Something 4 The Weekend by Paul Bullock

Insert amusing comment here…

Welcome ladies, gentlemen and film fans everywhere to entertainment manchester's weekly feature 'Something for the Weekend'. Every Friday, we deliver to you the best (and, in the interest of balance, worst) of this week's new cinematic releases. If, as Forrest Gump once might have said were he a film fan, cinema really is like a box of chocolates, then think of us as your mini-menu, steering you away from the coffee creams and towards the Turkish delights of the movie world.

The Big Picture

Like the 'rage' virus in 28 Days Later, the Harry Potter craze has spread across the land – nay, the world – with frightening pace. Since J.K Rowling first unleashed the boy wizard in 1997's The Philosopher's Stone, kids from Taiwan to Timbucktoo and beyond have been lapping up every last morsel of this George Lucas bothering seven-instalment franchise they can possibly lay their grubby little mitts on.

But it's not just the kiddies that are digging the magical world of Hogwarts – adults are just as bewitched by Rowling's world of goblins, giants and the one who shall not be named as the youngsters. Book after book, film after film, the Harry Potter saga rakes in the cash, being so in demand by its wide demographic that special hardback 'adult editions' of the books have been created – presumably so the adults who really should know better don't get too embarrassed while reading the latest chapter on the bus into work. For a fantasy book about a load of kids, such cultural dominance is pretty impressive. After all, the world of wizards and trolls is normally the exclusive domain of socially outcast geeks, a niche market populated by comic book shop owners, internet message board patrons and secret Dungeons and Dragons societies. So how has a set of books (and films) set in a normally marginalised market set the world alight as it has?

Of course, the kiddies' love of it is easily accountable. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that if you write a book about kids, then kids will lap it up in their thousands – humans are egotistical animals, after all. It's what Jacqueline Wilson has done with her Tracey Beaker series and what Roald Dahl did in the 60s to such timeless effect. But there's more to it than just that. In a society as uncertain as the one we live in today is, where the temptation is to create watered down, impotent kids’ stories design to comfort rather than entertain the wee ones, Rowling is to be commended for stories which treat kids like adults, filling her tales with genuine moments of darkness, heartbreak and tragedy. She has created stories which speak to rather than down to her audience – an audience she seems to know through and through – and much to the delight of embattled English teachers everywhere, made reading giant, doorstop novels cool. How long that interest will last after the final novel has rolled off the production line, however, remains to be seen...

But for all this commendable work, Rowling is no Dahl. As someone who was (and still is in many ways) an unashamed Dahl fan, perhaps my opinion is slightly biased, but for books which are about witchcraft and wizardry, Harry Potter surprisingly lacks the endlessly magical charm of Dahl at his very best. It's hardly surprising because, judging by the films, these are not great books. Fun, sure. Exciting, yeah. But great? Not a chance. What they most definitely are, however, are brilliantly conceived books. What Rowling has, quite brilliantly, done is to take a classic genre and all the trends, staples and tropes which go with it and update it, give it a modern spin and sell it to a new audience.

This may sound cynical, but trust me, it's not meant to be. Her idea is a stroke of genius, and is creativity in its purest form. Take a bit of column A, a bit of Column B, and a bit from Column C, stick 'em together, mix 'em up and come up with something new. She's hardly the first to do it, either. Look at some of the most popular and successful series of recent times: Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They may exist in separate media, but their respective creators – J.R.R Tolkien, George Lucas and Joss Whedon – each did the same thing: take inspiration from other mediums, other stories and even real life to create a new story quite unlike anything anyone had seen before.

Tolkien took the First World War along with Norse myth and English folklaw to create the tale of Frodo and his battle to destroy the One Ring; George Lucas took the films of Akira Kurosawa, jetted them into space and in the Vietnam obsessed cinema landscape of the 70s, gave the audience what it wanted – escapism; and, into the 90s, Joss Whedon took the ideas of vampires – which throughout the 80s had been used by horror directors as a metaphor for HIV – stuck them in modern day suburban America, threw in a dash of pop culture awareness and set a teenage girl loose on them.

Even today, runaway US TV hit Veronica Mars, about a teenage sleuth trying to root out her friend’s murderer, is being described as being The OC as written by Dashiell Hammet. Such creativity is what novel writing and film making is all about and it is to Rowling's eternal credit that she has created something as inventive as Potter is.

But there's still something which doesn't quite gel with me about the success of Potter. Sure I understand why the kids enjoy it and why it has been such a runaway success. But why, I cannot understand, has it been such a hit with adults and particularly women? It's a toughie, particularly as I know people who will openly chastise me for reading comic books, Lord of the Rings and watching Star Wars, but have no qualms about reading Potter, despite the fact they are all broadly works of fantasy. But there's one notable difference which marks Potter out from the rest of the fantasy market: it is not aimed at men.

