Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) (1 Viewer)

[Adam_S]

Caught the final twenty-fiveish minutes last night again after exiting another screening. The possession scene really worked for me the second go around, extremely well done. In fact everything from the Veil room on was brilliant. I don't much care for how they handled the hall of prophecies and department in general, but it was excellent from the time they came into the veil room.

 

[Charlie Campisi]

Do I remember correctly from the book that there were stunned wizards in the ministry when they arrive? I know they left out the plotline that the Order was guarding the ministry (at least I don't think they mentioned it when Mr. Weasley was attacked), but the ministry looked so empty with no explanation.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

In the book the Ministry is basically empty from when Potter arrives until the end of the Dumbledore/Voldemort duel. It's never really explained why it's empty. All the witches and wizards come flooding back in at the end of the duel. Several wizards are there to witness Voldemorts flight, which is why Fudge is forced to accept finally that he is back.

 

[Ray H]

I just kinda figured it was after office hours at the Ministry.

 

[Kevin Grey]

Yeah, that's what I figured as well.

Though you would expect Percy to burning the midnight oil to get in good with Fudge...

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Here is a little speculation about an item in OotP and the title of HP.

I just considered this today...

Could the Veil Sirius falls into after the Lestrange attack be related to the Deathly Hallows that is the title of the 7th book?

Just a guess, and I doubt it, but I figured I'd throw it out.

 

[Adam_S]

Chuck:

Book Seven spoiler about the title 'Deathly Hallows' (not from recent spoilers, this is months old)The alternate title JKR provided for translators was 'Relics of Death' because Deathly Hallows was idiomatic and mysterious enough to be untranslatable. So it appears it refers to the horcruxes rather than a place like the veil. Though the Veil could very much be another Relic of Death. :p

 

[Kevin Grey]

Chuck, I think it's possible. My "on the record" speculation for DH:

Harry and Voldemort go through the veil, perhaps being the location of the final battle. Indeed if Harry were to die (and I don't necessarily think he will) the "nicest" way to do it would be Harry willingly going through the veil (sacrificing himself in the process since there is no coming back) but being reunited with his parents, Sirius, and Dumbledore, making it a happy ending after all.

Guess I'll find out soon! Hope I'm wrong though because I want the ending to surprise me.

 

[Brian Sheffield]

Actually, the full text for Deathly Hallows has been leaked onto the internet already so all those answers can be found already.

Be careful which sites you visit if you're afraid of spoilers!

 

[Holadem]

I dislike the shrinking of the student population in this movie as well as the complete absence of the local social dynamics (House rivalries).

This film is a real mixed bag for me, but the only thing that's keeping it in my mind is the impending release of book 7 (is it midnight yet?). Otherwise I would have already moved on, I think.

--
H

 

[Kevin Grey]

Those losses were pretty much inevitable but they were a big reason why the book is my favorite in the series so far. While arguably not essential to the plot, I really enjoyed reading about things like Hermione and Ron getting picked as prefects over Harry, Ron being on the Quidditch team, etc.

I also thought the book really puts across Harry's alienation at the beginning of the school year with his emotional isolation from his best friends, and social isolation brought about by people being suspicious about Cedric's death and all of the misinformation from the Daily Prophet. It made Harry winning over the member of the DA that much more satisfying. The movie kind of plays lip service to this stuff but it seemed like no time before Harry's leading every in the DA and he's popular again.

Again, I'm not surprised that material didn't make it though. They were logical cuts.

 

[Holadem]

It's not the subplots so much as the spirit that I miss. That could have been conveyed with a few lines of dialogue here and there, or an extra scene or two. For instance, seeing Griffyndor's points drop as a result to Harry's confrontations with Umbridge. And Slytherin's rise because they are cooperating. Stuff like that...

Yes, I realize that armchair directing is generally considered distasteful, but I need to talk about something until midnight

--
H

 

[Kevin Grey]

Yeah, that's the kind of stuff they've pretty much dropped since the first movie. I don't think the movies have mentioned the house championship results since then and a movie viewer might also think that there is only one Quidditch match per year as well.

To be fair, Rowling also seems to want to get away from this stuff as well in the later books. I'm very curious to what extent they bring Quidditch back in the sixth movie.

 

[Adam_S]

Yeah it was the little stuff to establish the spirit of life at Hogwarts that made Goblet of Fire so damn good despite there being a massive dearth of subplots. There was also some elegant plotting improvements, like having Neville tell Harry about Gillyweed, and bringing Cedric into focus more than in the book (where's he's almost a random b/g character compared to Fleur or Krum).

 

[Tino]

Not in the book though, hes just hit with a blast in the chest...no curse is spoken.

