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akaihyoLaura and I went out to see HP&tOotP on Sunday, a fairly full house for the second matinee. Though, as I recall, OotP is the longest book of the series so far, this is the shortest movie of the series, so the focus of the movie is the plot.
I am not sure how easy the movie would be to follow if you had not read the book (or, at the very least, have seen the previous movies) no one except Dolores Umbridge is properly introduced, everyone else it is just assumed you will know who they are and why they are important. The only character development is that of Harry, and even that is minimal, everything else is lashed to moving the plot forward. And move forward it does! But blink and you might miss something important, like Tonks or Krecher or Ginny Weasley (she is in the film, really, she may even have a line). The sets are spectacular and the magical battle at the end is very impressive, but strangely unsatisfying. I had looked forward to how they were going to do the interesting rooms and things in the Department of Mysteries and they did them by . . . ignoring all of them except one, the Portal to the Other Side, which does not get explained at all.
Except for Harry, and to a lesser extent Hermoine and Ron, everyone else appears as a cameo, stepping in to move the plot forward and then stepping out just as quickly. Luna Lovegood being a slight exception, as she gets a handful of scenes and almost some character development. Sadly, she did not get to have a necklace of bottle caps. (There is a charming interview with Evana Lynch who plays Luna on the BBC site.) However, all of the actors play their roles, however small, well, especially the younger actors. I have no complaints about their skills, I just wish we could have seen a bit more of them . . .
My favourite little touch though was in the phone box that was the visitor's entrance to the Ministry of Magic had a rotary dial phone in it.
Overall, a fun movie if not a great one and one of the better movie versions for all its flaws. It is certainly the best paced of them all. My Grade: C+
I am not sure how easy the movie would be to follow if you had not read the book (or, at the very least, have seen the previous movies) no one except Dolores Umbridge is properly introduced, everyone else it is just assumed you will know who they are and why they are important. The only character development is that of Harry, and even that is minimal, everything else is lashed to moving the plot forward. And move forward it does! But blink and you might miss something important, like Tonks or Krecher or Ginny Weasley (she is in the film, really, she may even have a line). The sets are spectacular and the magical battle at the end is very impressive, but strangely unsatisfying. I had looked forward to how they were going to do the interesting rooms and things in the Department of Mysteries and they did them by . . . ignoring all of them except one, the Portal to the Other Side, which does not get explained at all.
Except for Harry, and to a lesser extent Hermoine and Ron, everyone else appears as a cameo, stepping in to move the plot forward and then stepping out just as quickly. Luna Lovegood being a slight exception, as she gets a handful of scenes and almost some character development. Sadly, she did not get to have a necklace of bottle caps. (There is a charming interview with Evana Lynch who plays Luna on the BBC site.) However, all of the actors play their roles, however small, well, especially the younger actors. I have no complaints about their skills, I just wish we could have seen a bit more of them . . .
My favourite little touch though was in the phone box that was the visitor's entrance to the Ministry of Magic had a rotary dial phone in it.
Overall, a fun movie if not a great one and one of the better movie versions for all its flaws. It is certainly the best paced of them all. My Grade: C+