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Thoughts on order of the Phoenix
Contains spoilers for the movie. I assume that everyone here has already read the book, but in case you don't want to be spoiled for the movie, I'll put my review below the cut:
This may be a little disorganized, since I just got back from the theater and haven't really had time to sort things out in my head, but I just wanted to write down my first impressions.
Overall, it was pretty good. Like Goblet of Fire, I sort of see it as the "Cliff Notes" version of the book--extremely condensed, but it kind of has to be, considering how long the book is. I noticed all the changes, of course, but I think that they managed to do a fairly good job of condensing things like the Occlumency scenes, although I wish they were longer.
The girl who played Luna was brilliant. She had that perfect combination of sereneness and loopiness that I picture in Luna. Ron, as usual, got short shrift in the movie, I felt, but I did like the scene where he stands up for Harry when they first get to school. Dan Radcliffe did a good job of being angry, angsty Harry, but he's nowhere near as angry as he is in the books--a script change rather than an acting problem. I don't know, maybe that's a good thing, since a lot of people don't like CAPLOCKS Harry.
I don't like Sirius in the books, but I love Gary Oldman. There was a nice tenderness in his (too few) scenes with Harry. I did get a sense of slighty creepy slashiness in that scene at the train station, where he's wearing this velvet robe and showing off his bare chest. Should make the Sirry shippers happy, though. ^_^
There's a scene in the battle at the Ministry where Sirius calls Harry "James" by mistake. A change from the book, but I felt it worked. It was sort of like they were trying to capture the essence of the scene in the book where Sirius disapprovingly tells Harry that he's not like James (when he wanted to come visit Harry at Hogwarts and Harry said it was too dangerous), and it ties in with the bit about Molly accusing Sirius of treating Harry like James. I also noticed in the movie more than I did in the book--although I see it now that I look back at it again--that Molly and Sirius seem to be competing for Harry's affection, which makes me both sad and angry. Parents (or parental figures) should never try to make a child choose between them.
I also got a better sense of Sirius's loneliness and despair in the movie, like the scene where he's looking at his burned-out spot on the family tapestry, or the Christmas scene where he's standing all alone across the room while the Weasleys and Harry are opening presents. I feel a lot more sympathy for him here than I do in the book.
And this is totally petty and shallow but--do the movie directors/producers have some kind of obsession with mustaches? Lupin's was bad enough, but what's up with that hairy growth on Sirius's upper lip? He'd be so much more handsome without it, but then, I do like my men clean-shaven. ^_^
Hardly any Lupin at all in the movie, and no scenes of Snape and Lupin together, really, but it doesn't bother me that much because David Thewliss doesn't really do it for me as Lupin. He's a good actor, and I thought he was great in Seven Years in Tibet, but he just doesn't fit my mental image as Lupin. Not to mention I hate the mustache! ;) Ah, I'm so shallow!
The Occlumency scenes were great, although I wanted to see the big confrontation after Harry sees Snape's Worst Memory, with Snape throwing the bottle of cockroaches at him. And I wanted to see the argument between Snape and Sirius over the lessons, and the scene where Harry goes to Lupin and Sirius to talk about his dad. There was a nice intensity, though, and I'm sure that Snarry shippers must be having a field day with the movie. That scene where Snape drags Harry down the stairs, for example, and I almost burst out laughing in the theater when Snape said the line, "I will attempt to penetrate your mind." Reading too much fanfic gives you a dirty mind, I guess--and I don't even like Snarry, or student/teacher fics in general! I feel like I must wash my brain out with bleach now!
And young Snape was wonderful, although that scene was way too short! They obviously cut part of it out, since we saw Lily in the publicity stills and she doesn't show up at all in the movie. Maybe in the "deleted scenes" in the dvd, hopefully. But young Snape just looked so cute and sad and lonely that I just wanted to give him a hug! And I really wanted to kill James! I didn't notice young Lupin, either, although the actor's name appears in the credits.
I didn't really like that they made Cho the snitch, although I understand why they did it, presumably for dramatic effect and to cut out an otherwise unimportant secondary character. The long-haired Ravenclaw boy in the DA was cute--maybe he's supposed to be Michael Corner? I noticed he was sitting next to Ginny in the Hog's Head, and Ginny and Michael were dating in the book.
Let's see...Helena Bonham Carter was great as Bellatrix, and of course Jason Isaacs was gorgeous as Lucius. I was joking with my friends that Lucius must use some kind of magical shampoo to make his hair look so pretty! Actually, one of my friends said that Lucius reminds him of the elves from Lord of the Rings. And I loved the expression on Lucius's face when the prophecy globe broke--you could almost hear him thinking, "Oh, shit!" ^_^
Oh, and I wish we could have seen the hospital scene, with Lockhart, and Neville and his parents, but I didn't really expect them to put it in the movie. Ditto with the Quidditch scenes--I really would have loved to see Luna's lion hat and heard the "Weasley Is Our King" song. Would have liked to see more Draco, too.
