Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

[imoldfashioned]

Ok, I'll 'fess up, I saw this last night.

Overall, I really enjoyed the film. The book was so long and plot dense that I wasn't sure how they were going to translate it to the screen but they did a nice job (although I would have cut the plotline with the giant brother). It is definitely suffers from "middle book" syndrome.

Daniel Radcliffe is improving as an actor with every movie--he's really quite good here. I wanted more screen time for the adult actors--Emma Thompson, David Thewlis and Maggie Smith are all on screen for "blink and you'll miss them" amounts of time. Alan Rickman is fantastic in his few scenes and Imelda Staunton was perfectly cast. I also prefer Michael Gambon to Richard Harris.

Prisoner of Azkaban is still my favorite, but this film was very enjoyable. Fun to see it with a full theater too!

 

[gluegungeisha]

Oooh, I can't wait to see it!

 

[scotrace]

Just saw it an hour ago! We enjoyed it.

Harry Potter wears a nice long-pointy collar shirt with undercurve.

 

[dundeedavie]

i'm looking forward to seeing it , i've "listened " to the book (no time to read yet 8 hours a day to listen to my ipod)

funny you mention the half-brother storyline as when listening to it i felt it was pedestrian

 

[AlanC]

My wife and I took a rare evening out yesterday (well, early evening--in time for matin?©e prices! ) to watch the new Harry Potter movie. We're both fans of the books and the movies. I think they did a very good job with it, and my wife liked it even better than I did, I think. Adapting such a long book, including back story and keeping the movie length within reason really is quite a challenge. I think they did as well as they could. If you like the series, it's certainly worth seeing.

We're really looking forward to the book next week.

 

[Marcus]

I think of all the movies so far, this one has been slowest in terms of wizardry and "wow", but the deepest in plot and development of Harry as a person. He's really a tortured soul dealing with alot of things. I have a feeling that there is big fight coming up. We saw a glimpse of the "battle-lines" that were drawn 14 years ago (according to the storyline). Bravo to Harry who has come into his own "warrior sense" and has taken the reigns in terms of readying himself to do battle with you know who.

 

[imoldfashioned]

I agree Marcus. I thought the scenes of Harry as teacher/leader of the order at school were especially good and showed the development in his character.

 

[rebelgtp]

think i might have to go catch this one tomorrow. i just hope they did the book justice.

 

[DanielJones]

We took it in last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Yes, there were certain things missing or changed around to suit the film format, but that is to be expected with such a plot heavy film. All in all they kept the main core of the story intact and just did away with the distractions and filler. I particularly enjoyed the relationship with Harry and his Godfather Sirius Black. There was a definite family chemistry there that was well rounded. Thumbs up!

Cheers!

Dan

 

[Marcus]

We took it in last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Yes, there were certain things missing or changed around to suit the film format, but that is to be expected with such a plot heavy film. All in all they kept the main core of the story intact and just did away with the distractions and filler. I particularly enjoyed the relationship with Harry and his Godfather Sirius Black. There was a definite family chemistry there that was well rounded. Thumbs up!

Cheers!

Dan

good point..you finally get to see Sirius and Harry interact and make that relationship real. I'll be honest I've never read the books, but have always enjoyed the films (kind of have to when you've got young kids). This installment definitely offers the most as far as showing the torment that Harry goes through. Really makes you realize how dangerous the "magical" world is.


What's her name in Pink bothered me and I'm glad in the end.............

 

[zeus36]

Got to go with a negative review here.........

The film lacked the fun and wonderment of the previous flims. I found it to be just too dark to enjoy. Hogwarths lost the magical appeal it had in the past and just became a background as did Harry's two friends.

This movie was supposed to answer some questions about Harry's connection to "he who shall not be named" according to a behind-the-scenes special on cable but it raised a lot more questions than answers.

I've waited for some time for the film so maybe my expectations were too high.

 

[DanielJones]

Well Zeus, unfortunately the books do the same thing. They get darker as they reach the end. Even the "Half Blood Prince" is darker than this one in the books as though a Dementor is in the room while you read it. I'm rather sure that the last book won't have the joy that the first two books did. There are little fun moments in the books but they are outweighed by the impending storm to come. If you haven't read the books yet, I would suggest doing so. They fill in a lot of answers that the films do not. Anyway the films seem to follow the darkness that the books do and for the most part have kept faithful to the core of the story.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[AlanC]

Yes, I've seen a review or two discussing how this movie just seems joyless, etc. Well, yes, that's part of the point! I think 'joyless' is going too far, but still it is a time of crisis. It is time for people to decide where they stand and what they are prepared to sacrifice. Such times are never pleasant, but they are real.

