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kribuSo today Order of the Phoenix was finally released here. Just got back, so here are my first reactions.
Um. Yeah. I guess I could summarise my feelings about the film as "decent film, albeit underwhelming".
I was sufficiently forewarned to not really be disappointed about most of the stuff that was missing... so I could at least focus on what was there, not what wasn't. And what was there was decent enough, but... I dunno. It seemed awfully... routine, somehow.
Like someone had taken a list of "things that need to be in a Harry Potter movie, especially the OotP movie" and started checking off the points: Dudley and Harry attacked by Dementors, check. Order comes in, takes Harry away on brooms, check. Have Tonks and Kingsley, check (was Tonks even named? apart from Moody calling her Nymphadora? and did Kingsley even get a last name in the movie?). Have Moody and Lupin, check. (And the whole Order was a bit... um, yeah, it's a bunch of about five or six people, half of them Weasleys, yes?) Have Thestrals, Luna, skiving snackboxes, check.
Etc, etc. Kreacher was entirely pointless, but I know he was put in at JKR's request, so I guess I'll let that slide.
Effects work was good, I think... I really didn't get the point of the swirly thingies with the Death Eaters appearing and disappearing etc in the DoM though. I guess it was there because it looked cool. And you know, black swirly thingies = bad people, white swirly thingies = good people.
I could live with Cho being a traitor, what with films having to condense things etc... except she wasn't really a traitor, was she? I mean, if I hadn't read the book and known someone blabbed, I'm not sure I'd even have worked out properly that Cho gave them away - apart from Snape's line about giving the last of his Veritaserum for questioning Cho (wtf was that about anyway? wasn't it part of the point in the book that Snape was quite clearly not really cooperating with Umbridge and not giving her real Veritaserum (for Harry) in the first place?). But I mean, what was there to give away anyway... what with Umbridge, Filch & co. knowing right from the start where the DA was holding their meetings, just not managing to actually get into the room until bombarding down half the wall. So I don't really even know just what Cho was supposed to have given away. That whole part was really rather weak IMHO.
Considering that they cut out more or less everything that makes Hermione a more than one dimensional character, I'm almost amazed they actually still let her to be the one to come up with the DA idea. I don't mind the movies ignoring the whole SPEW thing, but no blackmailing Skeeter though... no jinxed DA contract... no clear idea of taking Umbridge to the Centaurs... bleh. Basically everything that shows she sometimes has a rather nasty streak, when the circumstances ask for it, was missing. Which was a bit disappointing.
Snape's worst memory was a big disappointment of course. The way it was done, I really didn't see a point to even having it. (The way it was done, I didn't really even see much of a point to Harry having Occlumency lessons in the first place - just to have Snape's speech about how the Dark Lord could break into his mind and use it to his advantage, I suppose. But there was way too little Snape in the movie as it was, so I'm not complaining as such... just that I feel it could have been done better and more clearly. Some of the bits were fun though, like Snape's comments about Harry's more sentimental memories.)
But really... Harry not breaking into Snape's memories as a wilful, knowing act really kind of changed the whole point. So now we have a Snape that is weak enough to stop giving Harry Occlumency lessons (which were apparently so urgent that Dumbledore had Snape drag a pyjama-clad Harry bodily into his office in the middle of the night, heh) after the boy accidentally broke into his mind and witnessed some of his memories. This just isn't Snape.
Never mind that the memory bit was... well, I wonder how many people who haven't read the book actually even got that part. Or that it was supposed to give Harry any food for thought regarding his father & Sirius maybe not having been all that wonderful as youngsters, or something. I mean, yeah, Snape told him James wasn't too nice, but just that combined with what seemed like a single occurrence of "boys having fun" didn't really make it too clear that Harry's father & godfather were proper bullies at school.
Pah. Young Severus looked kind of cute though.
Anyway, good bits. Umbridge! Imelda Staunton was very good, I think. Some nice touches there too... was even the sugar she put into her tea pink? Filch was good, even if more as comic relief than an actual terror. I loved Crookshanks at the headquarters, with the Extendable Ear. Snape was yummy, in the whole two minutes or something that he had. (I do wish they didn't have him constantly slapping the kids though - but I guess a slap on the head is just so much easier a way to show "strict, not very nice teacher" in a film than actually try and give him more than a minute of screentime.) Lucius was awfully pretty, and cool... the DE that was holding Hermione in DoM when Lucius had Harry give him the prophecy wasn't that bad to look at either. Bellatrix was nicely mad.
The kids were decent enough... Harry, Neville and Luna especially. I have to say I think Rupert Grint does a good job as Ron, even if Ron is pretty much just comic relief in the movies. Emma Watson... well, I like her, and I don't really have a problem with her performance, but at the same time, I do see why a lot of people don't feel she's quite as good as the other kid actors - I think I'd rather blame the directors though. I mean, maybe she should be told that Hermione has more emotions than exasperated/angry? Or maybe not, considering that this is pretty much what the movies make Hermione out to be, anyway.
I'll be getting the DVD of course, if only for getting a closer look at the Snape's worst memory scene, and I don't exactly regret seeing it on big screen - there was plenty of eye candy, and lots of good performances, etc... I wish it had been done a bit better though. Less checking off random points on the list of "this was in the book, we should include it" and more tones of grey would have been nice. I wonder if there are deleted scenes and if so, what they are... maybe some things would have been explained a bit better in a longer version, but I am not really sure.
