In honor of my birthday, the six of us went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We paid full price, too, since we went to the 8:00 p.m. showing. And we sat together--I'm not sure when that last happened.
But the movie...
Okay, imagine you're a director and have been asked to film a movie of a book that is a phenomenal international success. The book is roughly 900 pages long (my edition, the first hardback version published by Scholastic, is 870 pages) and is filled with intertwining plots and subplots and features one main character and 10 second-tier characters, and about 10 to 15 third-tier characters. This book is the fifth in a series of seven, where much has happened previously that affects what happens now and much that happens in this book will affect what happens later. Only you don't know what happens later because the sixth book hasn't quite been released yet and the seventh book isn't even written.
Your run time must come in under 3 hours.
Many of the readers of the series are fanatics and will know every misstep you make. They have their favorite characters and favorite scenes. There are websites devoted to the finer details of plot points and character. They will not just watch your film; they will scrutinize every frame.
On the other hand, you have to make the film understandable to those in the audience who haven't read the books at all.
The age of your audience ranges from 5 or 6 through adulthood.
You do have high quality, A-list actors, mostly from the U.K. and Ireland, who are quite willing to be in these films, even for 30 seconds (think Tracy Ullman as the maid in Prisoner of Azkaban.)
Oh, and by the way, the actors playing most of the major characters are now teens, threatening to age out of their roles, so there's a bit of urgency in getting this film done.
Given the above, I find it quite amazing that there are directors even willing to tackle these films. I think Chris Columbus (Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets) was probably wise to pass on the rest of the series.
Of the six of us, only DD#1 and I have read the books. We have all seen the movies. The "kids" range in age from 23 to 13. Hubs and I are suitably older. I'm probably the most serious Harry Potter fan in the bunch.
We all enjoyed it. The effects are great, although not as spectacular as the dragons in Goblet of Fire. Although there is one scene with fireworks. And the fight scene at the Ministry of Magic.
The lack of razzle-dazzle is fine, though, because much of this story is about relationships: among Harry, Ron, and Hermione; between Harry and Dumbledore; between Harry and Cho; between Harry and Sirius; between Harry and Voldemort. This movie has a darker emotional landscape--as the tag line says, The Rebellion Begins. This movie really does earn its PG-13 rating.
There is also rather clever use of clips from the previous movies. I'd forgotten how young Harry was when he started at Hogwarts.
One caveat: if you have read the book, don't re-read it beforehand. It won't help. Many of the subplots and many details have been eliminated. The movie makes sense as a movie and that's how we judged it. I do think the movie is faithful, for the most part, to the spirit of the book, even if it's not a faithful word-for-word recreation of it.
On the March Hare scale: 4.5 out of 5 Golden Tickets.
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The movie lacks that intensity. As DD#1 pointed out, you have to be able to leave the theater at the end of the movie. And she's right. Still, I thought that Harry's anger in general, and in the office scene with Dumbledore, was underplayed.
The fight scene at the Ministry of Magic was considerably shortened and simplified.
Many of the subplots are simplified and not much time is spent on Cho or Luna. Or Tonks. DD#2 picked up on the fact that the characters wish each other "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Christmas" which is more customary in England and she missed that.
I'm more comfortable with Michael Gambon's Dumbeldore in this movie because he has to be more physical during the fight scene and I don't think Richard Harris could have done it.
The entire section about the O.W.L.s is gone. Harry's counseling session with Professor McGonagall is deleted. Again, it's about the pesky run time limit.
No mention is made of the mirror that Sirius gives Harry for Christmas. This may prove to be an important omission, as Ms. Rowling has indicated that it may be important in Book 7. And we, the readers, don't take anything she says about the Potter 'verse lightly!
Nor is any mention made that there is another child who fits the prophecy. In the book, Dumbledore tells Harry that Voldemort could have chosen Neville Longbottom as his nemesis. But, instead of choosing the pureblood child, Voldemort chose a child like himself: a mixed-blood (or "mud blood"), the very race he claims he hates. (I don't think the actual prophecy that Harry listens to is proclaimed very clearly in the movie. DS#2, who hasn't read the books, understood it was Sybil Trelawney who made the prophecy and that it indicated that Voldemort and "The One" could not both live.) I think this is a crucial omission--I think Neville has slowly been coming into his own and I believe he will have a crucial role to play in Deathly Hallows.
Of course, once Deathly Hallows is published, we'll know for sure if David Yates (and the previous Harry Potter directors) guessed correctly.
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