July 11, 2007
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
As his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry approaches, 15-year-old Harry Potter is in full-blown adolescence, complete with regular outbursts of rage, a nearly debilitating crush, and the blooming of a powerful sense of rebellion. It's been yet another infuriating and boring summer with the despicable Dursleys, this time with minimal contact from our hero's non-Muggle friends from school. Harry is feeling especially edgy at the lack of news from the magic world, wondering when the freshly revived evil Lord Voldemort will strike. Returning to Hogwarts will be a relief--or will it?We just got home from seeing this, myself and my two teenage sons, who have been HP fans since the first book. It was very enjoyable. I have loved the darkness of the last few films. Not to say the first ones with all the bright colors sucked, but I do love how dark they are.
Fans of the books will no doubt watch HP and the OOTP, and say 'oh! so much from the book is missing!'
Yes, a lot of scenes are cut out, but I'm hopeful that the DVD when released, will have some deleted or extended scenes.
Certain scenes have been changed entirely from my recollection of the book, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do, to squeeze a book of that size down to 2 hours and 18 minutes.
There are no surprises in the film, readers already know what's going on and about to happen, but it is done superbly.
I am always amazed at the CGI in the HP films because the stuff looks so real like you could just reach out and touch it.
The 'battle scenes' are full of stunning effects. I love the way they all look, the actors really get into their roles and portray the magic so well, like they are really casting spells.
It was nice to see that the scene between Harry and Severus, where Snape is trying to teach Harry mind control, was not cut out.
It gave Harry that little bit of info on Snape's relationship with James Potter that Harry needed to know.
The memory scenes are beautiful as they have always been, and I love seeing the pictures that come to life when they are looked at.
The theater was mostly empty, I blame that on the official movie posters (above) where the date says July 13, 2007.
I have a feeling there are a lot of people who don't know that opening day was changed to today.
We had some obnoxious tween girls in the row in front of us, all giggling and talking loudly as their HP crushes came on screen, and after the movie when I used the restroom, they just had to be in there talking about which girl character they would want to be so they could be the girlfriends of their fave boy characters.
Tween girls are annoying.
I really hope I wasn't like that at that age.
I wanted to go to the restroom sink and spray them all with water to shut them the hell up, mostly because they talked through the whole movie, but also because they sounded like stupid little fan girls.
Over all, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is an excellent movie.
Gorgeous to look at, great sound and visual effects, and fairly faithful to the book.
Go see it if you are a fan of the books and films, you won't be disappointed.
