commotiocordis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
commotiocordis) wrote2007-07-11 06:32 pm
commotiocordis) wrote2007-07-11 06:32 pm
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Responses to the Esquire's midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Gary Oldman impressed me in this one. I wasn't sure about him in the PoA movie, but in this one, he was Sirius, plain and simple.
I was really excited about Tonks's character going to be in this movie, but she had a grand total of what, three lines? We didn't even get to see them (anybody) very much in the fight scene, due to all that flying around, which annoyed me because I wanted to see the actors.
Yeah, and Jason Isaacs was hot. The "OMG STICK TO CANON" part of me wasn't crazy about him having such a big part at the end, but the rest of me was just drooling.
Neville didn't get to blast Bellatrix, which was sad. And therefore I had a bit of issue with how Neville let her just hold the wand to his neck like that. I think Neville wouldn't just stand for that, he'd try to get his vengeance however possible.
Towards the beginning, the shot where Sirius hugs Harry when they first see each other again and Remus is leaning against the doorway smiling like a proud godfather-in-law? Love. That was probably my favorite shot of the movie, simply because you got that family feel so strongly, and it really established how much Harry (and Lupin) were losing at the end. I was impressed there.
I can't decide whether I liked Sirius calling Harry "James" or not. First, it depends on how he meant it. If he meant it like a compliment, yeah, that's fine. If Sirius actually slipped up, idk. I sort of caught a slight implication from that that Sirius doesn't appreciate Harry for himself, that Molly was right and he thinks he's got James back. Still. It was sad.
As was the bit about how they're going to be a family again before Harry left for school. Had they had good music in the whole Remus holding Harry back thing (and maybe a tad more emotion from David Thewlis in that scene), I might have cried.
About the music. Ehh. Like I said before, a lot better than GoF guy, but nowhere near John Williams. It's odd, to see a movie where there's a distinctive theme and then not have that theme worked into the score for the movie at all. It was interesting, though, that they darkened up the opening theme a bit; it wasn't your SS/CoS/PoA Hedwig's Theme, after the 15 notes that everybody knows, the chords seemed darker than the previous versions.
I didn't like how crazy they made Harry. At bits, particularly seeing Voldemort in the train station, it wasn't so much "OMG, Voldemort can use your little connection to screw you up" as "OMG, Voldemort is using your connection to screw you up."
Helena Bonham Carter? Floored. Though I'd like to have seen her less crazy and more evil, that was more a directorial thing, methinks, than a reflection on her acting.
The distinction between Lucius and Bellatrix that Helena made in one of her interviews (that I've seen since the books and is what gave me this odd fascination with her character)--that Lucius is doing the whole Death Eater thing more out of fear; he agrees, but wouldn't be doing any of the work if he wasn't scared to death of Voldemort, while Bellatrix is actually into it--didn't come across. I blame this squarely on the whole letting Lucius do most of the work at the Dept. of Mysteries (which I loved, because again, Jason). Had they had Voldemort come in while Lucius was there playing with Harry, Jason could have brought the fear bit across, but he just didn't get the opportunity with this script.
I have little directorial arguments in a bunch of places, but some of them might just require a rewatch to clear up.
The twins. Idk. Everybody else is saying that they loved them, but I would have liked to see a hint more anger at Umbridge before they did the whole "give her hell from us" scene. The "I feel our interests lie in other directions" bit was just a bit too offhand for the magnitude of what they were about to do. I also wanted the "Give her hell from us" bit in there. There was no Peeves!
I wanted McGonagall to tell Peeves that the light unscrewed the other way. Because I lovelovelove Minerva, and that's a hilarious bit, and she never gets enough to do in the movies.
The femslash part of me was squeeing like a fool when Minerva was all protective of Sybill. I mean, the cuddling? The snarky reply to Umbridge? Yeah. I love their relationship--in front of the students, Minerva bashes Occlumency, but when it comes down to it, she doesn't hesitate to put an arm around Sybill and cuddle her back into the castle. I liked the scene in the movie better than the book purely for that reason, I must say. The absence of cooking sherry strengthened the emotion therein.
