Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
by Marcus on July 15, 2007
I’m a huge fan of the Harry Potter books, but not so much of the movies, not that I think they are horrible, I just don’t think that it’s possible to make a really great Potter movie, so I can’t really blame the crew, or anyone else. The reason I think this is because when making a HP movie you automatically lose all the small things that make the books so brilliant, i.e. the small details, the sub storylines, and the surprising endings, that don’t really work when the movies are only about 2,5 hours long. In my opinion it would’ve been more interesting if they had made the books as high quality mini-series, maybe in a narrative way so you know more about what Harry’s thinking, since that’s how the books are written. Anyway, when I watch the movies I do it with most of this in the back of my mind, so I don’t end up bashing the movies senseless because they suck compared to the books.
I’ve just watched the newest installment, the Order of the Phoenix, and I expected less than the previous movies since the fifth book is my least favorite: it’s very long, and even though there are a lot of interesting parts with Umbridge, she’s not exactly the coolest villain one might imagine. It actually met my expectations, nothing extraordinary, as expected they left a lot of things out, but I was pretty satisfied with it. Especially the fact that they’ve made it a lot darker than the previous ones, it wouldn’t have surprised me if they had made it more children-friendly to make more money. The beginning was very cool, by far the best in all of the movies, very dark and almost scary, and since the same director will be making the Half-Blood Prince I’m calmer about it being dark enough, just like the book.
I’m very close to rating it with a 7 because of the mood-change, but it wasn’t that great, so it’s going to be a 6/10. Now I’ll just wait anxiously for Saturday, where I’ll receive the last book!
18 comments
Agree with your score. Expect a review later on my blog, when my net gets fixed :)
by Kasper Skov on 16th Jul at 21:26. #
5/10, meh.
Hated the way many things were portrayed – cheesy SHIT! Neville’s parents. “I’m proud to be their son, you know”. No, no visit to St. Mungo’s portraying it in a way that was all too clear in the books (even though the reader knew already), and could have been so much clearer in a film, no, of course not. Sirius’ and Harry’s realationship. “We’ll be a real family”. What the fucking hell?! He just says it like that?! You prententious FAG!
Well, granted, it wasn’t as bad as: “HE WAS THEIR FRIEND! HE WAS THEIR FRIEND!”, but it sure as hell is coming up pretty damn close, methinkz.
The action was okay, though, but what the hell is with Harry feeling sorry for Voldemort? I don’t believe he’s given it that much thought at that point, huh?
Think I’m going to watch the fourth one again… much, much better it was…
That one also had the best soundtrack by far.
But most importantly, it used the means of a goddamnfilm to portray both emotions AND humour!
I don’t understand why the fuck they didn’t make this one longer than 2h and 18m. There was A-LOT! of stuff that could have easiliy made it into the movie, the visit to St. Mungo’s most importantly. I mean, the third LotR was like three and a half fucking hours, right?? And only the cheesy ending of that one got you bored, right? I just don’t understand, what the hell have they spent one and a half goddamn years doing??
…
AND WHY THE FUCK DIDN’T HARRY YELL?! He was supposed to yell when arriving at Grimmauld Place, when prompted by his friends to lead a DADA study group, AND! most importantly, in Dumbledore’s office, when he’s real fucking pissed! – but he never fucking did!!
What! – the fuck is wrong with those people! How come Rowling lets this happen?!
*BASHING THE SHITTY MOVIE “SENSELESS”* – can you say that in English?
BAH!
They should have kept the director from GoF. He’d have been great for this..
by Emil KR on 18th Jul at 22:18. #
I completely agree with Fookhar. It’s almost scary. I’m like reading the first part of the review, and I said the EXACT same thing to my friends when talking about the Harry Potter movie.
by polt on 19th Jul at 0:07. #
Haha. :) EFC closing in by the way, I’m so impatient!
by Marcus on 19th Jul at 0:26. #
I thought the beginning sucked bull fuck. Besides the Dementor part (IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FUCKING SILENT, DAMMIT!!), didn’t you see Dudley’s pals acting like complete spastics? There weren’t even fucking looking at Harry!
No! NO! Is he making the HBP too?! ARHW!
-
What is EFC?
by Emil KR on 19th Jul at 2:21. #
I don’t really care that they changed some stuff, it made sense the way they did. I do feel however, that it they almost got it. They were so close to capturing what this movie should’ve been, and that annoys the hell out of me.
