The Climax Syndrome

The Harry Potter directors seem to be in some sort of a fix altogether. I hope they come out of it by November 2008 when Harry Potter 6 is scheduled to come to the theatres.

Each time they are on the road to make a great movie, the climax strikes them in the face and spoils the show. Post Chamber of Secrets they (HP directors) have never managed to give an outstanding climax.

In Prisoner of Azkaban, they devastated it all by rushing the climax like an avalanche and all of it stormed out by burning a hole through Box-Office sales. In Goblet of Fire, it all went even more haywire. Probably, the best climax book-wise was made into a kind of on-stage drama. What should've been a stunning display of fear and chills looked like a formality. The Death Eaters looked like a bunch of fools. Not to mention, Voldemort appeared more of a lunatic and not a Dark Lord.

But in my view, the worst blunder was made by Mr David Yates. The Order of the Phoenix which is a book of more talks and less action had some good hard-to-find action in the climax. But Mr Director, after making a fantastic movie for the better part, decided to fall into the syndrome once more. It was like the budget had all of a sudden finished. Scenes looked slashed and un-accounted for and what could've been the best Hollywood climax ever was rolled into a ten-minute affair and next time you saw closely, the credits were rolling on the screen. What a way to end a movie???

Now that's why I call this a syndrome because it repeats again and again. Only Great Chris Columbus contrived to save himself from this charge. The climax of Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets were better than what the book said and they greatly added to the film's grandeur and it's identity as a work.

Now, two more installments remain in the series and I hope the Directors come to their senses a little bit. A last two should at least be better than the first two.