The Dumbledore/Voldemort fight was a spectacular exhibit of special effects. Excellent work on that.
The whole Dumbledore loves Harry bit was sad for everybody who's read HBP.
I'm worried that they left out Sirius's mirror. For the 7th movie, you know.
I have a feeling that Kreacher plays into the 7th book. Because he had absolutely no purpose in this movie--Hermione made no SPEW references, he didn't work for the Malfoys, nothing--and yet we were specifically made to take notice of him a few times. That strikes me as a JKR interference.
I wanted the brains in the Dept. of Mysteries scene. In fact, that whole scene was a little disappointing for me in the sense that it was so unbelievably Harry-centric when the book had everybody being a hero. I admit, I've always liked the minor characters in things muchmuch more than the main ones, so I'm def. biased there, but everybody else was practically superfluous in that scene.
I had trouble distinguishing the Marauders when they showed the Snape flashback. I wasn't crazy about the casting there; they hardly had to act at all for that short scene, so they could have casted purely for resemblance to the older actor to allow for better/quicker recognition in that short scene.
When Snape pulls Harry down to his dungeons by the wrist? All I could think of was OMG!Snarry!! I lolled and lolled.
I wasn't crazy about how Bella got Sirius with the AK in the movie. Idk, that's probably because I took the book's inconsequential curse pushing him beyond the veil as evidence that he's going to play a part in book 7. If he's dead-as-in-gone, I agree with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
anemonerose that it's better he went down with the AK (because he went down really fighting, and it seemed like less of a waste), but I'm still holding out hope!
Overall, I suppose, my main complaint is the same one as always. It was just too fast. You really just can't make a book that big into a single 2 hour-18 minute movie. The original plan with book 4 was to make it into two movies released a few months apart, I've heard, which I'd have liked to see, because they just cut out too much. It's so bare bones, and I know they can't please everybody without making it a 13 hour movie, and they probably did the best they could, but it'd be nice if they pushed the length. I mean, turn it into a Titanic two-parter type thing. You've got to try as hard as you can to do justice to this amazing woman's work, and to do that, I think we definitely need to break out of this 2.5 hour movie restriction.
Gary Oldman impressed me in this one. I wasn't sure about him in the PoA movie, but in this one, he was Sirius, plain and simple.
I was really excited about Tonks's character going to be in this movie, but she had a grand total of what, three lines? We didn't even get to see them (anybody) very much in the fight scene, due to all that flying around, which annoyed me because I wanted to see the actors.
Yeah, and Jason Isaacs was hot. The "OMG STICK TO CANON" part of me wasn't crazy about him having such a big part at the end, but the rest of me was just drooling.
Neville didn't get to blast Bellatrix, which was sad. And therefore I had a bit of issue with how Neville let her just hold the wand to his neck like that. I think Neville wouldn't just stand for that, he'd try to get his vengeance however possible.
Towards the beginning, the shot where Sirius hugs Harry when they first see each other again and Remus is leaning against the doorway smiling like a proud godfather-in-law? Love. That was probably my favorite shot of the movie, simply because you got that family feel so strongly, and it really established how much Harry (and Lupin) were losing at the end. I was impressed there.
I can't decide whether I liked Sirius calling Harry "James" or not. First, it depends on how he meant it. If he meant it like a compliment, yeah, that's fine. If Sirius actually slipped up, idk. I sort of caught a slight implication from that that Sirius doesn't appreciate Harry for himself, that Molly was right and he thinks he's got James back. Still. It was sad.
As was the bit about how they're going to be a family again before Harry left for school. Had they had good music in the whole Remus holding Harry back thing (and maybe a tad more emotion from David Thewlis in that scene), I might have cried.
About the music. Ehh. Like I said before, a lot better than GoF guy, but nowhere near John Williams. It's odd, to see a movie where there's a distinctive theme and then not have that theme worked into the score for the movie at all. It was interesting, though, that they darkened up the opening theme a bit; it wasn't your SS/CoS/PoA Hedwig's Theme, after the 15 notes that everybody knows, the chords seemed darker than the previous versions.
