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HP: Order of the Pheonix (movie)
Faker:
Got to agree with what other people have been saying and say this one just felt a bit too rushed, I know there was a lot of material that had to be cut out, but I feel that , even without adding any extra subplots from the book, this film could have / should have been about 20 minutes longer, just to give the film more room to breath.
Also, and I think this has been true of all the films, I found myself filling in gaps with my knowledge of the books. I really can't imagine watching any of these films without any prior knowledge of the source material.
But despite my gripes I think this was one of the better movies, second only to PoA even.
0bsessions:
While it was, like any other movie, not without it's flaws; I actually loved it.
Obvious spoilers ahead:
One of the biggest complaints I've heard around the internet is a lack of proper transition from scene to scene and I didn't see that at all. Most scenes tended to flow naturally to the next and it doesn't exactly take a whole lot of presumption on the part of the audience to see how it got there.
The subtleties were definitely there in many places. A big example that really impressed me early on was Lupin. He looked absolutely fucking haggared. Given that he looked rough around the edges in Prisoner of Azkaban, but here he looked beat the fuck up. He was the first I noted it in and everybody else had it going on, everyone looked tired and worn down, exactly as they should. The only person who looked to be in better shape than before was Sirius, but he really had nowhere to go but up from when last we saw him.
Michael Gambon, for his smaller role, knocked it out of the park for me. He made the most of every single second of screen time. One of my personal favorites was the reluctant look on his face when he retreated from Trelwaney's sacking with Harry quite obviously trying to get his attention.
The newcomers were fantastic. Lynch's Lovegood seems to get lost in the shuffle of all the rave review I've heard for Staunton's role. Lynch absolutely pulled me into the role with her ditzy and spacey performance. Even the vacant look on her face worked. Pretty much exactly as I imagined her.
That's not to detract from Ms. Staunton, who did a brilliant job with Umbridge. The girl I saw it with agreed that, though she didn't look quite like we would picture, she had never been this...unsettling in the books. It'd be really hard to find an actress to have done so well with the role, and I'll take the visual loss for the sheer sugar coated evil Staunton brought to the table.
All the returning regulars pleased me just as well. Rickman was brilliant as always. Maggie Smith, though I would love to have seen more of her, was fantastic as usual. The Twins were outstanding. There were really very few outright lacking performances, in my mind (Though Katie Leung left something to be desired, I'm not sure if that was her or that Cho has always utterly bored me to tears).
I don't believe I've seen anyone argue the merits of the effects and the actions, but they bear mentioning: absolutely spectacular. That final fight at the Department of Mysteries was excellent.
The obvious liberties taken all worked for me. Obviously, there are going to be things cut, but most of the changes to the pacing seemed to make complete sense to me. Most of the sacrifices seem to be insubstantial to the overall plot and experience compared to other things that made it in.
Though I would've loved to see more on Neville and an accurate telling of the original prophecy, a lot of time was saved on that. It would've eaten a good ten to fifteen minutes to really get the meat of that plot.
George and Fred's exit worked fine for me, as most of it was tied to the end of Quidditch and the confiscation of their brooms, something that would've taken a good deal of time to delve into accurately. Coinciding it with OWLs also tied that all up rather nicely.
It would have been nice to see more Kreacher, but he really was just a means to an end in most situations. The way they expedited Harry's decision to head to the Ministry worked perfectly fine for me.
All told, I obviously loved it. I will likely see it again in theaters and will most definitely be buying it on DVD. It'll take at least another viewing for me to decide where it places on my rankings in terms of each movie, but at worst it's number two. If I enjoy it as much the second time through, it'll take the place of Prisoner of Azkaban as my favorite.
Faker:
--- Quote from: 0bsessions on 13 Jul 2007, 06:27 ---
Obvious spoilers ahead:
Michael Gambon, for his smaller role, knocked it out of the park for me. He made the most of every single second of screen time. One of my personal favorites was the reluctant look on his face when he retreated from Trelwaney's sacking with Harry quite obviously trying to get his attention.
--- End quote ---
One thing that annoyed me about that scene, was his "Haven't you all got studying to do" line at the end, seemed a bit deperate, like he was letting Umbridge get to him, which is something I don't think fits in with my vision of Dumbledore. The way I see him, no matter what the situation, no matter what internal turmoil he may be experiencing he always presents this completely unruffuled exterior. It just didn't sit right with me.
--- Quote from: 0bsessions on 13 Jul 2007, 06:27 ---George and Fred's exit worked fine for me, as most of it was tied to the end of Quidditch and the confiscation of their brooms, something that would've taken a good deal of time to delve into accurately. Coinciding it with OWLs also tied that all up rather nicely.
--- End quote ---
I also enjoyed that scene, but really missed the "Give her hell Peeves" moment from the book.
One thing that I couldn't help but noticing, and this sounds horribly fan boy-esqe of me but, isn't Harry's hair supposed to be really unkempt and "untamable" (god that sounds horribly like a line straight from mills and boon, but you know what I mean), yet the whole way through this film, and particularly when he's on his way to the hearing early on, its so perfectly neat. I mean that is something really easy to carry over from the book. It's not something I'd normally complain about, and in fact I'm not complainig per say, but I just couldn't help but notice it.
0bsessions:
The first complaint I can understand, though I don't agree. That's a matter of personal interpretation. To me, in the book, he seemed almost antagonistic in his attempts to cut himself off.
In terms of the last two, it's understandable that neither made it in as neither was specifically covered in any of the movies.
Peeves has been completely missing throughout the first four, so they'd have to introduce him to begin with to get that in there.
In terms of the hair issue, it seems logical to think "Well, it's just a trait of the character, why not carry it over whether it's been outright mentioned or not." The pitfall there is that the audience that hasn't read the books would be absolutely clueless. Common sense dictates that if a student's off to an actual court hearing to decide whether he gets expelled, he'll tidy himself up a bit. There's really no effective quick explanation five movies in that wouldn't leave the audience thinking "Wait, what?"
My only real big, genuine complaint stems more from a glaring mistake made with the fourth one: Where the fuck is Barty Crouch Jr. in all this? He was killed by Dementors in the end of Goblet of Fire, but the movie going audience doesn't know that. They know that he's been captured and that a little bit of veritaserum would clear up the whole Voldemort angle, so where the fuck is he? I'm really displeased that that didn't get covered in the last movie, as I knew they wouldn't have time to establish what happened in this one.
Faker:
Fair enough on all your points, PoA is actually the only one of the films I have seen more than once, so I often forget what has / hasn't been included in the other films.
Like I said, none of my above points where major, or even minor complaints, just things I couldn't help but notice as a fan of the books
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