Saturday, July 14, 2007

My thoughts on Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix SPOILERS

1st off, it was surreal to sit there, waiting for a film that it feels like just yesterday I was reading the first half to the kids. Wow.

I really liked it. Let's get into what was cut and was missed...

From the book that was removed or changed)

The constant owls and letters at the Dursleys (including the howler for Aunt Petunia, the time alone with Tonks as Harry packed (we get the feeling of what Harry might want to be an Auror from that part), Lupin showed up at the Dursleys too, Ginny chewing out Harry, most of the O.W.L. stuff, Dobby showing Harry the room, the Twins saying they used it before, the hospital stuff including the return of Lockhart and the tear jerking scene with Nevel and his parents, the time on the Hogwarts express with Luna Ginny and Nevel, the quittich with Ron, Arther Weasley's office, Hermonie and Ron as Prefects, the sacking of Hagrid where McGonnigal is hurt (but I've seen her looking 'hurt' in some pics so that may be a deleted scene), Trelauney's centaur replacement, Ginny and co guarding Umbridge's door (but when they brought in Nevel it looked like that was missing, it was choppy so maybe another deleted scene?) and any mention of the Bat Bogey hex.
There were other things too.


And what do I say about that? Who cares?

I really liked it. I mean they had Fred & George's products, Ginny showing how powerful she is and foreshadowing her feeling about Harry next film, the twins exit, Snape's lessons, Kreature, the battle at the end...
So many good parts. I really like how they did the movie. They were able to cover all the important parts and keep the series on track.

It's interesting how, at the end, they reshaped Luna and Harry's conversation to make you hope that Serius could come back. I really wonder if JK wanted them to set it up that way on purpose. I can't quote it, but the wording just struck me.

I was worried that having Rom meet Gwarp would be a problem, but he made the scene even better. I liked how he tried to defend Hermonie.

It was cool seeing scenes from movies 1,3 and 4 in Harry's mind. Snape's worst memory was in his head instead of the pensive, but that's ok.

The battle between Voldie and Dumbledore took my breathe away. And seeing the order in action was nice, too.

Beatrix was wonderful. So was Umbridge. Trelauny was great, too.

I'm still under 'after movie glow' but I think this has been my favorite movie this year with Even Almighty as second, then Spidey 3 followed by FF2 and Pirates in last place. But that's my opinion at the moment.

Good stuff.

Now, it's time for the main event, BOOK SEVEN!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with you. I don't understand why people expact the movie to be exactly as the book. It was especially ridiculous with the Lord of the Rings. Tolkien's fans got pissed off that some parts of the book were left out and some of the scenes were changed. A movie is not a book. It's an idependant piece of art.

Scott Bryan said...

Thanks!

Yeah, I can see things that, knowing what comes in book 6, we should have seen, but some of those things can be shown in the next movie.

An example is Harry's choice of career in the future and Ron's time as a Quittich player. Both topics come up again in the 6th book so they can be shown there.

I think they did the best job they could taking the multi-layered plot and showing it for the audience.

A couple things were missing that allowed for clarity. Who sent the Dementors? We know in the book it was Umbridge. That's ok, cuase I suspect it'll be shown in the 6 deleted scenes.

Anyway, thanks for your comments!