 

[Adam_S]

Just finished The Book.

the inadequate adaptation is even more pronounced in the light of seven. Thank god they're chucking movie five's writer and bringing Kloves back.

 

[DaveF]

I saw OoTP tonight, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I just marvel that a 600-ish page book can be crammed into a two hour movie with such success. I can't disagree with many of the quibbles people have: they are resonable preferences on how to adapt such a long, multi-threaded story. But I found it wholly satisfying.

The biggest weakness is still the new Dumbledore. But what can be done when the perfect man passes on? In contrast, Dolores Umbridge was wonderfully, frightfully, and deliciously cast and portrayed.

Based on my wife's reaction, who's read less than two books, and hasn't seen the previous movie since it was in the theaters, I believe the movie was fully understandable and enjoyable by the non-expert movie goer. I didn't understand some previous critiques.

I definitely recommend it to the Potter fan, both reader and watcher.

 

[Tarkin The Ewok]

My review from the tracking thread:

:star::star::star::star::star: out of :star::star::star::star::star:

The latest film in the Harry Potter series is an amazing ride. It packs in the best moments of the book while trimming the plentiful fat of the novel in the editing room. The new cast performs admirably, whether they have to be charming (Luna) or detestable (Umbridge). The humor from the Weasleys is delightful and comes at just the right times. The effects teams did an excellent job with Grawp and the centaurs as well as the many smaller effects throughout the film. The climax at the Ministry of Magic is everything it needed to be, and it streamlines and clarifies the action wonderfully.

 

[Sean Laughter]

Just some general thoughts on the film, since I saw it about three times in a row the other night. FYI, it's been at least a year or more since I read the book (and, in fact, was the last book in the series I read), so my memory of all the little things that were dropped from the book is rather limited.

In any case, I really enjoyed the film - particularly the new cast members. Umbridge was great and sufficiently maniacal, but I really found the girl playing Luna to be inspired. She just rung so true to me as the character and didn't make her into a caricature which I thought was a real danger.

OotP is one of my favorites of what I've read of the series (just behind PoA), and the film is the same way. I find both the book and the movie to be far superior to Goblet's book and movie adaption, so that makes me a little biased I fear.

In any case, a few things I found a bit lacking, which I'm sure have been mentioned already. The very short thrift given to the Sirius/James stuff and Sirius' attempted training of Harry. Overall, I've found Harry to be portrayed to be much more likeable in the movies than he is in the books, and OotP is no exception. Throughout the book of OotP I remember finding Harry incredibly moronic, moody, and irresponsible because he wasn't taking the training with Sirius seriously - skipping out on it, etc. - on top of his lame rationalization of how his father could possibly have been making fun of Sirius in their youth. Since this is all relegated to second-tier status in the movie it plays down alot of that which mitigates some of the "Harry, you're a moron" response when it's clear Voldemort was leading Harry on.

I don't remember what went on in the school activities in the book, but I'm sure there was some Quidditch. It would have been nice to have seen more references to what was going on with the extra curricular activities, but those are understandable cuts. In fact, I think it works better here as an adaption of OotP because it really was the first one to really drop the plot structure of the previous books anyway.

In any case, like the movie overall alot better than Goblet and would probably end up ranking it just behind PoA in the movie ratings. I was surprised I liked the score as much as I did actually, though it's not making me want to buy the CD - the broomstick flight music was cool though, as well as the score for the Weasley's exit.

A couple of questions concerning the book-to-movie transitions if anyone knows the answers? How was Umbridge disposed of in the book? I can't remember. Also, in this book and in Goblet we've seen Voldemort duel with Harry and Dumbledore. In both instances they fight using this gel-looking energy shooting out of their wand. Is this how these fights are described in the books? I should really get copies of the books again and re-read them. I'm just wondering if the duels are portrayed like that in the books or not, or if all of the dueling in the books involves "spoken" spells. That's one thing that annoys me about the Potter universe actually. Some magic seems very dependent on proper incantations and others just seem like you swing your arm and some crap shoots out of your wand. Haha.

 

[Kevin Grey]

Umbridge was disposed of in the book in a similar manner- taken off by Centaurs. The context is a bit different though. In the book, Harry and Hermoine were warned by the Centaurs (during the initial visit to Grawp) that they would no longer tolerate any adult humans in their forest (this ties in to the Firenze subplot that was removed). So Hermione knows that they'll probably go after Umbridge if she gets her in the forest and the Centaurs will likely leave her and Harry alone since they aren't adults. It doesn't go as smoothly as she planned (the Centaurs end up attack them too) but Grawp saves the day.

Rowling doesn't really describe the duels that way in the book. It's more like the laser-blast like exchange you see in other places where they are using wand magic in the movies. I love the effect from the movies though.

Also, definitely get back into the books. Trust me, you really don't want to be spoiled for the final two books.