d be interesting to read.

Thanks,

David

I think that in this movie, as in movie 4, Gambon portrays an agitated Dumbledore, one who does not exude that essence of calm with which I envision the character. For instance, when they approach the portrait of the Fat Lady outside the Gryffindor common room, Dumbledore has a trembly, out-of-control tone and demeanor. That’s the kind of circumstance where Dumbldore (the character) ought to instill a sense of calm control in those around him. Instead, he seems to do the opposite.

Again, I think this is as much (or more) a matter of direction than one of acting, but I don’t care for it. I’m sorry if you disagree with me. But I appreciate you reading the post and offering your thoughts. Thanks.
David

BTW, did you read #7 yet? I thought it was awesome.

I would agree with you if you were speaking of Gambon’s performance in THE GOBLET OF FIRE. But since you seem to be speaking of his performances in all of the three movies he has appeared in . . . I COMPLETELY DISAGREE WITH YOU.

Thanks for the permission to assign ratings as I see fit — I eventually did go back and find a couple .5’s in your previous reviews. So, in light of this…

My Review:
The “Quest for Glory” series: 9.9

And your thoughts on the hero-mentor relationship are interesting. As is happens, the latest (and final) Harry Potter book have an interesting treatment of that relationship, and the mentor is exposed to be quite as fallible and complex as anyone you might meet on the street. Rowling did a nice job in NOT pigeon holing her protagonists and characters into rote character slots. But I agree, it’s tempting and easy for authors to turn characters into caricatures, and archetypes into cliches.

Actually, what prompted me to comment about this is that reference you made to “the ‘Hero’s Quest’ genre of story telling.” While scrolling through your reviews, that line caught my eye and I read this one first because of it. You may not know (or remember?) why that means anything to me, so let me explain.

“Hero’s Quest” was the original title of an adventure game for PC in an RPG style that was released in 1989 (later named “Quest for Glory”) and spawned a 5-game series over 10 years of excellent, fun adventures. I thought that you were referencing this series, but it appears that you were not. The series doesn’t exactly fit your mold of the “‘Hero’s Quest’ genre” since the hero doesn’t have a singular mentor, although the friendly wizard Erasmus who appears in all 5 games would probably qualify if your criteria were loose enough.

Hmm…sorry for going on this tangent, but just the sight of that title sent me on a nostalgic trip down 10 years of memory lane. Since I’ve already rambled on a lot, I hope I’ve earned an opportunity for a couple mini-1to10 reviews:

The “Quest for Glory” series: 9
It’s really hard for me to not give this an absolute 10, but let me try to be critical. The second game, “Trial by Fire” had one of the best stories, but they never made a remake to update the graphics from EGA to at least VGA-quality like they did with the first one. While that’s not a big issue for hard-core fans like me, there are a couple things like that that make it less-than-perfect. Also, I would’ve loved it if they came out with another game, or 5 more games in the series, but I realize that wasn’t what they had planned for the story arc and they did end it in spectacular fashion for the fans. But if I’m not going to give it a 10, I’d really like to give it at least a 9.5, but I notice you seem to use whole numbers for your reviews, so I’ll keep up the trend and try to be happy with giving it just a 9.

The hero-mentor relationship: 6
You are absolutely right in that this is a common theme in many stories and there are several ways in which it can be played out. In general, I think this type of relationship is a positive thing that helps an audience understand the level of competency of the protagonist, as well as provide insight into what adventures and dangers lie ahead. However, I’m not so hot on it for a few reasons. First, while this type of relationship is common both in storytelling and in life, it is can be used as a crutch in stories and may actually act to prevent us from seeing new and creative ways for the hero to learn and discover the secrets he/she must uncover. Second, I’m a big advocate of listening to several viewpoints on an issue as opposed to having a go-to-guy that has his answer to everything — while it’s not always portrayed like this, the hero is often seen to assume that everything his mentor says is always 100% true, which is fantasy (and that’s ok, but I’d still like to see other opinions on the matter). Lastly, I’m a big fan of heroes that go out and take a little bit of info from everyone and figure things out on their own, much like is done in the “Quest for Glory” series. Ok, I just had to bring this rant back around to my favorite adventure game series of all time to wrap this up. Thanks for the time and keep the reviews coming!

Curious? No, probably not, but I thought I’d provide some reference anyway:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Glory

[Just to be clear, "Quest for Glory" has nothing to do with the board game "Hero Quest" which I know nothing about nor do I have any knowledge of its computerized version. But to the best of my knowledge, the "Quest for Glory" series whoops that game's ass.]