Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie spoilers watched OP last sunday with a bunch of friends. we tried booking the tickets on a tuesday but it was already full almost everywhere. finally settled on a tiong bahru which wasn't very crowded yet (at that time), only to realize on thursday that loads of other time slot screenings opened. but whatever.. the movie started off in privet drive. the hot summer was captured, but not harry potter's mood. instead of seeing his frustrations and impatience, he was portrayed as being scared and traumatized by his encounter with lord voldermort in the graveyard (previous movie) and the death of cedric diggory. the dementors attack on harry and dudley was shot alright, although arabella figg's sudden appearance was rather confusing, i would think, for non book fans. back at number 4 privet drive, they wasted time with the howler like letter announcing harry's expulsion from hogwarts. but still, acceptable. uncle vernon and aunt petunia supposedly brought dudley out to the doctors' leaving harry alone at home which was when he was rescued by the advance guards, consisting of moody, tonks and kingsley. i was upset with the way nymphadora tonks was portrayed. she is a bubbly cheerful bumbling sweet lady who was only mildly reproachful and mainly joking when she insisted being called "tonks" rather than nymphadora. instead, the movie portrayed her like some angsty fierce woman, albeit a metamorphagus. not good. her character never got the chance to develop in the movie, which makes me wonder: what's the point of introducing her in the first place? and, to introduce her misleadingly? as of all high budget films, precious screen time was wasted on watching effects. in this case, it was unnecessary to see all the tremors in 11 and 13 grimmauld place as number 12 appeared. the location was never introduced to the audience, by the way, but they mentioned it later on in the movie. oh well. inside the noble house of black, the atmosphere was barely dark and eerie or deathly. you cannot sense that damp and heavy feeling of the house, which was extremely well lit. hermione's first appearance in the movie was disappointing, if not pointless. she was panting for no particular reason, not showing the worry she felt. poor acting on the kid's part, as is harry's outburst toward ron, hermione, and more importantly the absent dumbledore. no anger nor indignance detected, but it won't be much missed, bcs the movie bypasses all that character buildup to waste time on the extendable ears and crookshanks playing with it. i can give it to them though, cos the order was discussing some stuff and the information was all for the sake of the plot. over dinner with the order, sirius wanted to tell harry more information about the order and what they were doing. although he did want to tell harry more, the sirius here wasn't as much taking harry to be james, but was more fooling around. evidence: that stupid overused wink. nobody is delighted here, for goodness sake. kreacher was also introduced, but was never developed and never put into the story. which makes me wonder, again, just why they bothered including kreacher in the first place. harry's nightmares are shown often, but with no clear transition between dreams and reality, which leaves teh audience clueless even if just for a short while. the hearing at the ministry was... not too interesting. once again, we are reminded of how poor a dumbledore michael gambon is, as compared to richard harris. fierce manic eyes and overbearing voice, no longer polite and gentle and calm. he's even lost the half-moon spectacles for pete's sake! sigh... mrs figg does a funny witness account, which forgets all about the despair harry is feeling. umbridge is first introduced, and boy isn't her voice just grating. great one. harry get's off, and we see dumbledore rushing off. time is wasted to remind us that sirius is an animagus, a bouncing tongue-lolling black dog. he chats to harry at a quiet room in the train station, saying rubbish that was not important to the story. you don't need to waste so much time just to show close sirius and harry are. poor directing, that is. nothing much happened on hogwarts express. arriving on the school grounds, we are welcomed by malfoy's snide remarks as usual, but just as well. luna lovegood was introduced, but the feeling just isn't there. we see the thestrals, but not much significance. the feast at the great hall was meh, only to tell us umbridge is new DADA teacher, ministry is interfering at hogwarts, and nothing more. back in the gryfinddor house, seamus' outburst was plain weird, and harry was rude to everyone, especially ron. nobody is told why ron's words in the common room mattered so much (he's a prefect). umbridge's DADA class is depicted as it should, that was fine. detention with her was rightly shown too. harry sends an owl to sirius, but nobody can remember why. he meets cho there, but so what. harry sees thestrals in the grounds, and sees luna feeding them. well... i suppose that is acceptable. it explains why no one else can see the thestrals. i can't remember how the educational decrees started, but umbridge inspecting the various classes came on and everyone is reminded just how much we love snape. alan rickman is perfect for the job. sarcastic, hostile and grim... perfectly done. hagrid's return was... like only to introduce grawp. he's funny, far more human like than he was in the book, but no doubt easier to comprehend and accept for non book fans. sybil trelawney nearly got kicked out of the school, and dumbledore appears to stop umbridge. again, he is raving and hostile, no manners at all. it is practically explicit here that dumbledore is avoiding harry and harry is upset about that. DA meeting at the hog's head was a little awkward, and i don't just mean for harry. neville discovers the room of requirement and they have practices there. and this is the time devoted to amusing young children. it was so cliche. harry and cho kiss under the mistletoe, and.. so what? filch and malfoy's gang of cronies track them down and eventually, they are all caught. turns out cho betrayed them, but we later learn it was bcs of the veritaserum, which i'm not sure everyone knows what that is. arthur's attack by the snake is quickly over. neville reveals the fate of his parents. harry's occlumency classes with snape is... well, not very nice. besides seeing snape being bullied by james potter, we don't see the significance of the classes. and the classes simply ended abruptly, without much explanation. ginny is never formally introduced, although her name is heard once. that makes perfect sense, doesn't it? since the audience all know who she is, since everyone watching OP has already watched the previous films and will certainly remember everything, it doesn't matter even if you do a terrible job, everyone will still come and watch the - oops. sorry. where was i? ah yes, ginny weasley appears without a name. and she is one remarkable witch. her reductor curse is mighty powerful. ppl cheer as grawp attacks umbridge and she gets carted off by centaurs. they fly on thestrals to london, and finally go to the department of mysteries. lucius malfoy welcomes them, with a group of death eaters. the attack was pretty boring, and veil+archway goes unexplained as like in the book. sirius' death is sudden, and unaccounted. it wasn't even milked for emotional screen time, which is most likely bcs the producers were unable to. finally, the showdown between dumbledore and voldemort in the atrium. fire vs water, how extraordinarily smart and intelligent. who would have guessed that right. anyway, dumbledore isn't as powerful and as strong-aura-emitting/inducing as he should have been. haiz... i'm getting tired simply recalling the show. can i just stop here? posted by Yee 1:29 PM . . .