I didn't like how crazy they made Harry. At bits, particularly seeing Voldemort in the train station, it wasn't so much "OMG, Voldemort can use your little connection to screw you up" as "OMG, Voldemort is using your connection to screw you up."
Helena Bonham Carter? Floored. Though I'd like to have seen her less crazy and more evil, that was more a directorial thing, methinks, than a reflection on her acting.
The distinction between Lucius and Bellatrix that Helena made in one of her interviews (that I've seen since the books and is what gave me this odd fascination with her character)--that Lucius is doing the whole Death Eater thing more out of fear; he agrees, but wouldn't be doing any of the work if he wasn't scared to death of Voldemort, while Bellatrix is actually into it--didn't come across. I blame this squarely on the whole letting Lucius do most of the work at the Dept. of Mysteries (which I loved, because again, Jason). Had they had Voldemort come in while Lucius was there playing with Harry, Jason could have brought the fear bit across, but he just didn't get the opportunity with this script.
I have little directorial arguments in a bunch of places, but some of them might just require a rewatch to clear up.
The twins. Idk. Everybody else is saying that they loved them, but I would have liked to see a hint more anger at Umbridge before they did the whole "give her hell from us" scene. The "I feel our interests lie in other directions" bit was just a bit too offhand for the magnitude of what they were about to do. I also wanted the "Give her hell from us" bit in there. There was no Peeves!
I wanted McGonagall to tell Peeves that the light unscrewed the other way. Because I lovelovelove Minerva, and that's a hilarious bit, and she never gets enough to do in the movies.
The femslash part of me was squeeing like a fool when Minerva was all protective of Sybill. I mean, the cuddling? The snarky reply to Umbridge? Yeah. I love their relationship--in front of the students, Minerva bashes Occlumency, but when it comes down to it, she doesn't hesitate to put an arm around Sybill and cuddle her back into the castle. I liked the scene in the movie better than the book purely for that reason, I must say. The absence of cooking sherry strengthened the emotion therein.
The Dumbledore/Voldemort fight was a spectacular exhibit of special effects. Excellent work on that.
The whole Dumbledore loves Harry bit was sad for everybody who's read HBP.
I'm worried that they left out Sirius's mirror. For the 7th movie, you know.
I have a feeling that Kreacher plays into the 7th book. Because he had absolutely no purpose in this movie--Hermione made no SPEW references, he didn't work for the Malfoys, nothing--and yet we were specifically made to take notice of him a few times. That strikes me as a JKR interference.
I wanted the brains in the Dept. of Mysteries scene. In fact, that whole scene was a little disappointing for me in the sense that it was so unbelievably Harry-centric when the book had everybody being a hero. I admit, I've always liked the minor characters in things muchmuch more than the main ones, so I'm def. biased there, but everybody else was practically superfluous in that scene.
I had trouble distinguishing the Marauders when they showed the Snape flashback. I wasn't crazy about the casting there; they hardly had to act at all for that short scene, so they could have casted purely for resemblance to the older actor to allow for better/quicker recognition in that short scene.
When Snape pulls Harry down to his dungeons by the wrist? All I could think of was OMG!Snarry!! I lolled and lolled.
I wasn't crazy about how Bella got Sirius with the AK in the movie. Idk, that's probably because I took the book's inconsequential curse pushing him beyond the veil as evidence that he's going to play a part in book 7. If he's dead-as-in-gone, I agree with
anemonerose that it's better he went down with the AK (because he went down really fighting, and it seemed like less of a waste), but I'm still holding out hope!Overall, I suppose, my main complaint is the same one as always. It was just too fast. You really just can't make a book that big into a single 2 hour-18 minute movie. The original plan with book 4 was to make it into two movies released a few months apart, I've heard, which I'd have liked to see, because they just cut out too much. It's so bare bones, and I know they can't please everybody without making it a 13 hour movie, and they probably did the best they could, but it'd be nice if they pushed the length. I mean, turn it into a Titanic two-parter type thing. You've got to try as hard as you can to do justice to this amazing woman's work, and to do that, I think we definitely need to break out of this 2.5 hour movie restriction.
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So, in other words, I agree with you, too. :))