My review of OOTP

[jeca]

I went and saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix earlier this afternoon at an advanced screening. I was hoping to post my own review of it shortly afterwards in case some were thinking of waiting in line for the midnight showing.
Don't.
It was an ok movie on it's own credits but not working waiting or hours in line at midnight for. Catch the matinee later this week or weekend if you can. I won't go into too many details as I don't ant to spoil it for some. The beginning may be a little disturbing for smaller children(the dementor scenes) if they are scared easily. The first hour was pretty slow and not all that exciting but it picked up for the last hour. Of course there was those annoying little plot changed but not too too bad I suppose. I guess I will say maybe 3 out of 5 with no rush to see it in the first few days. That's saying a lot as I am a complete HP geek.
There were lots of good moments and cute little stuff so I would still have seen it just not have braved the mad lines for it. hope this helps someone.

[Rhonwyn]

Thanks for the review jeca. I am going today at 12:30 and then again at 7:30. Most of the reviews have been very positive. I have also seen many of the reviewers saying to leave the younger ones at home. It is rated PG-13 so I am taking my 12 year old but the 9 year old is going to a friend's house.

[Earthy Mama]

I took my 8 yo to see it last night. I can't believe I'm up already, but the girls are still asleep, thank goodness!

She loves scary, has read the book, so I felt that she could handle watching it. She was fine.

I really enjoyed it. Umbridge was deliciously hideous. I hated the plot changes, but if they didn't, it would have been 5 hours long.

Maddie loved seeing all the kids dressed up in costumes. The was no long lines and our theatre wasn't even full. It was def. worth it to see it opening night.

[Stayseeliz]

I wanna see it to bad!!! But we can't take our little ones. They're WAY too young!! We're going to try and get a babysitter for this weekend or if worse comes to worse we can see it next weekend when the kids go to MIL's house for a sleepover.

Yahoo movie reviewers are giving it a B+ which is a good sign. They're usually pretty accurate. I know it's going to be WAY different then the book. They always are! That's why I don't ever read the books at least 6 months before the movies come out!!

[AimeeandBrian]

I saw the midnight showing and I loved the movie. The fact I stayed awake vouches for that

[Finch]

Okay, spoil me...I've read the book twice....what are these plot changes? :

[zaksma]

I am not one for going to the theatre to see a movie but I am looking forward to seeing this one- especially with Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix.

[jeca]

I do think that it was a good movie definitely worth seeing(I think I said that above) just not "great" imo. All the characters rocked but it was just a little "slow" says my nine year old. I don't regret seeing the movie I just would not have braved a midnight line for it.

[Earthy Mama]

Warning :: Spoiler Ahead! Highlight to read message!

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The beginning was totally different. Very abridged. It went straight from the dementor attack on harry and dudley to the Order rescuing him the same night.

The have Cho as the snitch, not the actual snitch (I can't remember her name). They leave out the Cho/Harry breakup in Hogsmeade on Valentine's Day.

No howler for Petunia-which I think was very important. Nothing about Kreecher setting up Sirius. No Firenz taking over divination.

Harry doesn't enter the Pensieve in Snape's office. He does legimency (sp?) on him.

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I haven't read the book in a while, so I'm not sure if that was everything.

I absolutely LOVED Luna Lovegood. She was so adorable.

[Finch]

Okay, reading those plot changes makes me crabby. I guess I'll just have to get over it, won't I? Meh.

[primjillie]

I can hardly wait ~ we are going to see it at 3 today. We couldn't get in anywhere last night, so we had to wait. Thanks for the review, Jeca ~ maybe the movie was a little slow for your daughter because of her age? I think sometimes the younger kids don't like movies unless there is a lot of action. When I first read this book, I thought it lacked a lot of action until the end. But I when I reread it, I could really catch a lot of the plot because I wasn't expecting action. Does that make sense? Anyway, I can hardly wait! I am both dreading and longing for the new book.

[MillingNome]

Warning :: Spoiler Ahead! Highlight to read message!

