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Harry Potter
I'm finally back home! And I got to see Order of the Phoenix today. Major spoilers behind the cut.
I've only read OOTP once, because I gave my copy away to a friend who couldn't afford to buy it--but I doubt I would have reread it, because capslock Harry was definitely not my favorite incarnation of him, and I hated Dolores Umbridge probably more than I have ever hated any other fictional character EVER. I think she brought up a lot of lurking hatred of fascist grade school teachers. Since I haven't read OOTP for three years or however long since it came out, I can't quite recall what aspects of that (extremely long) book have been omitted.
But I loved the film. As always, the visual spectacle is a big part of it for me. I don't have a very visual imagination, so I've always loved the movies for helping me understand and visualize things like Quidditch and different kinds of spells. For that reason, just being able to see the house at Grimmauld Place and the Ministry of Magic was very cool for me, and added a lot of depth to my understanding of the story. I also really loved the shot of them flying brooms in London at night--that was gorgeously shot.
I haven't been following casting spoilers or really even looking at publicity stills for the movie, so I was both surprised and pleased to see how well-cast Tonks, Bellatrix and Luna were. (I had no *idea* Helena Bonham Carter was playing Bellatrix--suddenly I think I'll be able to read all that Bellatrix femslash out there, which never really appealed to me before). The actress who played Luna, though, I think was the best. I've always thought Luna was an interesting and amusing character, but the movie really made me fall in love with her. I especially loved that scene with her and Harry bonding over the thestrals, but really I loved every scene she was in. She had the perfect spacey-but-sweet- and-unwittingly-wise air Luna should have.
It's interesting--the film really condensed the book, and no one had very many scenes outside of Harry, and yet they did a great job with the little character moments. For example, I've never been a big Sirius Black fan, but that scene with him and Harry at Christmastime made me suddenly understand why Harry cares about him so much, and I was actually heartbroken when he fell behind the Veil in the ministry. I also thought that even though Ginny didn't get any solo scenes at all, they did a very good job setting up her romance with Harry in book 6 (all those longing looks as Harry went off with Cho Chang) and also showing how powerful she is (she was almost always the first person in DA to get a spell, and usually more powerfully than other folks). I'm also really glad we got a couple of good Neville moments, including finding out about his parents. I would have been really mad had they cut that out.
Umridge was very well cast, though I was happy that one of the features of condensing the material from the book was that I was only angry at her (rather than actively rooting for her to get trampled to death by angry centaurs, which is how I felt when I read the book). I also thought the twist of making Cho Chang (rather than, um, was it someone named Susan in the book? I think?) be the traitor was a good choice, making it a lot more personal for Harry and making the reveal about Veritaserum at the end more powerful.
I thought the reveal about James and the gang torturing Severus was interestingly done. (In the book, doesn't Harry illicitly look at Snape's pensieve, rather than getting it out of his head through occlumency?) That was another scene I was afraid they might have cut--despite my feeling that it will be central somehow in book 7--so I'm glad to see they didn't.
I'm wondering what Luna's prediction to Harry about things coming back to you, just not in the form you suspect, may be predicting about the potential for Sirius' return in book 7.
Oh, and while I'm mentioning book 7, here's my spoiler policy: I will put all spoilers for book 7 behind a spoiler cut for at least 6 months, and probably a year. (I am unspoiled right now--please do not spoil me!!--I'm talking about after I read it).
I've only read OOTP once, because I gave my copy away to a friend who couldn't afford to buy it--but I doubt I would have reread it, because capslock Harry was definitely not my favorite incarnation of him, and I hated Dolores Umbridge probably more than I have ever hated any other fictional character EVER. I think she brought up a lot of lurking hatred of fascist grade school teachers. Since I haven't read OOTP for three years or however long since it came out, I can't quite recall what aspects of that (extremely long) book have been omitted.
But I loved the film. As always, the visual spectacle is a big part of it for me. I don't have a very visual imagination, so I've always loved the movies for helping me understand and visualize things like Quidditch and different kinds of spells. For that reason, just being able to see the house at Grimmauld Place and the Ministry of Magic was very cool for me, and added a lot of depth to my understanding of the story. I also really loved the shot of them flying brooms in London at night--that was gorgeously shot.
I haven't been following casting spoilers or really even looking at publicity stills for the movie, so I was both surprised and pleased to see how well-cast Tonks, Bellatrix and Luna were. (I had no *idea* Helena Bonham Carter was playing Bellatrix--suddenly I think I'll be able to read all that Bellatrix femslash out there, which never really appealed to me before). The actress who played Luna, though, I think was the best. I've always thought Luna was an interesting and amusing character, but the movie really made me fall in love with her. I especially loved that scene with her and Harry bonding over the thestrals, but really I loved every scene she was in. She had the perfect spacey-but-sweet- and-unwittingly-wise air Luna should have.
It's interesting--the film really condensed the book, and no one had very many scenes outside of Harry, and yet they did a great job with the little character moments. For example, I've never been a big Sirius Black fan, but that scene with him and Harry at Christmastime made me suddenly understand why Harry cares about him so much, and I was actually heartbroken when he fell behind the Veil in the ministry. I also thought that even though Ginny didn't get any solo scenes at all, they did a very good job setting up her romance with Harry in book 6 (all those longing looks as Harry went off with Cho Chang) and also showing how powerful she is (she was almost always the first person in DA to get a spell, and usually more powerfully than other folks). I'm also really glad we got a couple of good Neville moments, including finding out about his parents. I would have been really mad had they cut that out.
Umridge was very well cast, though I was happy that one of the features of condensing the material from the book was that I was only angry at her (rather than actively rooting for her to get trampled to death by angry centaurs, which is how I felt when I read the book). I also thought the twist of making Cho Chang (rather than, um, was it someone named Susan in the book? I think?) be the traitor was a good choice, making it a lot more personal for Harry and making the reveal about Veritaserum at the end more powerful.
I thought the reveal about James and the gang torturing Severus was interestingly done. (In the book, doesn't Harry illicitly look at Snape's pensieve, rather than getting it out of his head through occlumency?) That was another scene I was afraid they might have cut--despite my feeling that it will be central somehow in book 7--so I'm glad to see they didn't.
I'm wondering what Luna's prediction to Harry about things coming back to you, just not in the form you suspect, may be predicting about the potential for Sirius' return in book 7.
Oh, and while I'm mentioning book 7, here's my spoiler policy: I will put all spoilers for book 7 behind a spoiler cut for at least 6 months, and probably a year. (I am unspoiled right now--please do not spoil me!!--I'm talking about after I read it).
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I just read a bunch of reviews and saw I missed some significant changes (like Neville's scene with his parents in the hospital, where his mom gives him a gum wrapper--I had forgotten that was in OOTP, and I *am* sad they cut that), and the fact that Bellatrix did *not* Avada Kedavara Sirius in the book. But I still loved this one a lot, especially because I feel like they made capslock Harry so much more sympathetic than he was in the book.
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the night-flying over london, as you say, was gorgeous. i'll definitely want to buy the dvd in letterbox format when it comes out.
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Yes! Yes. It's the same for me, I can't really see pictures in my head, and rely on the films to bring that part of the story to life. As a result, one thing I really really missed was seeing St Mungos (and Neville's parents). From the film maker's point of view I can see why it was cut -- not only to streamline the plot, but also because it would be a huge amount of production design work and set building etc to service a very small part of the story, but even so, I'd been looking forward to "seeing" that scene for the first time.
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