OotP.

[elwen]

Finally went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. As most of you have already seen it, and I am too busy (with book seven as well as the Motion From Hell noticed for this Friday) to write much more, here are some brief disjointed comments again.

[Re: the book, I'm on Chapter 9, but my pace will probably slow down drastically until after next Saturday, so don't expect anything out of me on that front.]


Overall, I liked it. I think it's been just long enough since I've read the book that I enjoyed what they kept in, without remembering and thus being angry about what they left out. (Except Fred and George's swamp. But I can kind of understand why they didn't bother with that.)

I really liked the portrayals of all the newly introduced characters. Luna is LOVE. And Tonks was hot. I wish they'd shown more of her. Umbridge was . . . how she is supposed to be -- but I'm glad there were large chunks of the movie that didn't involve her. D: Oh, and Bellatrix. Wow. A little bit B-movie Frankenstein-y, but still.

Have I ever mentioned how much I adore Neville? I really liked how he came across this movie, in his conversation with Harry about his parents, and then his response to seeing Bellatrix. Also, Neville + Luna = OTP. ^o^

Instead of character development with Cho and Harry, we get . . . a really long kiss. I forget how much treatment they got in the books, but I thought Harry/Ginny was the one that came out of nowhere.

I also don't remember how the breakup happened in the books, but that was sort of a loose end in the movie -- you'd think once Harry discovered it was only veritaserum, there would have been some follow-up. Ah well. (I never much liked Cho and anything that involved her, so I'm kind of meh about it all.)

What was with all the swooshing black and white smoke? I don't remember a form of a wizard travel that works like that...

...that's all I can remember right now. It's all kind of getting mixed into the seventh book now -- what little of that I've read so far, anyway.

Comments

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what you said about all the newly introduced characters. So far the movies have annoyed me in various ways, but I've nearly always been pleased by the casting.

And ditto to the swooping smoke effects. WTF?

[mergle.livejournal.com]

I think the black and white swooshing was "Hey, we have a special effects budget, and it would be a pain to choreograph a fight with that many humans involved."

Bellatrix's costume was absurd. I mean, oy, it had "Hi, I'm an evil sorceress!" cleavage. Way to make her hard to take seriously, guys...