DVDizzy Forum

I went to the Australian premiere of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix yesterday. It's so awesome, there's so much I want to tell you all! But I don't want to give away spoilers It was still an adaptation as opposed to an appropriation, however they did change many things. And once again SPEW isn't in the movies!!! argh! And neither is Dobby!

Ok, I'm giving away spoilers because now I remember what they did and didn't include:

Dobby doesn't tell Neville about the Room of Requirement, Neville randomly finds it.

Luna Lovegood only has like...60 seconds of dialogue.

They cut the introduction where Harry lies in the flowerbed eavesdropping on the news.

Snapes worst memory is a collage of flashbacks, there's no talking and you don't see Lily Potter at all.

There aren't any proper conversations and even though they're acting there are a lot of awkward silences.

The fight at the Ministry is incredible, but should've been longer.

The Ministry of Magic is the greatest set in the entire series (in my opinion anyway) Argh! It was so awesome, I love premieres!

Once again...Peeves isn't included.

There isn't ANY Quidditch at all, so we don't see Ron try out or play or anything.

There isn't the drama of who got the Prefect badges which created the tension between Ron and Harry.

Kreacher and Mrs. Black are only in the movie for a few seconds.

Mundungus Fletcher isn't in the movies.

You don't learn Mrs. Figg is a squib.

They don't go to St. Mungos hospital and see Neville's parents. Neville confides in Harry during one of the D.A lessons when they're alone.

The prophecy only states 'Neither can live while the other survives'. It has nothing to do with Neville potentially being the chosen one, because the one to defeat the Dark Lord would be a boy born in the 7th month.

I can't fault the fight between Voldemort and Dumbledore and how Lord Voldemort tried to enter Harry's mind. Those scenes were amazing.

Umbridge never tampers with the floo network or nearly catches Sirius.

Fred and George sell Weasley products, however nothing is said about them receiving Harry's Triwizard money.

Umbridge doesn't steal Hedwig or read Harry's mail, and so Hedwig's never injured.

The Order don't speak, except for Tonks for a few lines, and Kingsley Shakbolt says, "You have to admit...Dumbledore's got styyyyle!" and he is Indian (not being racist, I just thought he was going to be of African-American descent like it said in the book)

Nothing is mentioned of their homework overload and they seem to be doing just fine at school.

I just felt like it should've followed the sequence of events in the novel better. Also, more dialogue wouldn't have hurt. If you haven't read the book, then I don't think you'll understand the movie too well.
On the whole, it's probably the best of all the movies however I always compare each movie to the book they're based on. An example is, the order of the phoenix film is much better than the chamber of secrets film. However the chamber of secrets did an excellent job when you compare it to the book, whereas I thought the order of the phoenix book was way better than the movie, and so I feel as if the chamber was a better movie when it's not, it was just great because it did the book justice, and the order didn't.
It's complicated...I'll just shut up now, hahahaha.

You can't see Lily Potter!!!????? And they auditioned so many girls for the part and chose a beautiful red-haired girl to cut her???!!!

The other things don't bother me too much. It is an adaptation after all.

I don't mind the minor parts, but at least they included more of the book (sort of ) hopefully Half Blood Prince will have all of the sub characters and such.

Stuff that bothers me is in bold.


Dobby doesn't tell Neville about the Room of Requirement, Neville randomly finds it.

Luna Lovegood only has like...60 seconds of dialogue.

They cut the introduction where Harry lies in the flowerbed eavesdropping on the news.

Snapes worst memory is a collage of flashbacks, there's no talking and you don't see Lily Potter at all.

There aren't any proper conversations and even though they're acting there are a lot of awkward silences.

The fight at the Ministry is incredible, but should've been longer.

The Ministry of Magic is the greatest set in the entire series (in my opinion anyway) Argh! It was so awesome, I love premieres!

Once again...Peeves isn't included.

There is no quidditch at all.

There isn't the drama of who got the Prefect badges which created the tension between Ron and Harry.

Kreacher and Mrs. Black are only in the movie for a few seconds.

Mundungus Fletcher isn't in the movies.

You don't learn Mrs. Figg is a squib.

They don't go to St. Mungos hospital and see Neville's parents. Neville confides in Harry during one of the D.A lessons when they're alone.

