Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (the movie)
July 15th 2007 03:41
Not until I saw the movie did I realize how much story there is in The Order of Phoenix. It doesn't strike you that way because the story in the book is hidden in a mass of irrelevant details and sloppy editing.
I am not a book fan first and my movie experience is always clouded by the books. That said, the movie does an adequate job of summarising the story. It makes you realise how much better the books would have been if only Rowling cut it by some two hundred pages, if she had adopted the flat narative style of the first books instead of the heavily descriptive one she chose for this outing. The movie by itself is a drag.
Voldemort has returned in the last installment but the Wizarding world is in denial about it. Harry and Dumbledore are portrayed as conspirators. Harry is frustrated that he is being shunned by Dumbledore and the others. In the opening scenes, a pair of dementors attack Harry and Dudley. This earns him a hearing from the Ministry of Magic where Cornelius Fudge tries his best to have him expelled from Hogwarts. Michael Gambon as Dumbledore comes alive in this scene for the first time in the movie series.
Harry wins the hearing and goes to Hogwarts which has a new teacher, Dolores Umbridge, whose mission is to tame Hogwarts into a Ministry of Magic stand-in. While there, he also has lot of strange dreams about Voldemort. It turns out that he has a psychic connection with the Dark Lord which can give him insights into the working of the Dark Lord himself. One night, he sees his best friend's Ron Weasly's father, Arthur Weasly attacked by a serpent.
There are some moments in the movie where it truly seems to work. The moment when Harry is resuced by the Order of Phoenix and their flight over Thames. Sirius Black is fleshed out really well and so is Dumbledore. Grawp is marvellously realised, even better than in the books ( the first time it has happened.) Quidditich is thankfully left out.
Since the book has been described as darker, the movie tries to emulate that, heavy-handedly, in tones suitable for horror movies. The acting is pretty basic. Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange is miserable. What should have been a counterpart of Lucius Malfoy's codly arrogant evil becomes a disorderly maniacal wretch. Many important plot details from the book are left out, like the Dumbledore's confession to Harry. (Snape's role as the eavesdropper is edited out.) The climax is shoddily done.
The movie also plods along for the most part, becoming interesting in only a few instances. It goes on, not like a theatrical, but like a rehearsal for a theatrical. The shortest movie of all five whcih feels like the longest.
I am not a book fan first and my movie experience is always clouded by the books. That said, the movie does an adequate job of summarising the story. It makes you realise how much better the books would have been if only Rowling cut it by some two hundred pages, if she had adopted the flat narative style of the first books instead of the heavily descriptive one she chose for this outing. The movie by itself is a drag.
Voldemort has returned in the last installment but the Wizarding world is in denial about it. Harry and Dumbledore are portrayed as conspirators. Harry is frustrated that he is being shunned by Dumbledore and the others. In the opening scenes, a pair of dementors attack Harry and Dudley. This earns him a hearing from the Ministry of Magic where Cornelius Fudge tries his best to have him expelled from Hogwarts. Michael Gambon as Dumbledore comes alive in this scene for the first time in the movie series.
Harry wins the hearing and goes to Hogwarts which has a new teacher, Dolores Umbridge, whose mission is to tame Hogwarts into a Ministry of Magic stand-in. While there, he also has lot of strange dreams about Voldemort. It turns out that he has a psychic connection with the Dark Lord which can give him insights into the working of the Dark Lord himself. One night, he sees his best friend's Ron Weasly's father, Arthur Weasly attacked by a serpent.
There are some moments in the movie where it truly seems to work. The moment when Harry is resuced by the Order of Phoenix and their flight over Thames. Sirius Black is fleshed out really well and so is Dumbledore. Grawp is marvellously realised, even better than in the books ( the first time it has happened.) Quidditich is thankfully left out.
Since the book has been described as darker, the movie tries to emulate that, heavy-handedly, in tones suitable for horror movies. The acting is pretty basic. Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange is miserable. What should have been a counterpart of Lucius Malfoy's codly arrogant evil becomes a disorderly maniacal wretch. Many important plot details from the book are left out, like the Dumbledore's confession to Harry. (Snape's role as the eavesdropper is edited out.) The climax is shoddily done.
The movie also plods along for the most part, becoming interesting in only a few instances. It goes on, not like a theatrical, but like a rehearsal for a theatrical. The shortest movie of all five whcih feels like the longest.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Enjoyed the review too, if your interested mine is HERE