 

[Twitch]

My wife loves the Harry Potter movies for some reason even though she could care less for sci-fi, fantasy or anything remotely like that.[huh] I think the bottom line is they're simply entertaining.

 

[ScionPI2005]

I have a confession I must make. I haven't read the fifth or sixth book...and by the look of my schedule, there is no way I could do that in time to get the seventh book and read it before common discussion, media, and what have you reveals the resolution.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the series. In fact, I loved the first four books that I actually did read, and I do own all the released movies to this point. I guess I'm just a busy bee in life (seeing as how I don't have much time to read novels of any sort anyway).

I will definitely be seeing the fifth movie. I was actually thinking about maybe doing that today. I have a day off from work and could treat myself to an outing. I guess if that happens, I shall post my thoughts and review here within due time.

 

[anabolina]

I saw this at the midnight showing last week and loved it. After the disapointing Transformers midnight showing, I was ready for a movie I could actually like, and this delivered for me. Yes tehy made a lot of changes, but it was the longest book and was made into the shortest movie. lol I really think this is my favorite so far and the midnight showing crowd certainly helped.

I planned to see it wityh just a couple of sisters, my brother, and my aunt. But it turned out that my aunt brought another aunt, a cousin, 2 friends of my cousin and their parents. And my sister brought 4 of her friends who thankfully I did NOT need to drive home. Also, we were really surprised when another aunt and uncle and their kids showed up. Oh and there was another cousin and her 2 kids. And one of the workers was another cousin's stepdaughter. And there were also a couple family's from church that we knew. All in all, knowing a lot of people in the theater somehow made the experience even more special. I'm just surprised we were all in the same theater of the 6 that played HP-OOTP.

I loved the Luna character, she was perfect for me, but I suppose I just love the character in general, after all I named my dog for her. lol

 

[Doctor Strange]

I went with my kids last night. Overall, I thought it was excellent, with a few minor carps:

It could have been 15 or 20 minutes longer. It needed a bit more humor and a little more "ordinary" (that is, non-dark) stuff. The titular Order of the Phoenix was hardly featured, and interesting characters like Tonks and Kreacher barely registered. The story with Hagrid's half-brother was disappointingly underdeveloped. The Weasley Twins' departure - a highlight of the book - got the fireworks right, but left out all the important dialog! Likewise, the final fight in the Ministry over the Prophecy was very well done, but the details and importance of the Prophecy itself was underexplained - it was just a plot device, a Maguffin. I also thought some of the writing/directing choices were odd, and far too much use was made of montages of Daily Prophet articles to get across the plot (even though I admire this as a delightful Old Hollywood technique.)

But they got the most essential stuff mostly right. The actress who played Luna Lovegood was *perfect* and had fascinating screen presence. Imelda Staunton was great as Umbridge (as I knew she would be.) Much of the returning supporting cast was in fine form - Rickman, Oldman, Issacs, Fiennes, Gambon - though some characters basically had blink-and-you'll-miss-them cameos, like Lupin and Trelawney. (And Maggie Smith looked simply *awful* - I hope that she'll be able to continue to appear in the next two films!) And the main cast all did fine, though am I only one who thinks that Harry and Cho have zero romantic chemistry? (I did like that Ginny kept shooting jealous glances at them.)

Anyway, while it may not be the best film in the series, it continues things very well. The series is progressing well...

 

[Edward]

I didn't think Harry and Cho had much chemistry in the book either - but wasn't that the point, awkward teen infatuation?

There are a lot of bits and peices that they could have left out of the film here as a smiple adaptation of the book, but I know JKR has been very hands on with the whole series (control was a condition of her agreeing to films, and she has really stuck to the integrity of the books, for instacne she prevented them from Americanising "troll bogies" to "troll boogers".... don't know about you, but I don't think the average American is quite as dumb as Hollywood execs seem to think...). A lot of the things that seem like pointless inclusions here are likely to be significant later on. I know JKR refused to let them take out Kreacher because he has an important role in the final book (which of course none of the studio people had read at that time).

I've only seen the third one. It was.... okay. Good film, but I preferred the book. I think as they get longer, they'll have to simplify more and more. I personally really like that they get darker as the series goes on.