The prophecy only states 'Neither can live while the other survives'. It has nothing to do with Neville potentially being the chosen one, because the one to defeat the Dark Lord would be a boy born in the 7th month.

I can't fault the fight between Voldemort and Dumbledore and how Lord Voldemort tried to enter Harry's mind. Those scenes were amazing.

Umbridge never tampers with the floo network or nearly catches Sirius.

Fred and George sell Weasley products, however nothing is said about them receiving Harry's Triwizard money.

Umbridge doesn't steal Hedwig or read Harry's mail, and so Hedwig's never injured.

The Order don't speak, except for Tonks for a few lines, and Kingsley Shakbolt says, "You have to admit...Dumbledore's got styyyyle!" and he is Indian (not being racist, I just thought he was going to be of African-American descent like it said in the book)

Guess who I'm going to dress up as for the premiere parties I'm going to? You're never going to be able to guess, so I'll simply tell you. MADAME MAXIME, as she was portrayed by Frances de la Tour!

Interesting choice, Prue! I loved de la Tour in The History Boys on Broadway. She was absolutely fantastic.

I wish I could escort your to the premiere tonight. Defintly gon'na see it tommorow (hopefully before class) or on Friday (might be able to skip work)

Prue: Sorry for not replying in the chat, I was running an errand please enter the chat, it is cruical that Jasmine and I speak with you.

Josh wrote:There aren't any proper conversations and even though they're acting there are a lot of awkward silences.

Josh, could you give an example of this, please?

Just got back from seeing this and it was amazing. It's a claim I'll have to sleep on to make official, but I think it might be my favorite thus far -- perhaps the best movie, but it's still not my favorite story, so maybe not. Hmmm.

For once, I have no complaints with even a moment of acting and everything else, from casting to action, from set design to effects, were entirely spot-on. Hooray for Harry Potter!

-Aaron

I agree with Aaron. This movie was great. It went a long way towards making me forget how much I disliked the "Goblet of Fire" movie. There are a few regrettable losses (half of the Dumbledore office scene, the students little revenge tactics against Umbridge), but overall it was excellent. It still doesn't top my personal favorite, "Prisoner of Azkaban", but it's easily my next favorite.

I'm going to see it today at 12:30 (Central US time) somewhere in Destin, Florida. I'm hoping for the best, but after reading some of the things, I'm not exactly sure.

As much as I LOVED this movie, it had many flaws. It took SO MANY shortcuts over very important plot details like the prophecy. The Major gripe people had when coming out was the poor handling of the flashback of the marauders at Hogwarts. That was a very poignant scene in which Harry realizes all that Snape's been saying about his father was kind of true.

The prophecy was totally mishandled. This is one of the most important things in the whole books and half of the words had been cut out. It was barely explained how the prophecy came about and the circumstances of which it was told.

Arabella Figg was miscast. The actress, although very good, played the character totally wrong. She seemed so calm and relaxed wheras Figg was nervous, twitchy, and furious. She doesn't even seem to care that dementors attacked Harry.

The Dursleys scene was way too short. They should've at least had Harry explain about the dementors to Petunia. Another very important plot point.

Percy is in the movie for a few seconds but has no dialogue so we don't have the plot line of him being a stupid git. All we know is that he works for the Ministry.

The good stuff: Sirius's death I thought was handled well. The "HUH? WTF HE"S GONE??" aspect matched the book greatly. LUNA IS AWESOME. Thestrals, Grawp, and Kreacher were great. Umbridge was perfectly cast. The DA scenes were great even if I didn't like the way the Room of Requirement looked. The end battle was great even if it was rushed a bit and void of some of the best scenes from the book.

Brilliant. I, as well as the rest of the audience, gobbled this up. Yates et al took the gargantuan book and splendidly transformed it into one tight zip of a film. I honestly have no complaints whatsoever. Staunton was deliciously award-worthy, as well as the striking cinematography, screenplay, and even--dare I say it--Radcliffe himself.

