OotP-my review

[julie]

All opinions herein are mine, and are no more valuable
than anyone else's :-)

I saw the movie last night at a non-IMAX theater. Here
are my thoughts on the movie, good, bad, and ugly:

The good:

1. The acting was almost uniformly excellent. I was especially
impressed with Daniel Radcliffe, who was front and center in
OotP more so than any of the other movies so far, and had to
portray adolescent angst as well. He's grown a lot as an actor
through the movies, and acquited himself quite well here. 
Every time I saw Dolores Umbridge I wanted to put my fist 
through her face (more so as the movie went on!), so hats off
to Imelda Staunton for an excellent portrayal. Also I can't
say enough about Gary Oldman. Sirius had only a few scenes
in the movie, mostly with Harry, but every one of those was
brimming with a true depth of their feelings for each other.
(Dan has said he's learned the most about acting from Gary,
and their real-life connection shines through into their 
portrayal of the characters, IMO). 

2. The trio. I like how their bond has only grown stronger,
and has visibly matured throughout the movies. Here they 
were always supportive of each other--okay, it was rather
a one-way street this time, with Ron and Hermione supporting
Harry, and refusing to completely walk away even when he 
was at his most snarly. 

3. Luna. I liked her as a character from the beginning, and
her portrayal here by Evanna Lynch is absolutely spot on.
She's loopy, yet refreshingly open and honest. I thought it
interesting that she and Harry had a much deeper connection
in their scenes than Harry and Cho (if I didn't know what
was coming, I might think this movie was trying to tell us
something!).

4. Neville and his back-story. I was glad to see Neville 
have a solid role and that what happened to his parents
at Bella's hands was revealed. (Though when he told the
story, it wasn't clear to me that his parents were still
alive after they were tortured--no mention of St. Mungo's).


The bad:

1. The pacing. It was so fast that while no one got bored,
it took a moment sometimes to adjust as the scenes changed
so quickly. This led to the movie being the shortest so
far, though it's based on the longest book in the series.
And that's too bad, because they could have easily added
30 minutes, slowed down the pacing, and allowed for much
more exposition, and for a deeper look at the connection
between the characters. OotP the novel was very much 
about those connections, and they were mostly lost here,
I think. And better exposition wouldn't have left so 
many scenes on the edge of confusing (it wasn't clear
what the Veil even was in the movie, especially as 
Sirius was AKed by Bellatrix), especially for those who
haven't read the books. 

2. Order of the Phoenix. Wow, did they underutilize this
part of the story. In the movie Tonks is just some character
with no backstory at all who pops up a few times. Remus
Lupin doesn't even have a line that I recall. There are no 
scenes between Sirius and Snape highlighting their animosity
to each other. Including all of this might have added up to ten 
minutes of screentime, while giving us a better look at the 
light humor in Tonks with her clumsiness (her stumble early
on was an indication to those who've read the books, but 
lost I'm sure on those who haven't), allowed us understand
Kreacher's place there, not to mention understanding...

3. Sirius. If we'd seen more of the goings on at Grimmauld
Place, then Sirius could have been portrayed as the character
he actually is in the books. Again, I *loved* the scenes 
between Harry and Sirius, but how much better would they 
have been if juxtaposed with a scene or two of Sirius going
slowly bonkers cooped up at Grimmauld Place. And who wouldn't
want an opportunity to see Oldman and Rickman have a go at
each other! 

4. Occlumency. Why was this even in the movie? In the book
it was there for two reasons (IMO), to add some complexity
to Harry and Snape's relationship, and to give Harry a 
glimpse at his father as he really was, a man with faults
like everyone else rather than some cardboard hero. Neither
was present in the movie. Harry doesn't experience a common
bond with teenage Snape being bullied, nor is he suspicious
that Snape is making it easier for LV to enter his mind.
Snape in the movie doesn't give the only compliment ever 
given to Harry in the books ("For a first attempt that's not
as poor as it might have been.") only to lose it when Harry
snoops into the Pensieve. Furthermore, it's not even that
clear in the movie how much Voldemort is tempting Harry with
the visions of the DoM. And even when Harry does see the much
briefer scene of his father bullying Snape in the movie, he's
not the least bit disturbed or curious. Which is all too
bad, I think. The movie would have been better with it (and
given that much of these scenes in OotP, along with Snape's
mutual animosity with Sirius prompting Harry to blame him
for Sirius's death, all lead to Harry *hating* Snape from
the beginning of HBP, I do wonder how the movie is going
to convincingly portray Harry's deeply personal animosity
toward Snape. Maybe it just won't be there until the final
scenes.)

5. Kreacher. Again, why? I don't see any reason he had to
be in the movie, since we there was no indication that he
betrayed Sirius. All we know from the movie is that he 
exists, and he's mutteringly obnoxious. 

The ugly:

I only found one thing really ugly in the movie, and
that was in the final scene between Harry and Dumbledore.
I was sorry to see the scene so abbrievated, with Harry
not expressing the depth of his anger at being kept in 
the dark all year, and with Dumbledore not expressing 
more regret about it. But the truly ugly part was Gambon's
horrid HORRID acting when he delivered that last line
saying "I cared about you too much." (something similar)
There was *no* emotion whatsoever in his voice. It was
like he was reciting a speech. (And I did find Gambon
fine as Dumbledore throughout the movie, especially in 
some of the scenes with Umbridge. It was just this one
bit where he really fell completely flat. Ugh. UGH.)


Well, I know I've gone on. I was disappointed that the
movie didn't really reflect the main plot of the novel
very well, IMO. I felt the previous four movies did that
quite well, even when they left out this bit or that bit.
And the movie did have it's moments. It was entertaining
for the most part. To me it just didn't completely reflect
the essence of the plot in OotP as well as it could have.
Which makes it my least favorite of the five movies, not
because it's a bad movie, but because it could have told
the story with so much more clarity and depth with just a
few additions and clarifications here and there.

Julie, who gives the movie 2 1/2 out of 4 stars, while
the previous movies were in the 3-3 1/2 range.