Drool on the Frog

Friday, July 20, 2007

Willa's Flic Pic: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix * * * ½



- David Yates
- Fantasy, 2007
- PG-13
- Trailer

* * * ½

Bellatrix Lestrange: Neville Longbottom is it?... How's Mum and Dad?
Neville Longbottom: Better now they're about to be avenged!

Thus far, this is my least favorite of the all the HP books. Fifteen-year old Harry isn't someone I want to be in the room with. He is whiny, argumentative, short-tempered and irritable. And the whole thing with the Ministry taking over Hogwarts, students being tortured, ... It all made me wonder why the wizarding world is so smug regarding muggles.

But in the end, I had a better appreciation for Rowling's character development. Most fifteen-year old, adolescent boys are intolerable without having had to fight for their life on at least two occasions, being orphaned, isolated from friends, cruely treated by adoptive parents and generally hated or loved for a reputation that was thrust upon him. All in all, he would tend to be a testy character by this time. I appreciate her being true to Harry's development.

The Ministry business was still hogwash.

The film in turn did a good job handling the building anxiety and seriousness of the return of Voldemort and the maturing of Harry. Things are getting darker and more dangerous. This means more demands on the crews' acting abilities. More emotional, more physical and I think they are doing a good job. I like seeing the darker and more intense scooby gang.

I was pleased to see that some of the settings were more complex and realistic. The main characters are not isolated in scenes when it makes sense to have hubub around. This was most notable in the house common room. There was a great feel to that scene.

The battles are getting more intense and dramatic now that the adults are involved. This was much more appealing to My Geek. And the special effects continue to rise to the occasion. I am never disappointed.

This film series is doing a great job and continues to put out quality work. We're not talking LotRings, but fantasy fans can't be disappointed.

Labels:

posted by rhon at 2:37 PM

3 Comments:

  • We went to see this on my b-day night and I just gotta say, that Dolores Umbridge, she's a woman you love to hate.
    I wanted to smack the pink right off of her.

    Didn't see as much interpersonal relationship building as I would've liked in this one. I think the book delves into it much better. The kids are maturing, so I wanted to see their relationships maturing and going through some of those teenage growing pains. (Who has a crush on who, whether or not his Gryffindor buds tell Harry he's acting like a jerk, which nerdy kids really blossom.) I wanted to see more of that.
    But then, they had dark forces to fight. Maybe they couldn't be bothered with taking time out to relate to each other.

    Hubby hasn't read any of them, and he wondered why everyone was so hell-bent on getting that prophecy. I couldn't remember the specifics, but I think it points to another small hole in the movie. We just chalked it up as the plot excuse for good to face off with evil.

    By Blogger Erin, at 10:34 PM  

  • Doesn't that movie poster look a little bit like the Matrix poster. Harry is the one?

    By Blogger Leatherwing, at 9:21 AM  

  • Erin, I think you're right on both points.

    The film felt very choppy to me but I couldn't put my finger on it. Now I think that it was the lack of relational dialog to glue all the action scenes together. It was almost just one action scene after another.

    At the end of Order of the Phoenix and the beginning of Half-Blood Prince, I didn't know what the point was of the prophecy. There were plenty of witnesses who heard it and I don't think Voldermort needed it to come back to life. Hmm?

    By Blogger rhon, at 2:35 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home