Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix - The Movie

I just watched this movie, and I have to say.

It sucked.

I really was not expecting it to suck. I've enjoyed all the other movies very much. But this movie just plain sucked.

1. I really didn't like the political statement of "too much government is destructive" being hammered in throughout the whole movie. Ugh. I wanted to enjoy wizards and spells and adventure, not get preached to about politics. That's not why I go to a Harry Potter movie.
   
   
2. I didn't like the whole "Voldemort needs something" theme. They introduce this in the very beginning of the movie, but cut it short, not telling us what V needs. So, through the whole movie, it tries to do a big build up of "what does he need? What does he need?" when they could have told us in the very beginning (a cheap trick). Then, in the end, we discover he needed a prophecy. But the movie doesn't really tell us what the prophecy is or why he needs it.
   
   
3. The whole "Dumbledore's Army" thing seemed pointless. In the end, only four or five of them actually did anything. It seemed like this was a bunch of build-up with little payoff. Will Dumbledore's Army fight in the next movie? Maybe, but that's not clearly alluded to in this movie.
   
   
4. How convenient that, when they need a room to practice in, one magically appears in Hogwart's. Ugh. That's the first time I've seen awful writing in a Harry Potter film.
   
   
5. Hermione and Ron were completely useless in this movie. In previous movies, they really contributed to the story. Not in this one. Also, Harry is just too much of a big moping crybaby in this new film.
   
   
6. No quiddich. Almost no Hagrid. None of the ghosts (Nearly Headless Nick) and almost none of the living paintings. In fact, most all of that charming stuff about Hogwart's from the first movies was completely absent in this one (but hey! We've got a political statement!).
   
   
7. Movie starts with two dementor's attacking harry and Dudley, but they never mention why they attacked, what they were doing in the Muggle's world, what was done about it. Nothing.
   
   
8. The centaurs were useless to the plot. The giant was useless. The flying horse-like thingies that nobody can see were useless. The attack by the dementors and harry-almost-gets-expelled was useless... There were elements like this throughout the whole movie that weren't charming and contributed nothing to the story.

Almost everything about this movie was half-assed or poorly put together and had a crappy delivery. Pieces didn't fit or weren't explained. It had no charm. It had WAY too much political statement. It tried to use cheap build-ups with crappy payoffs.

So... yeah.. it sucked.

 

He really isn't.

 

Read the book, everything makes a lot more sense if you do.

This book was written years ago so it wasn't a statement of today's political climate. It just happens that it fits.

With that said, read the book.

 

Actually I thought that Ms. Umbridge was at least 10 times as scary as ol' Voldy. She's so petite physically, but psychologically she can take you out with her overly kind statements and fake smiles. She was played amazingly in the movie. Put power like Voldermort has into her and the world is doomed.

I think Bellatrix also should have had more screen time. She had a nice presence in the movie with the little time she had. I assume she will have a lot more time in the upcoming movies.

I only started reading the books about a month ago. I listen to audio books while I am at work in my internship, so I'm already caught up with the movies. I just read through the part where all the prisoners escape and Harry has started his mind blocking abilities with Snape.

It's a little strange to watch the movies then read the books. I know when you do it the other way around, it ruin the books, but this way it helps enhance them. It gives a little more imagery while I read as I stick parts of the movie in the book.

I know that the writing isn't quite out of this world, it's not going to compete with the classic authors of the last couple centuries, but the author's ability to create a world that you get sucked into and characters that truly grow from book to book has been unparalleled.

(btw, the only reason I started reading them is because my girlfriend, with the new movie and book coming out, started talking about it constantly.)

 

harry potter sucks.

 

Can someone please teach the Rookie how to use spoiler tags?

 

What were you expecting the conversation to be about? If the movie came out yesterday I might understand but it's been out for a couple of weeks now.

 

Oh, I don't know...maybe "good movie", or "a must see", or maybe "grown ups would like more than kids", and then some spoiler tags. Silly me, what was I thinking.