Oh, and one more thing--it bugs me that there's not much consistency between the movies, except for 1 and 2 which were both directed by Chris Columbus. Since each subsequent film was done by a different director, they've each tried to put their own stamp on it, which is understandable, but it bothered me that the Dementors looked so different here than they did in movie 3. Now, I hated all the cuts they made to the story in that movie, but I did like the Dementor designs. And since it had already been established how the Dementors looked, couldn't they have tried to make them more similar in this movie? But since Yates will also be directing HBP, maybe the look and feel of this movie will at least carry on into the next.
But overall, I enjoyed the movie and thought it was pretty good. My non-Potter fan friend especially liked the twins and their big leaving scene. Interestingly enough, he didn't have much trouble following the plot, although he did have to ask who "Padfoot" was in the train station scene. He thought at first that the dog was Lupin, since he knew that Lupin is a werewolf. The Dementors were also one of the few things he was confused about, since he didn't realize they were the same creatures from the 3rd movie.
Guess that's it for now. If I think of anything else, I'll edit it in.
EDIT: Forgot to mention how great Imelda Staunton was as Umbridge. She really captured the essence of nastiness covered with a thin veneer of fluffy pink civility. She's one of those villains you love to hate.
Also, got into a discussion with my coworker about the movie, and during the scene in Umbridge's office where she asks Snape for the Veritaserum, my coworker swears that Snape refers to Cho as "Miss Chen" instead of "Miss Chang". At the time I thought it sounded kind of odd but it happened so quickly that I couldn't say for sure. It kind of sounded like "Chan" to me, like he left the "g" off, but I thought maybe it just sounds odd to me because of his accent. Surely the script writer wouldn't make a mistake on something as essential as a character's name would they? (Then again, they did add that "Nigel" character when they could have used Colin Creevey, not to mention putting Padma in Gryffindor.)
Overall, it was pretty good. Like Goblet of Fire, I sort of see it as the "Cliff Notes" version of the book--extremely condensed, but it kind of has to be, considering how long the book is. I noticed all the changes, of course, but I think that they managed to do a fairly good job of condensing things like the Occlumency scenes, although I wish they were longer.
The girl who played Luna was brilliant. She had that perfect combination of sereneness and loopiness that I picture in Luna. Ron, as usual, got short shrift in the movie, I felt, but I did like the scene where he stands up for Harry when they first get to school. Dan Radcliffe did a good job of being angry, angsty Harry, but he's nowhere near as angry as he is in the books--a script change rather than an acting problem. I don't know, maybe that's a good thing, since a lot of people don't like CAPLOCKS Harry.
I don't like Sirius in the books, but I love Gary Oldman. There was a nice tenderness in his (too few) scenes with Harry. I did get a sense of slighty creepy slashiness in that scene at the train station, where he's wearing this velvet robe and showing off his bare chest. Should make the Sirry shippers happy, though. ^_^
There's a scene in the battle at the Ministry where Sirius calls Harry "James" by mistake. A change from the book, but I felt it worked. It was sort of like they were trying to capture the essence of the scene in the book where Sirius disapprovingly tells Harry that he's not like James (when he wanted to come visit Harry at Hogwarts and Harry said it was too dangerous), and it ties in with the bit about Molly accusing Sirius of treating Harry like James. I also noticed in the movie more than I did in the book--although I see it now that I look back at it again--that Molly and Sirius seem to be competing for Harry's affection, which makes me both sad and angry. Parents (or parental figures) should never try to make a child choose between them.
I also got a better sense of Sirius's loneliness and despair in the movie, like the scene where he's looking at his burned-out spot on the family tapestry, or the Christmas scene where he's standing all alone across the room while the Weasleys and Harry are opening presents. I feel a lot more sympathy for him here than I do in the book.
And this is totally petty and shallow but--do the movie directors/producers have some kind of obsession with mustaches? Lupin's was bad enough, but what's up with that hairy growth on Sirius's upper lip? He'd be so much more handsome without it, but then, I do like my men clean-shaven. ^_^
Hardly any Lupin at all in the movie, and no scenes of Snape and Lupin together, really, but it doesn't bother me that much because David Thewliss doesn't really do it for me as Lupin. He's a good actor, and I thought he was great in Seven Years in Tibet, but he just doesn't fit my mental image as Lupin. Not to mention I hate the mustache! ;) Ah, I'm so shallow!