So often seen as a boys-only club, the sci-fi/fantasy genre can often seem so off-putting to women because, by and large, it doesn't seem to speak to them. Go in to any comic book shop, take a look at the goods on display and witness shelf after shelf of impossibly proportioned, scantily clad women adorning 90 per cent of the comics, magazines and merchandise up for sale. Obviously this is not the case for every comic, but to look at the list of female comic book characters – Wonder Woman, Spider-Man's The Black Cat, Red Sonja, Powergirl, Batgirl, She-Hulk and Supergirl – is to see a list of women who are targeted square and true at fifteen year old boys.

But it doesn't always have to be this way. Some female characters can be taken seriously and, surprisingly given her post Batman Returns reputation, Catwoman is one of them. The character fleshed out on screen by Michelle Pfeiffer is often hard to take seriously, cavorting around with a whip and figure hugging PVC as she does. But she is a character as popular with women as she is with men, and when written by the right creative team, she uses her sexuality to her advantage, rather than just as eye candy, thus turning her into a real character. This female independence is what made Buffy so popular and where George Lucas went wrong in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, turning Padme into a whining housewife, rather than spunky Leia-alike.

Of course, sexuality doesn't come into Potter. But the point remains the same. The character that so many women relate to here is Hermione. She is a doorway into the abstract world of goblins, just as awkward teen Peter Parker was my doorway into the world of comics. Indeed, Rowling herself has admitted that if any one character in the book represents her, it is Hermione – and it shows through. Harry aside, Hermione is the most well written, well rounded and complete character in the series, giving as good as she gets, supplying a certain level of comic relief, but also attaining a pleasing amount of pathos. As far as I'm concerned, it is she that so many women respond to, the thing which makes the series so popular and, despite my earlier disparaging comments about her writing, is what makes Rowling such an intelligent story conceiver.

The latest Potter instalment, The Goblet of Fire, sees things get particularly dark as hormones and evil take their deadly hold on Hogwarts. The school is hosting the coveted Triwizard Quidditch Tournament and, lo and behold, dear old Harry is selected as a competitor, meaning he must tackle three deadly tasks as darkness rounds on him. How will he escape this one, will he get a date for the school dance and when will everybody realise that Dumbledore has turned into Michael Gambon? Find out from today...

Also Playing...

Elsewhere this week, there's an intriguing blend of curios for the non-Potterites to get their teeth into. First up, Factotum. This Matt Dillon starring adaptation of Charles Bukowski's novel follows Henry Chinaski, one of life's drifters, addicted to betting, birds and booze who can't see to hold down a job, no matter how little he tries. And that's it. We've seen it already and it's well worth a look.

Next up, here are the Rolling Stones. Well, just one Stone actually. The dead one. No, not Mick Jagger but founding member Brian Jones. The Stones of course are no strangers to the world of films. Not only were they at the centre of seminal rock doc Gimme Shelter, which unwittingly captured the tragic death of one of their fans, but I'm sure I saw them shambling about with the rest of the living dead in Land of the Dead recently. Okay, okay, enough dead jokes now. On with the preview.

Directed by Steven Woolley, who rose to fame producing the likes of Company of Wolves and The Crying Game, Stoned focuses not only on the life of Jones, but also 1960s England as a whole, looking to explode the myth that it was all sex, drugs and rock and roll. Rock biopics are often tough to pull off; after all, how do you get someone to play an icon like Mick Jagger without it seeming like a cheap impersonation? Stoned though promises to be different, looking like a thoroughly authentic resurrection of the 60s. Jones was always a, let's say, tough to like figure, but seeing as he was the driving force in one of Britain's most important bands, he's sure to make an engrossing on screen presence, one who will be riveting for both fans and non-fans alike.

Staying with all things controversial, next up is The Libertine. This Johnny Depp starring romp has been on the shelf since last year when it was due to follow Finding Neverland in the increasing list of Depp releases and as such this is sure to be a much anticipated release. But unlike the likes of Neverland, Pirates of the Caribbean and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Libertine doesn't look like the kind of film his ever-expanding group of teenage fans will flock to see.

A period drama, it follows notoriously debauched John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester as he drinks and sleeps his way through 17th Century England. So, why's he having a film made about him, you might think? Well, Wilmot was as prolific a writer as he was a womaniser and is famous for writing biting satirical poetry – one of the reasons Depp was so attracted to him as a character. It's been postponed for so long more because of financial troubles rather than any questions over quality and with the ever watchable Depp in the lead role, it's sure to be an intriguing tale.

Finally, rather more sedate is Separate Lies. Gosford Park writer Julian Fellows' first film as director, it is a loose adaptation of Nigel Balchin's novel A Way Through The Woods and follows the lives of James and Anne Manning (Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson respectively). They live a perfect middle class life together with respectable jobs and a nice, big house in Buckinghamshire. However, when their housekeeper's husband is killed mysteriously after the pair met dodgy Bill Bule (Rupert Everett), their perfect lives become shrouded by lies. It's certainly an intriguing, if clichéd, plot and with Fellows writing it's sure to be a slow-burner that will get at least the Daily Mail readers flocking to their local multiplexes in their droves.

NEXT WEEK: We’re gonna need a bigger boat as Flightplan, Everything Is Illuminated, Mrs Henderson Presents, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and – oh joy – The Transporter 2 are all released.