I caught Harry Potter and the OotP last night with Wan, after a nice dinner with my cast and crew last night (of which I had to foot the bill, lol). So here’s the review. Briefly, I’d tell you to AVOID this show.
Right, now to the proper spoilery review.
History
The first two Harry Potter movies were most forgetable, what with Daniel Radcliffe’s wooden performance and Chris Columbus’ lame directing. Alfonso Cuaron, however had set the standards high for a Harry Potter movie with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. He went with a lot of wide shots (where the whole luscious Scottish scenery can be seen), and it was tightly paced. After the third movie, then came the fourth movie (Goblet of Fire) - which was okay, thanks to the very well done Triwizard Tournament sequences, and the ending which reveals Voldemort.
The fifth movie, the Order of the Phoenix (OotP), however, falls seriously short. Really short. And to me, I think it may join the ranks of the first two movies in being extremely forgettable.
Stellar Cast
The cast in this movie was awesome. If you look into Ivanna Lynch’s eyes, you’ll realize that she IS Loony Lovegood. And of course, Matthew Lewis shows a broader range of emotions as Neville Longbottom. Katie Leung was good too as the wet eyed Cho Chang (I love Katie!!!). And of course, you have the oozing slimeball Alan Rickman as Snape. As for Imelda Staunton, you really feel like punching her. That’s how good her acting is. Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are as usual, pretty Hermione and Ron-ish, great acting, and Potter himself has improved vastly over the previous movies.
The baddies too were played well. Helena Bonham Carter played Bellatrix to the way I imagined it in my mind, while Ralph Fiennes didn’t have much exposure as Voldemort, neither did Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy.
So what went wrong with such great acting?
Bad Pacing
Seriously, the pacing of the movie is so slow, that I actually nearly fell asleep. Somehow, the movie was edited with such a slow pace that it felt like there was nothing going on. David Yates tried to emulate Alfonso Cuaron by doing the wide shots, but he failed miserably. Cuaron’s style is absolutely his own, and is hard to emulate. There wasn’t enough on screen conflict to carry the movie on its own (though there were a lot in the book).
I felt that the story on film showed too much unnecessary exposition. The director assumes that those who watched the movie have read the book, hence focused on a lot of other unnecessary exposition. He unfortunately missed out the necessary ones, and made it feel incomplete as a movie.
Another thing about the pacing is that there were a lot of silent moments which were neither sombre nor tense. This leads to lots of boredom.
And of course, worst of all is the music.
Nicholas Hooper (the composer) should be shot in the head. John Williams gave Harry Potter an epic feel, while Nicholas Hooper, he made Harry Potter a pop-image. The score basically ruined the whole movie. Cues were in totally the wrong places, and music is boring at best. It feels like Nicholas Hooper had been composing for pop music a while, giving Harry Potter a MTV feel, or like a 90s lame movie. Horrid, most horrid.
The screenplay wasn’t very good. I was quite surprised at this too, as I though J.K Rowling wouldn’t have approved such a screenplay. It was filled, as I noted, with lots of silence pause. They were not tense, they were not pregnant. They are just plain silences that simply sucked. Gone are the witty lines of Harry Potter. At least GoF had more interesting scenes.
I know this movie is supposed to be a dark movie, but hey, silence is boring. So is inactivity.
The only commendable part with the changes they made are with Sirius Black’s death. I read somewhere that it was J.K Rowling who plotted it this way. It’d give more hints to what is behind the veil. Most interesting. At least I hope it was J.K Rowling’s change to it. Because if it weren’t then it’d be boring.
The final fight scene between the Death Eaters and the Order members tried hard to look good, but doing everything in one take (it looks like it’s one take) is really confusing. There were no clear orders on how they fought, what with white light and black smoke hitting each other. Horrid.
Many roles have been muted in this movie, to make way for senseless and pointless stuff, like the silent moment in the carriage with the thestrals, and the inane Daily Prophet scenes (argh!!! ENOUGH OF THOSE!!!). Also, some characterizations of the movie characters have changed. Harry isn’t as angsty as he is in the book, as he seems to flip flop with his emotions. Not that he can’t act, but he wasn’t well directed.
The whole movie feels disjointed. I’d blame it on the screenplay and editing.
I give Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix a 4/10.