The Occlumency scenes were great, although I wanted to see the big confrontation after Harry sees Snape's Worst Memory, with Snape throwing the bottle of cockroaches at him. And I wanted to see the argument between Snape and Sirius over the lessons, and the scene where Harry goes to Lupin and Sirius to talk about his dad. There was a nice intensity, though, and I'm sure that Snarry shippers must be having a field day with the movie. That scene where Snape drags Harry down the stairs, for example, and I almost burst out laughing in the theater when Snape said the line, "I will attempt to penetrate your mind." Reading too much fanfic gives you a dirty mind, I guess--and I don't even like Snarry, or student/teacher fics in general! I feel like I must wash my brain out with bleach now!
And young Snape was wonderful, although that scene was way too short! They obviously cut part of it out, since we saw Lily in the publicity stills and she doesn't show up at all in the movie. Maybe in the "deleted scenes" in the dvd, hopefully. But young Snape just looked so cute and sad and lonely that I just wanted to give him a hug! And I really wanted to kill James! I didn't notice young Lupin, either, although the actor's name appears in the credits.
I didn't really like that they made Cho the snitch, although I understand why they did it, presumably for dramatic effect and to cut out an otherwise unimportant secondary character. The long-haired Ravenclaw boy in the DA was cute--maybe he's supposed to be Michael Corner? I noticed he was sitting next to Ginny in the Hog's Head, and Ginny and Michael were dating in the book.
Let's see...Helena Bonham Carter was great as Bellatrix, and of course Jason Isaacs was gorgeous as Lucius. I was joking with my friends that Lucius must use some kind of magical shampoo to make his hair look so pretty! Actually, one of my friends said that Lucius reminds him of the elves from Lord of the Rings. And I loved the expression on Lucius's face when the prophecy globe broke--you could almost hear him thinking, "Oh, shit!" ^_^
Oh, and I wish we could have seen the hospital scene, with Lockhart, and Neville and his parents, but I didn't really expect them to put it in the movie. Ditto with the Quidditch scenes--I really would have loved to see Luna's lion hat and heard the "Weasley Is Our King" song. Would have liked to see more Draco, too.
Oh, and one more thing--it bugs me that there's not much consistency between the movies, except for 1 and 2 which were both directed by Chris Columbus. Since each subsequent film was done by a different director, they've each tried to put their own stamp on it, which is understandable, but it bothered me that the Dementors looked so different here than they did in movie 3. Now, I hated all the cuts they made to the story in that movie, but I did like the Dementor designs. And since it had already been established how the Dementors looked, couldn't they have tried to make them more similar in this movie? But since Yates will also be directing HBP, maybe the look and feel of this movie will at least carry on into the next.
But overall, I enjoyed the movie and thought it was pretty good. My non-Potter fan friend especially liked the twins and their big leaving scene. Interestingly enough, he didn't have much trouble following the plot, although he did have to ask who "Padfoot" was in the train station scene. He thought at first that the dog was Lupin, since he knew that Lupin is a werewolf. The Dementors were also one of the few things he was confused about, since he didn't realize they were the same creatures from the 3rd movie.
Guess that's it for now. If I think of anything else, I'll edit it in.
EDIT: Forgot to mention how great Imelda Staunton was as Umbridge. She really captured the essence of nastiness covered with a thin veneer of fluffy pink civility. She's one of those villains you love to hate.
Also, got into a discussion with my coworker about the movie, and during the scene in Umbridge's office where she asks Snape for the Veritaserum, my coworker swears that Snape refers to Cho as "Miss Chen" instead of "Miss Chang". At the time I thought it sounded kind of odd but it happened so quickly that I couldn't say for sure. It kind of sounded like "Chan" to me, like he left the "g" off, but I thought maybe it just sounds odd to me because of his accent. Surely the script writer wouldn't make a mistake on something as essential as a character's name would they? (Then again, they did add that "Nigel" character when they could have used Colin Creevey, not to mention putting Padma in Gryffindor.)
no subject
I enjoyed the movie, I really liked that they kept the schoolgrounds from POA-the vastness of hte ground, the courtyard and the bridge...I love that bridge.
I too was creeped out over the train stations scene...
And movie Sirius was definatley much more pleasing than book Sirius! I even found myself shedding a tear.
The dementers, I thought were pretty much the same except for not wearing a cloack to cover their heads. I thought maybe that was a renagade sign! Maybe they felt they ddint' have to hid their "faces" from gentle folk.
no subject
Gary Oldman is one of my favorite actors, so that helped to make me feel more sympathetic to Sirius. I really want to go write some father-son scenes for Sirius and Harry in my fic now, although I wasn't really planning any.
Ooh, I like your idea about the Dementors--that they're showing their true faces now! Someone should write that into a fic.
Glad you liked the commentary.