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I thought the movie did only a mediocre job of matching all the rich detail in the book. I'm sure most people have read the book but even with that, I found the movie to be cut badly. Parts of it were confusing. For example, the attack on Mr Weasley. But, it is Harry Potter. Even though the movie does not live up to my expectation- I couldn't up but still love it- especially Luna. Sigh... and the tweener girls I took all thought Harry was HOT

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[zaftigmama]

I went to see it at midnight, at an IMAX theater - it was awesome. The last 20 minutes were in 3D and the crowd was electric and I stayed awake.

I thought the movie was fantastic. It was close enough to the book for me, I always expect many changes from such long books. I didn't think anything important was left out.

I would highly recommend the movie, and I'm usually a tough critic. I just thought it was great. I just wish Umbridge was a little uglier in the movie - her character was properly hideous, but she wasn't un-attractive. In the book they made her look like a toad. No offense to toads.

take care!!

[MillingNome]

Originally Posted by zaftigmama

I just wish Umbridge was a little uglier in the movie - her character was properly hideous, but she wasn't un-attractive. In the book they made her look like a toad. No offense to toads.

take care!!

I laways thought the woman that played Carla on Cheers would have been the perfect Umbridge.


Also- am I the only one that totally adores the play on names in HP?

[gealach]

I logged on JUST to look for a HP movie thread. I am glad to see it has gotten pretty good reviews. I just have to keep reminding myself that the movies have to be different from the books in order to fit in the time allowed. Of course, if it were up to me, they would just make each movie 5 hours long so that everything could fit in.

But, I do really hate it when they add things. The very long, overly dramatic "action-packed" dragon-chasing-Harry scene in GOF, for example. In the book, that scene was all of 3 or 4 pages and not that dramatic. The movie scene bored me and I would rather they spend time on things actually in the books.

But, all in all, I do like the movies. Goblet of Fire was my least favorite so far, so I'm hoping OOTP makes up for it! I will be seeing it later this week. The movie theater in my town has a small screen and is tiny and uncomfortable and run down, so I am waiting a few days so I can see it in a better theater. Keep the reviews coming!

[moonfirefaery]

I hated it. They left out a LOT of the most important things. They added in things. They rewrote most scenes completely. Everything was very vague. Voldemort wasn't scary. The movie was overall very light despite the dark tone of the book. I think it was the worst Harry Potter movie so far. As a live action version of a book, it was awful. Even if you look at it as just a movie, not even as a fan, it wasn't that great, because of how incredibly vague it was. Instead of making the longest book into the shortest movie, they should have made it 3 hours long. Instead of adding scenes, they should have tried to get in as much of the actual book as possible. Instead of rewriting scenes, they should have stuck to the script as JK Rowling wrote it, which was obviously perfect or she wouldn't have sold millions of copies. Many characters, even big ones, had almost no role at all. They didn't even introduce the new characters. :/ And Bellatrix was way too goth, not the way I imagined her at all.

The ONLY good thing they added in, that really made me giggle, was the bit in the scene with Umbridge in the Dark Forest, what he says to her; y'all who've seen it know what I mean. That was awesome. And I really adored the breaking out from Azkaban scene and actually wish that had been a little longer. That was a good add. I loved the girl they got to play Luna. In fact I thought they did an awesome job on casting altogether.

[gealach]

Originally Posted by moonfirefaery

Instead of making the longest book into the shortest movie, they should have made it 3 hours long.

Wait a sec? OOTP is the shortest?! What???? Why would they do such a thing?! :

[KaraBoo]

Hmmm, not dark enough? This makes me sad. And isn't this director coming back for the next film? Not a good sign.

Can someone spoiler the scariest bits for me? My 8 1/2 yr old wants to see this and she has yet to see any of the HP films in the cinema, although she went to see the third Pirates movie and LOVED it, even though I thought that one was the most violent of all three. Anyway, I'd like to prepare her for the Dementor scenes. Are they as scary as the close up of orcs in the LOTR movies?

[moonfirefaery]

The movie wasn't scary at all to me or my two year old

And yes, it's the longest book, shortest movie.

[mummyto3girls]

But seriously, this can't be worst than GOF, right???

Oh and can someone please spoil me, how much screen time Sirius has?? is his death distrubing???