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SPOILER: Snape is actually the future Snake Plissken.
Ridiculous review. David Yates was so good he has been confirmed to direct the sixth film, due November 2008. This is a terrible review. I am a big movie fan and this just insane…the 3rd movie started the ‘dark tone’, the fourth was just awesome as it had ‘dark tone’+ triwizard. This film is the best Potter film of all. The music score is terrible? Wat the hell. I don’t want to be rude or anything, but this review IS JUST TOO PERSONAL. Read some rottentomatoes…
There’s pictures of Emma Watson floating around the internets with her lips around a bottle of alcohol. Well, i know that the bottle contains alcohol.
If HP&OotP was as bad as you said, Emma must be turning into an alcoholic!
Narain: In what way? Total silence in movies does not equate to ‘dark’. The silence in the movie were done in such a way that it’s not tense, not sombre, and carries no mood. The music score IS terrible. It sounds like any other commercial movie score, and drags down the epic feeling of the Harry Potter movies like what John Williams had made it to be. This felt so… old, dated music, while J.Williams’ is timeless.
Best Potter film in your opinion, horrible in mine. RottenTomatoes? They had many reviews that were similar to mine - disjointed, bad editing. Why don’t you read those as well?
As for RottenTomatoes, Sorceror’s Stone got a 79% rating, despite Dan Radcliffe’s horrible wooden acting, Chamber of Secrets - 82%, and Azkaban - 89%. So did Goblet of Fire. How much did this OotP get? A measly 75%.
So there.
The only reason why it’s worth a watch is because it foreshadows things in Deathly Hallows. Says Loony Lovegood:
Does this mean Sirius is really coming back permanently as a dog? Or Dumbledore coming back as a dragon?
Aoshi: dotdotdot.
p/s: The only reason why the Potter films got such high ratings is because a lot of the reviewers are Potterheads themselves, and have a cognitive bias in reviewing it,
the 5th book IS the weakest of the series so far. it’s a bloated mess that didn’t really advance the whole plot.
i’m gonna watch this with very low expectations. If the fights scenes turn out good, then it’ll be worth it.
I liked the first movie a lot. Sure it didnt have the most inspired directing but luckily for Columbus, the book itself was very cinematic and John Williams wrote one of the greatest scores of his career.
mukhlisz: Well, Rowling DID kill Black.
Nigel: I agree the score is one of his greatest ever. I have it. It proves Williams to be diverse, and yet, can make the movie sound epic. Nicholas Hooper on the other hand, was plain shit
Not Hangmen: SUNAEKU!? SUNAAEEEKU!? SUNAEEEEEKU!
Going to watch this movie soon. Is it THAT bad? :/
If you’re a hardcore HP fan, three words: LOVE IS BLIND.
If you’re not…it’s up to you whether you want to see it or not, but READ THE BOOK before you do.
I find book to movie adaptations depressing. Same goes for comic to live-action as well. I do know for a fact that not everything is possible but when the fundamental story or critical elements are changed… bye bye story!
Tom Hanks ended up as a pansy long-haired Robert Langdon in Da Vinci Code. Compared to Saving Private Ryan and him shooting at the Tiger tank with an M1911 Colt at the end of the movie…
Kambing : Yes. That bad.
Christina: I’ve read the book umpteenth times… the movie just cannot make it as its own, neither can it, with the support of the book. This leaves the movie in sort-of a limbo, no?
Very bad! Dark atmo movie. Are they trying to make another Azkaban or something?? No pace kicking up. Potter done nothing in this movie except blocking his mind againts Voldermolt.
I haven’t watch it yet but then I am never a fan of Harry Potter. It’s not that I don’t like fantasy stuff. I just prefer something better and mature. I don’t like read novels because I prefer reading facts like history books (or blogs, heh). But movies are different approach to me. As I am not a fan of Harry Potter, don’t even think for me to read the novels even if you force me. Most all Harry Potter movies that I watched were on Astro or DVDs since I am not really a movie maniac like Chewxy.
i like the luna girl. in a non-pedophiliac way, of course. no put down the phone. seriously. stop dialling!
Adrian : It’s Voldemort. Yes, this David Yates fella is trying to copy Alfonso Cuaron.
Maskawaih: I’m not really a movie maniac. LOL…
Empyreal: Party van on the way
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