 

Yeah, that was pretty dumb

 

lol

 

Spoiler

Well, I just read the book again after watching the movie because I had forgotten a lot of it, and frankly the movie just didn't make much sense. Here's my nerdy take.

I thought the movie was technically just about perfect as far as the look, the casting choices, the settings, the cinematography, etc. For instance, both scenes at the ministry of Magic (beginning and end) were almost to the T. They also did a good job of capturing how much of a badass Dumbledore is. I'm also glad they kept the scene with Harry getting into Snape's head.

The director and actress did an excellent job with Umbridge, and Helena Bonham Carter was a good choice for Bellatrix Lestrange. In fact, I don't think in film history there has ever been a better casting of movies based on books than with the Harry Potter Series. They can do no wrong in that respect.

Now, here comes the nitpicking. The biggest problem I had with the movie is that considering the fifth book is the longest in the series, why not just follow the same precedent set in prior movies and make the movie 2 hours and 40 minutes. An extra 25 minutes would have gone a long way. The movie was just way to linear. There were hardly any side stories or character development other than Harry's teen angst (which was unfortunately pretty accurate with the book). And the side stories that did exist went totally unresolved. Here are some major things they left out:

1.) Quidditch - I can't recall whether they even mentioned it in the movie, which makes absolutely no sense considering how prominent it was in the first three. They totally missed out on the whole Ron-as-keeper thing, which would have given Ron's character some attention. Neville was almost as big of character as Ron in the movie.

2.) Percy - Wouldn't have taken any time to show Percy's falling out with his family and now supporting Fudge.

3.) Dobby/House Elves - why are all the directors so scared about putting the house elves in the movie? It can't be much more than simple CGI. The director was even wanting to cut out Kreacher entirely until Rowling told him he was important in future books. Having Dobby in the movie for just one scene would have explained how they come to find out about the Room of Requirement. Instead they just have it appear...totally lame. House elves would have also added a humorous peripheral storyline with Hermoine and the S.P.E.W. organization.

...there's more, but I won't bore you any more than I already have.

Basically, the movie was just rushed. Admittedly, the book itself was so rambling and long that a lot of the stuff in the book wasn't explained very well either, but trying to condense the movie running time (for financial purposes I'm sure) just made it worse.

 

I haven't read the book nor do I intend to, but I'm a big fan of the HP movies. The last one didn't really live up to the previous movies, but I still liked it. What I didn't like was spending almost $5 extra for the 3D on IMAX only to see the last 5 minutes of the movie on 3D.

Btw, I would've liked it more if Hermione was played by Lindsay Lohan. That Emma Watson doesn't have the pair of twins that Lindsay has.

I used to think that "that which will not be named" was such a badass villain but in the end of this movie

Spoiler

he couldn't even fend off old little dumbledore

. what a wuss.

 

Actually, from what I've read in the trades, the director made a conscience decision to cut out the stuff you mentioned, as he wanted the movie to be more streamlined and not as long as the previous films.

 

Well, obviously their goal was to cut it down. I feel that in doing so they lowered the quality of the movie.

 

I know how to use the spoiler tags and have done so on previous posts. Just forgot to on that one. Sorry.

I understand your point, but... I didn't want to read the book. I wanted to watch the movie. If the movie doesn't make sense on its own, then they shouldn't make the movie.

 

READ THE BOOK.

 

Good movie, but of course I'm biased because I love all this stuff and have read the books. Liked the broomsticks flying through London, and the thestrals. Umbridge was great, especially in her room with the kittens on the plates. I liked Luna and Cho.

It could have been a little more; particularly I thought we should have seen Neville in the hospital, to get the backstory about his parents. And I wanted to see Ron's quidditch thing, even though I know it's not really part of the main plot. Could have also used more Weasley twins, and I wanted to see Firenze the centaur on the teaching faculty.

 

The 'Fight' was not intense enough. Otherwise it was good. Not great but good.

Rocket River

 

Good stand alone movie, bad movie adaption of a book.