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Harry Potter / Order of the Phoenix
- Thread starter Alluveal
- Start date
B5_Obsessed
Regular
I actually disliked this one the most. This is the first book I've actually "read" (on audio), so maybe my impression is colored differently for the first time, but I found the movie's style to be very choppy, with a lot of montages, Daily Prophet headlines and such, being used to move the plot along. Radcliffe's acting is getting better and better, but almost every other character was minimized in the film. Even the FX-laden finale seemed emotionally flat. The book always felt like a stop-gap, in-between sort of thing to me and the movie has the same feel. As one reviewer said, it's a necessary film, but also one of the least enjoyable.
Granted, some people disagree completely. It's always amazing to see the different opinions.
Granted, some people disagree completely. It's always amazing to see the different opinions.
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darth_librarian
Regular
I did the same thing in a Stately home I visited on Saturday. Went around the library wonder why on earth they had arranged the books in the y way they had. Best guess was that is was to look pretty.
Back on topic, I will try to see this but am off on holiday this week...
Back on topic, I will try to see this but am off on holiday this week...
Chilli
High Treason Prevention Officer
I was quite disappointed. The direction was good, but the script left to be desired.
I think it tried to stick to the book too much .. or something. GoF, by far the best HP movie so far, was also the one that took the most liberties with the book, I believe.
Also .. I know it's hard with this kind of movie, to decide what stays in and what goes out. But some of the choices in this one were a bit .. incoherent.
They leave in the Dementor attack on Harry .. but leave out the line Umbridge mutters to Harry and Hermione clarifying that she was behind it ..eventhough they have the scene in which that line was dropped.
They go to all the effort of introducing Kreacher .. but skip the part where he betrays the Order.
All together .. somewhere on par with PS. Not nearly as painfully dull as CoS, but not in a league with GoF, and also less interesting than PoA.
I think it tried to stick to the book too much .. or something. GoF, by far the best HP movie so far, was also the one that took the most liberties with the book, I believe.
Also .. I know it's hard with this kind of movie, to decide what stays in and what goes out. But some of the choices in this one were a bit .. incoherent.
They leave in the Dementor attack on Harry .. but leave out the line Umbridge mutters to Harry and Hermione clarifying that she was behind it ..eventhough they have the scene in which that line was dropped.
They go to all the effort of introducing Kreacher .. but skip the part where he betrays the Order.
All together .. somewhere on par with PS. Not nearly as painfully dull as CoS, but not in a league with GoF, and also less interesting than PoA.
Sindatur
Regular
Kreacher apparently has some important part of Book 7, they had considered cutting him, and JKR told them something to the effect of "well, you can do that if you want, but, you'll be in a bind when you get to Movie 7", so they decided they needed to at least introduce him. I don't know why they are so worried about keeping the movies under 3 2 1/2 hours, both GoF and OotP would've been so much less choppy had they just added another 15-30 more minutes, even PoA could've used an extra 5-10 minutes to better explain the Marauders. I understand the theater owners want their maximum screenings per day, but, people would continue coming, so in the long run, the theater owners would still make the same amount of money, and I jsut don't buy they are worried about the kids not being able to sit through a movie that's over 2 1/2 hours. At the very elast, you'd think they could film a 3 hour movie, and chop out the 1/2 hour for theaters, and then put it back in on the DVD, as with the LotR extended editions.
Chilli
High Treason Prevention Officer
I actually think the ideal format for the HP books would be to have one TV miniseries for each movie. Or a "normal" British TV show that runs seven years, with about 8 hour-long episodes in each season.
There's just way too much in the book to somehow get it into the format they're trying to get it into without it being choppy. No matter how well-directed it is, it'll still feel like a speedy summary .. which isn't too interesting, really.
When you consider all the characters you've got, and how much depth they have in the books .. and then have Severus Snape maybe have 3 MInutes of screen time over two movies .. something's off.
There's just way too much in the book to somehow get it into the format they're trying to get it into without it being choppy. No matter how well-directed it is, it'll still feel like a speedy summary .. which isn't too interesting, really.
When you consider all the characters you've got, and how much depth they have in the books .. and then have Severus Snape maybe have 3 MInutes of screen time over two movies .. something's off.
I enjoyed it but probably need to see it again. I always spend too much of the first go through comparing the movie to the book. There was nothing off-putting for me this time like the weirdly upbeat ending of Goblet or leaving out the ten second explanation of the map from Prisoner. The only real complaint was that compressing everything seemed to make the emotional high points flat.
A_Ranger
Regular
As with all the Harry Potter movies, I have a love/hate relationship, because they always end up really screwing some things up that make no sense and/or completely conflict with the spirit of the book. However, after seeing this one twice, I really like it. It is easily my favorite of the movies.
Although, they are total idiots for a few things: a) Harry listening to the prophecy in the ministry. Umm...hello? Only Dumbledore and Harry are supposed to hear it (until he tells Ron and Hermione). One of the best moments in that book is when Harry, after all that he's been through and losing Sirius, gets the bomb of the prophecy dropped on him. b) Although I liked what they did with the possession scene at the end, they really jumped the gun. Harry doesn't really know that Voldemort has no friends or love in his live until Half Blood Prince when he studies Voldemort's past.
Oh well. Still enjoyable
Although, they are total idiots for a few things: a) Harry listening to the prophecy in the ministry. Umm...hello? Only Dumbledore and Harry are supposed to hear it (until he tells Ron and Hermione). One of the best moments in that book is when Harry, after all that he's been through and losing Sirius, gets the bomb of the prophecy dropped on him. b) Although I liked what they did with the possession scene at the end, they really jumped the gun. Harry doesn't really know that Voldemort has no friends or love in his live until Half Blood Prince when he studies Voldemort's past.
Oh well. Still enjoyable
admiraldave
Regular
I enjoyed it, though it did feel somewhat cramped. I'm quite impressed with the amount of the book that got crammed into the movie, and it stands up reasonably well by itself.
Sindatur
Regular
I enjoyed it, and thought they did a great job with the amount of time they had to work with. GoF was incoherent in the beginning (before school), OotP didn't suffer this fate. Certainly it's a shame what got left how and little screen time some moments or characters got, but, overall, very well done, what did get put in was very well done. Luna, Tonks and Umbridge were all fabulously done. (My lover isn't a book reader and he was afraid Luna would be killed)