Um. Yeah. I guess I could summarise my feelings about the film as "decent film, albeit underwhelming".
I was sufficiently forewarned to not really be disappointed about most of the stuff that was missing... so I could at least focus on what was there, not what wasn't. And what was there was decent enough, but... I dunno. It seemed awfully... routine, somehow.
Like someone had taken a list of "things that need to be in a Harry Potter movie, especially the OotP movie" and started checking off the points: Dudley and Harry attacked by Dementors, check. Order comes in, takes Harry away on brooms, check. Have Tonks and Kingsley, check (was Tonks even named? apart from Moody calling her Nymphadora? and did Kingsley even get a last name in the movie?). Have Moody and Lupin, check. (And the whole Order was a bit... um, yeah, it's a bunch of about five or six people, half of them Weasleys, yes?) Have Thestrals, Luna, skiving snackboxes, check.
Etc, etc. Kreacher was entirely pointless, but I know he was put in at JKR's request, so I guess I'll let that slide.
Effects work was good, I think... I really didn't get the point of the swirly thingies with the Death Eaters appearing and disappearing etc in the DoM though. I guess it was there because it looked cool. And you know, black swirly thingies = bad people, white swirly thingies = good people.
I could live with Cho being a traitor, what with films having to condense things etc... except she wasn't really a traitor, was she? I mean, if I hadn't read the book and known someone blabbed, I'm not sure I'd even have worked out properly that Cho gave them away - apart from Snape's line about giving the last of his Veritaserum for questioning Cho (wtf was that about anyway? wasn't it part of the point in the book that Snape was quite clearly not really cooperating with Umbridge and not giving her real Veritaserum (for Harry) in the first place?). But I mean, what was there to give away anyway... what with Umbridge, Filch & co. knowing right from the start where the DA was holding their meetings, just not managing to actually get into the room until bombarding down half the wall. So I don't really even know just what Cho was supposed to have given away. That whole part was really rather weak IMHO.
Considering that they cut out more or less everything that makes Hermione a more than one dimensional character, I'm almost amazed they actually still let her to be the one to come up with the DA idea. I don't mind the movies ignoring the whole SPEW thing, but no blackmailing Skeeter though... no jinxed DA contract... no clear idea of taking Umbridge to the Centaurs... bleh. Basically everything that shows she sometimes has a rather nasty streak, when the circumstances ask for it, was missing. Which was a bit disappointing.
Snape's worst memory was a big disappointment of course. The way it was done, I really didn't see a point to even having it. (The way it was done, I didn't really even see much of a point to Harry having Occlumency lessons in the first place - just to have Snape's speech about how the Dark Lord could break into his mind and use it to his advantage, I suppose. But there was way too little Snape in the movie as it was, so I'm not complaining as such... just that I feel it could have been done better and more clearly. Some of the bits were fun though, like Snape's comments about Harry's more sentimental memories.)
But really... Harry not breaking into Snape's memories as a wilful, knowing act really kind of changed the whole point. So now we have a Snape that is weak enough to stop giving Harry Occlumency lessons (which were apparently so urgent that Dumbledore had Snape drag a pyjama-clad Harry bodily into his office in the middle of the night, heh) after the boy accidentally broke into his mind and witnessed some of his memories. This just isn't Snape.
Never mind that the memory bit was... well, I wonder how many people who haven't read the book actually even got that part. Or that it was supposed to give Harry any food for thought regarding his father & Sirius maybe not having been all that wonderful as youngsters, or something. I mean, yeah, Snape told him James wasn't too nice, but just that combined with what seemed like a single occurrence of "boys having fun" didn't really make it too clear that Harry's father & godfather were proper bullies at school.
Pah. Young Severus looked kind of cute though.
Anyway, good bits. Umbridge! Imelda Staunton was very good, I think. Some nice touches there too... was even the sugar she put into her tea pink? Filch was good, even if more as comic relief than an actual terror. I loved Crookshanks at the headquarters, with the Extendable Ear. Snape was yummy, in the whole two minutes or something that he had. (I do wish they didn't have him constantly slapping the kids though - but I guess a slap on the head is just so much easier a way to show "strict, not very nice teacher" in a film than actually try and give him more than a minute of screentime.) Lucius was awfully pretty, and cool... the DE that was holding Hermione in DoM when Lucius had Harry give him the prophecy wasn't that bad to look at either. Bellatrix was nicely mad.
The kids were decent enough... Harry, Neville and Luna especially. I have to say I think Rupert Grint does a good job as Ron, even if Ron is pretty much just comic relief in the movies. Emma Watson... well, I like her, and I don't really have a problem with her performance, but at the same time, I do see why a lot of people don't feel she's quite as good as the other kid actors - I think I'd rather blame the directors though. I mean, maybe she should be told that Hermione has more emotions than exasperated/angry? Or maybe not, considering that this is pretty much what the movies make Hermione out to be, anyway.
I'll be getting the DVD of course, if only for getting a closer look at the Snape's worst memory scene, and I don't exactly regret seeing it on big screen - there was plenty of eye candy, and lots of good performances, etc... I wish it had been done a bit better though. Less checking off random points on the list of "this was in the book, we should include it" and more tones of grey would have been nice. I wonder if there are deleted scenes and if so, what they are... maybe some things would have been explained a bit better in a longer version, but I am not really sure.