And I love me some short-haired Harry

I saw the film at a noon matinee today and adored it. This is certainly my favorite thus far (which makes sense considering book five is my favorite, too, though let's see how I feel after I read number seven next week). I feel that out of all of the films, the shortcuts this one makes don't harm it as much as the cuts from the other entries in the series. That said, here are some of my gripes:

* The ending felt too rushed. When Cedric died in movie four, we were given enough time to grieve and let it sink in, and that was with a character we barely knew. Now that a character from three films has died, no one bothers to mull over it and muse? Harry seemed more affected by Cedric's death than Sirius'. I also wish the prophecy were better explained. Non-book readers are still going to wonder why Voldemort wants to kill Harry so badly. Hopefully this'll be explained in the next one.

* Having Harry give Lucius the prophecy was a BIG no-no. Harry is not that weak, even if his friends are in jeopardy. I believe Harry would've smashed it right there on the spot rather than hand it over. I like having the rest of the group captured since that raises the stakes, but they shouldn't had Sirius arrive right before Harry could hand it over.

* I really wish Harry would've tried to contact Sirius by the floo network to confirm whether or not he was home. By cutting this scene out, it makes Harry seem too brash in his decision, and lays the blame solely on him instead of both him and Kreacher (who needed more screentime, anyway).

* Snape's worst memory was too glossed over. I'm not saying it needed to be lengthy. Heck, 30 seconds would've sufficed, giving us time to see the young Mauraders properly and to have Lily defend Snape. Instead, we get a 10 second blip that's too brief for us to sympathize with Snape.

* I really missed seeing the students wreak havoc on the school after the twins leave while the teachers make no attempt to stop them. This wouldn't have taken much time at all. It could've been done in a short and fun montage. However, since they had Harry have the Sirius vision before Fred and George were even a mile away, I guess they would've had to approach the vision aspect in a different way. Considering I like the way they handled that, I guess the lack of student mania was for the better.

* What was up with the Dursleys? Did anyone else find their acting to be awkward and stilted? I don't know if it was because David Yates shot their scenes early on when he wasn't fully comfortable with the big Hollywood process or what. Speaking of the Dursleys, I really wish they included Dumbledore's howler. Non-readers are still going to wonder why Harry must go to their home summer after summer instead of at the Burrow. Let's see if this is touched upon in the next one.

Now, for things I really liked:



* The cinematography was gorgeous. Even though Prisoner of Azkaban still has the best camera work of the series, in my opinion, Phoenix is a close second. I do think, though, that this film may have the best lighting and color timing of the series. It wasn't incessantly warm and golden like Columbus' films, nor dark and washed out like Cuaron's. It managed to maintain a balance when appropriate.

* The score was lovely. I was really disappointed in Patrick Doyle's score for Goblet of Fire, and really missed John Williams. Nicholas Hooper, though, proves to be a worthy successor of John. He made the score memorable and (cliched as it sounds) magical while still remaining mature. I'm glad he's coming back for Half-Blood Prince. If Williams can't make it for Deathly Hallows, then please bring Hooper back.

* I loved how Yates kept contrasting the muggle and wizarding worlds by including things like highways and garbage trucks. Little things like that made this film feel like the most natural and realistic one in the series, yet.

* I appreciated the toning down of emo!Harry. I don't think I, or anyone else, would've been able to stand over two hours of him in caps lock mode. Just having him outburst a couple of times was good enough.

* Luna was perfect. I've seen enough interviews with Evanna Lynch to see that she doesn't act as Luna; she IS Luna. She's got that airy, ethereal quality down pat. I'm hoping Jo gives Luna plenty to do in book 7 just so I can see more of Evanna (since I suspect most of her scenes will be cut for movie 6).

* I thought the scene with the twins comforting one of the younger boys over his cut hand was really sweet, and brought a new side to them.

* The flashbacks in Harry's mind were excellent. I love how they used shots from the previous films. It really ties them all together.

* Fred and George's escape was even better than the book's, and that's saying something. I totally wasn't expecting the filmmakers to include them creating their own products since that doesn't really affect the overall story arc of the series (unless Voldemort's thwarted via You-No-Poo at the end of seven). Filch's comeuppance from them was brilliantly disgusting.

* The climax was freaking sweet. When I read reports of how it was condensed (no round blue hallway with revolving walls, no brain room, etc.) I was in initially disappointed. Seeing it actually played out, though, I think it works beautifully. The scene between Dumbledore and Voldemort was amazing, and works better than I imagined (for some reason, this confrontation was hard for me to visualize while reading the book). Who would've thought wand duels could rock so much?

