I'm a fairly big fan of the books, re-re-read the entire series and to me, JKR's style of writing is just about light enough not to feel like saying "Get to the point please!". They started as children's books, but eventually became just normal books for any audience. Compare the last book with the first one and you'll see what I mean. This works very well because the heroes grow up with each book/school-year and the menace and danger grows with it.
What I always found to be the decisive hook in the books was that nothing is ever clear until the very end. Throughout the plot you'd have hints and little mysteries, each making the reader pose questions and boosting the desire to have them answered - thus leading to the reader not being able to put down the book until the very end. What also is great are the characters of course and the over all world the story takes place in. It's incredibly detailed and cohesive, following it's own logic and social rules. JRK is therefore to me a quite comparable writer to Tolkien.
I don't particularly like the movies, because IMO they approach the subject matter from a stupid angle. I've watched all of the movies up until (excluding) the newest one. There is a heavy focus on making the wizard world come to life with CGI and etc, which is fine by me. It actually is one of the strong points of the movies IMO, partially because I imagine the wizard world in a similar way. What the movies totally and absolutely FAIL to capture is that decisive hook each book has - the big mysteries each book has (who took the sorcerer's stone from Gringotts? Who put Harry's name into the Goblet?) that kept me reading. In the movies, because of that short format, entire subplots (which were essential to the total surprise one gets at the end of a HP book) needed to be cut, therefore flattening the experience to a sequence of fascinating special effects with some drama/action/comedy.
In short, the movies lack the breadth and depth of the books. If the books are a 3 dimensional experience, the movies are only a 2 dimensional one.
I don't think this was inevitable though. I love the LotR series of books, and also love the movies. Why? Because Peter Jackson actually tried to do the books justice. This is of course partially because the LotR books are a cultural phenomenon and had been around for decades at the point Jackson was going to make movies out of them. There was a lot of expectation to live up to for him. Another reason was that Jackson was a big (no pun intended) fan himself, and an insightful one who knew what he was doing. He knew enough about the essence of the books to be able to determine what aspects from them were absolutely important to capture a LotR experience, and had enough cinematographic insight and skill to find a way to realize that experience on screen. A result of that is that each book was made into a 3hour long movie (and more if you count out the cut scenes), where every scene is effectively driving things forward. They have the right pacing, the right acting, the right scenery. EVERYTHING. He knew what was okay to cut out of the movie plot.
The HP movies on the other hand were handed around from director to director, each not being able to build much on what the previous director had done, and therefore taking a lot of liberty with the movie. Another thing is that the HP books were widely regarded as simplistic children's novels and that those kids wouldn't mind if large portions of the stories would be cut out, just as long as the spectacle on screen was of high production value. Kids, the target audience would also not be able to sit through anything longer than 2 hours and so we have the dilemma. They were too sure that a series of HP movies, what with the mainstream hype already there because of the books would automatically generate tons of cash. They were right. Making an ACTUAL movie adaptation for the books, capturing JKR's magic on screen? Not needed to make more money.
Which is why I'm fairly disappointed. I only like the movies in that they feature some good actors and yes, the spectacle is indeed enjoyable enough to warrant going to the cinema for me. I wish that at some point in the future a director like Peter Jackson with a real respect for the books who knows his/her art comes along to give it a good shot.
