Movie Review

[etakyma]

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

So Gwen and I went to the midnight IMAX showing last night. By the way? IMAX with 3-D? Totally worth the price of admission. The twenty-five minute 3-D "bit" was *really* well done. And since Gwen just interviewed the president of IMAX we thought we should go see what the shouting was all about.

The screenplay for this movie was a million times better than the screenplay for the other four movies. So yes, this is the best movie adaptation thus far. The effects keep getting better and better, and the movie fixes some of what was wrong with the book. Namely telling Harry that the connection to Voldemort was a two-way street. And I love that those who went with Harry to the Department of Mysteries were with him though the whole trek - he didn't lose one every few feet the way it seemed like he did in the book.

Umbridge was evil in such a beautiful way - and the blood quill was marvelously done. We decided that Neville and Luna are made of WIN! and we missed Capslock!Harry - as Harry only really had two or three places where he lost his temper.

No destruction of Dumbledore's office - also missed. And they changed the way Sirius died, a bit. Bellatrix killed him *before* he went though the veil - but Harry got the "I'm very proud of you, you did everything right" speech just before the big fight - I did love that Remus had to physically restrain him from entering the doorway. And Kudos to the sets department for getting the doorway right! It looked fabulous. The whole department of mysteries sequence was REALLY WELL DONE, IMO. And I love that death eaters travel in black smoke whereas Order members travel in white smoke.

And we (and Harry) never get to hear the whole prophecy! Since this is really the cliffs notes version of the book, perhaps the *only* thing important in the prophecy is that Harry realizes that he has to kill or be killed by Voldemort - since that is really all we find out. None of the "born as the seventh month dies/born to people who thrice-defied him" stuff - and they leave out the "it could be you or Neville" stuff.

Also - I totally missed them going to St. Mungos to see Arthur. They don't find out about Neville's parents! All we get is Sirius saying they suffered a fate worse than death, and then Neville telling Harry that while he's really proud to be their son he doesn't want anyone to know what happened to them. THEY NEVER TELL US what happened to them. Other than they were tortured under Crucio. None of the angst of visiting his insane parents once a month. Talk about scarring a kid for life.

Are they purposefully surrounding Harry with tall people to make him look smaller/younger? Because the camera angles in some of the conversation shots make Dan Radcliffe look positively *short* when some of the other shots (full body shots) show him to be a very nice sized human being. I know he is supposed to be about fifteen in this movie, whereas the actor is just about to turn eighteen (so he was probably sixteen when filming), so they have to do *something* to arrest his growth, but really! At some points he looks to be just about the same height as someone in one shot, and then all of a sudden he is looking *up* at them when we get close in!

Grawp was just enough funny for that part of the movie. I loved the scenes in the forbidden forest. Especially Umbridge's encounter with the Centaurs.

So Loony Luna Lovegood gets my vote for BEST! She really got the portrayal spot-on! Well done!

Other things I noticed - Rupert Grint really does kind of resemble a big red-headed gorilla. I think it is the way he slouches. And I can't remember what fanfic I was reading that someone described Ron that way.

And the Weasley Twins are also made of WIN! \o/ Their leaving Hogwarts celebration was perfect! I loved the fireworks!

So yeah, the movie was far better than I expected it to be, while still trying to cram everything important into 2 hours and 15 minutes. I think if you haven't seen either the other four movies or read the books you would be completely lost as to what is going on and why.

Just my two knuts.