They should have removed the Grawp subplot and spent more time on some of the lessons.
And also, I don’t like how Snape they’ve pulled all the menace and evil out of Snape in both this and the last movie.
He’s a bad guy, not a comical relief!
by polt on 19th Jul at 14:38. #
Oh, and Dumbledore vs. Voldemort was EPIC! I loved that.
Even though they haven’t nailed Dumbledore’s character at all, he’s totally different than in the book.
But still, the fight itself was better than in the book.
by polt on 19th Jul at 14:39. #
“[...]didn’t you see Dudley’s pals acting like complete spastics? There weren’t even fucking looking at Harry!”
… what?
“Even though they haven’t nailed Dumbledore’s character at all, he’s totally different than in the book.”
I agree, especially in the previous movie, he even grabs Harry violently by the throat and yells a lot at him in that one. The old actor was a lot better also, too bad he died.
“What is EFC?”
European Film College.
by Marcus on 19th Jul at 17:24. #
Dumbledore has a certain serenity about him. In the movie he’s much more desperate.
by polt on 19th Jul at 18:10. #
Yep.
by Marcus on 19th Jul at 18:46. #
Listen, guys, two of the very most important aspects of the plot of OotP – Harry and Sirius’ unspoken (as it should have geen kept in the movie too, ARGH!!) longing for becoming a family and the way of showing the terror of Voldemort’s regime through Neville’s near-orphancy – were portrayed so very fucking silly in the movie. THAT IS UN-FORGIVABLE!
And I’ve really always hated how they are so awfully untrue to Dumbledore as he should be. But I guess I got used to that a long time ago.
Again, they could have made the film longer. They could have the visit to St. Mungo’s AND some Quidditch, too, and it wouldn’t have needed to be a lot longer than three hours, which, NO, really isn’t that long.
I guess I don’t need to say I’m not very excited about the sixth one…
by Emil KR on 20th Jul at 2:11. #
Who, just who gave it an eight out of ten?
by Emil KR on 20th Jul at 2:13. #
You should take a look at this: http://geeksofdoom.com/2007/07/18/harry-potter-5-the-book-vs-the-movie/
It’s a great comparison between the book and the movie, they’ve really left a lot of important things out.
by Marcus on 20th Jul at 16:35. #
WHY THE FUCK DOES FIREFOX CRASH WHEN I TRY TO VIEW A ROUTE EXPLANATION ON KRAK! NOW I HAVE TO WRITE this WHOLE THING AGAIN!!
Look… I don’t care about all the small details. I don’t care if it was actually Cho’s girlfriend and not herself under the influence of Veritaserum that revealed the DA’s “hideout”. I really don’t, because it isn’t important! The things I mentioned WERE! As well as, yes, a lot of other stuff, as mentioned in that comparison and as I said, Harry’s anger, for example. That was very important and not even putting in the movie in any way was an enormous fuck-up.
The DA was okay, though. I just didn’t like the way he spoke to them. Sounded (not all the time, of course) like some sort of fitness trainer trying to cheer up a group of overweight people with no confidence in themselves, or something. Which of course isn’t right at all.
meh
by EKR on 20th Jul at 23:21. #
I don’t really care whether or not it was Cho’s friend or herself, the part with Cho was just another poor part of the story, they didn’t finish it properly and I do have a problem when they change the fact that, in the movie, Cho was innocent, but in the book she was kind of a bitch because she was defending the stupid friend, and so it was natural for Harry to start disliking her. In the movie she’s innocent but Harry doesn’t talk to her anyway, we don’t know anything about their relationship at the end, and there are a lot of things like that in the movie.
by Marcus on 20th Jul at 23:28. #
You’re right about that. But it really doesn’t matter, cause she’s not really important, it’s just a subplot. Like Grawp, Polt is right, they should have fucking scratched that part.
I have to admit I was more concerned about how non-readers of the book will be able to work out why the hell he likes her. I mean, Katie Leung is pretty damn ugly, eh?
bah
Looking forward to reading book seven. :D
by EKR on 21st Jul at 19:54. #
Yeah, she’s not that cute.
by Marcus on 22nd Jul at 2:17. #
…Need I say that I am not looking very much forward to Dumbledore’s funeral in the next movie? 8-/
by EKR on 25th Jul at 15:03. #