Overall, I very impressed and will be seeing this twice more in theaters. This is the most cinematic Harry Potter movie so far in terms of using different film techniques (slow motion, montages, voice overs, etc.). Michael Goldenberg did a fantastic job adapting this. I can only hope David Yates brings Steve Kloves up to this level for the next film. Bring on Half-Blood Prince!

I think it was exactly the same as all the other movies.

I saw this last night, and I thought it was really good. I've only read this book once, and couldn't really remember what happened in it apart from Sirius dying, so it was good to see it and have all these memories flooding back to me. I think it was the best so far, but then again, I always think the most recent ones are the best. I totally forgot Hagrid had a half-brother, and I totally loved that scene where the brother gives Hermione that bike, and she rings the bell on it. Hilarious. I liked how all the supporting characters were mostly given something to do, nearly everyone was in it, minus Dobby and Winky and also Lee Jordan, which I was pissed about. But still, nearly everyone got a line, so the writers did the book justice, I think. I love Luna too, she was portrayed to perfection by Evanna Lynch or whatever her name is, she's my favourite character now. Can't wait for the next one.
-James

You forgot another thing - they didn't include the howler "Remember my last, Petunia".

They also didn't have Firenze (the centaur) replace Trewalney (sp?) as the Divination teacher.

I was hoping for the part about Dumbledore interviewing Trewalney (sp?) for the Divination job, but they didn't include that, either.

I was also hoping that one part where members of the Order of the Phoenix told the Dursleys to be nice to Harry or they'd know, would be included, but it wasn't.

(i never actually finished my copy of OoTP, my bookmark fell out of the place and my attempts to read it all the way through failed, but some day......) but I knew the basic plot points.

I wish they had made it a little longer. It was barely (- edit to add -) "over" 2 hours long. I timed it with my stop watch.

I'll probably see it one more time.

Josh wrote: Kingsley Shakbolt says, "You have to admit...Dumbledore's got styyyyle!" and he is Indian (not being racist, I just thought he was going to be of African-American descent like it said in the book)

Err... he's not Indian. He's African. I think you got thrown off by his accent. The guy who plays him is George Harris.

Someone on IMDb just pointed something out to me that I remember reading a couple of months ago: David Yates said in an interview that the film originally ran about three hours and that WB was pressuring him to keep the film at two hours and twenty minutes at the most (it ended up being two hours and eighteen). That means roughly 45 minutes was cut from the film due to WB undoubtedly wanting a shorter film so they could fit in more screenings. This is by far the most any Potter film had been edited by. Sorcerer's Stone and Goblet of Fire lost about 20 minutes each, Chamber of Secrets about 15, and Prisoner of Azkaban about 10 (most of its editing was done in the script phase). 45 minutes is a heck of a lot, and I sincerely hope WB gives this and the other films extended editions. The film is excellent as it is, but needs room to breathe.

I just saw this earlier this evening, and I loved it! It is battling with Prisoner of Azkaban as my favorite film thus far (we'll see how the final two go). Here are some points I'd like to mention (spoilers):

* Imelda Staunton was perfect as Umbridge. I was so glad they got the character right, and they didn't maker her (as I was afraid they would) just really evil, as she's more than that. I wanted to punch her in the face in the movie as much as I did in the book.

* Helena Bonham Carter was wonderful as usual. She really did a lot with here minimal screen time, and was very memorable. That's one character I would have loved to see more of. (Though I am glad she made more lines than the reportedly two she had)

* The girl who played Luna was veeeerrry good. Her voice and whole persona fit the character to a T

* All the acting in general was great. Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson, Jason Isaacs, and Julie Walters were all great. Though they all could have used more screen time.

* Though I've always supported him in the role, I will agree that Micheal Gamon was a bit off in GoF (though we was brilliant in PoA). But, I feel he has improved very much since then and was great in this one.

* The ending battle was easily the best scene of the film, great action and performances all around. The fight with Voldemort and Dumbledore was greater and more spectacular than I had anticipated. And Fiennes, of course, was great as usual.

* I could live with the things that they cut (though "Remember my last, Petunia!" could have been added) and I was ok with it on the whole. The Snape's worst memory bit didn't show much, but you got the idea of it, which was really all that was important.

I could go on with things about this movie, but I am simply too tired at this point. I loved the film, and very much anticipate seeing it again.