Did JK Rowlings actually screen this before its release??
Written: Jul 11 '07 (Updated Jul 13 '07)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Luna and Umbridge were meant for these roles!!
Cons: What happened to honoring fans loyalty? This was rushed and poorly done.
The Bottom Line: Many will disagree with me, but this fan wasn't happy at this rendering of what I consider to be a wonderful book and series.
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| thriftymommy's Full Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix |
No major spoilers, nor will there be too much on the storyline since true HP fans already know the story!!
I know it's hard to fit 896 pages of material into one movie. I do. It's just hard for me to imagine that this movie did that epic novel justice (since it truly is a work of art). Who thought a book so good could be made into a movie that was so disappointing!
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released amid much fanfare. Fans across the world were anxiously awaiting the 5th movie in the Harry Potter series to continue their affair with Harry, Ron and Hermoine. This fan, and her husband, 12 year old son, 7 year old son, and 5 year old daughter were among those fans who purchased our tickets well in advance for this movie. We probably should have waited for the matinee...especially at $11 per ticket for us and $7 per ticket for each kiddie plus the assorted snacks...
Daniel Radcliffe reprised his role as Harry Potter, orphaned by Lord Voldemort and sealed in a deadly battle that Harry can only imagine its ending. Daniel cut his hair for this role, and for that alone, he truly tarnished the image, especially since author/creator J.K. Rowling spent so much time in all of the books so far describing his unruly hair.
As a quick aside: time is not on the actors' side: the actors are all aging quicker than they can produce the movies. This in itself leads to why we felt the movie was rushed. We would have stayed in the theater for 3 hours if the quality from the previous movies was present. Father Time is certainly making it hard for some of us adults to believe that the children on the screen are not already college graduates...
Emma Watson (Hermoine Granger) and Rupert Grint (Ronald Weasely) reprised their roles in this movie but were more in the background then ever before. Neither character had an onscreen presence and the newcomer, Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) had more screen-time then the two best mates of Harry Potter. Evanna Lynch could not have been a better casted character; she stood out ahead of the others who have been in the series to date. Her acting most definitely mirrored the book and she captured the essence of Luna Lovegood from the moment we first saw her!
Gary Oldman was there again as Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, and did a fine, if brief, job but was also short-changed by the main character and newcomer in the movie: Imelda Stauton (Dolores Umbridge).
Stauton's character out-shadowed Michael Gambon (Professor Dumbeldore) by miles! Wonderfully like the book, her acting was on the money. Her portrayal of Umbridge was first-rate as her body language, facial expressions and perfectly delivered lines brought the repulsive and much-hated Umbridge to life. Stauton captured the book-Harry's true essence: we hated her as we watched her on the screen!
All of the regular characters (and of course, the same actors, to the credit of the series) returned to this movie and many tried to expand their roles but this movie was simply too short and too condensed for fans of the book. I know there was a new director, David Yates, and I think his interpretation was off-kilt for the caliber of book into script he had to work with.
There were some good special effects but none of the breath-taking action sequences from the first four movies found any rivalry in this movie. This was definitely a darker movie than even its predecessor, Prisoner of Azkaban.
As a huge fan of the books, if you are like us and love them, don't expect them to follow the books to any degree of accuracy. I re-read this book this past weekend in order to recall the events I could not wait to see on the big screen, but, to my chagrin, many of the parts which would have brought cohesiveness did not translate to the movie and the entire film felt disjointed. There simply was not enough time to bring the book to justice.
Would you, a person who only has watched the movies and not read the book be satisfied by this dark film? You will probably miss much of what is behind certain parts there are definitely unspoken information that the movie-goer would be confused about and then seek understanding on later. Some parts were definitely about the private-speak that the bookworm will understand and the strictly movie-viewer may miss the significance of...or not.
Would I, a die-hard Harry Potter fanatic like this movie? It depends on how much you expect from the movie. If you are satisfied with a so-so rendering of the book, loosely interpreted, you may be fine.
For these die-hard fans, plot development was rushed. The characters may be rushing to be the hand of time and losing that battle by putting out a movie that did not meet this fan's expectations.
Character development counted on the viewer to have seen all the previous movies because much is lost in the translation. You may not understand several different relationships if this is your first Harry Potter movie and you've never read the books.
Special effects were so-so; again, nothing like the energy expended in the first four movies. The movie dragged on forever and for this fan and her family, we spent a lot of money on a just-OK movie...
Updated to add: After much thought, I know many other books-to-movies that rival the length of this movie's book that managed to seem complete. I believe that is what bothered me the most: it did not feel complete. Tolstoy's War and Peace at 1200 pages managed to be complete in a 208 minute movie (and really keep the plot of the book at the center of the movie) while Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov at over 1000 pages ran for 138 minutes and told the story without including anything beyond the main plot (but one can argue that the spirit of the book was represented well by its theatrical version). So despite the book's length and amount of material this movie had to cover, that excuse simply holds no water with me.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Die-hard Fans Only
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: A few glitches, but mostly complete.
Worst Part of this Film: Pacing
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Epinions.com ID:
thriftymommy
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Member: April
Location: Home of the Hindenburg Disaster, NJ
Reviews written: 90
Trusted by: 49 members
About Me:
The number of people below the official poverty thresholds numbered 36.1 million in 2005.
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