Just got back from the seeing HP & the Order of the Phoenix. Not bad. Not great. I hadn't read it in some time so I didn't notice too much all the ways in which it departed from the details of the book. My son did. My wife did. Even so, it's always interesting to see if the movie matches what you imagined things to be like. I think they did a very nice job with #12 Grimmauld Place. The acting was mostly quite good. Luna was perfectly understated. But I'm not sure I like the way Gambon plays Dumbledore. He doesn't have the kind of personal presence that I imagine D to have. The last scene (the dual between Dumbledore and Voldemort) was sort of a Star Wars light saber fight with wands. They stripped the battle of the fascinating and significant verbal combat between the two. What is worse, I think, is that they reduced to nothing Harry and Dumbledore's spirited discussion in D's office at the end.
Oh well, just a few thoughts. What did you all think?
5 comments:
I saw it yesterday with my kids. I agree with your comments. It was OK, but not great.
One sort of felt as though they were trying real hard to edit down the book into a two hour movie. Trying real hard and maybe crossing their fingers just a little bit.
dad, did you read the website i emailed you??? you really should!
No, not yet. I'll go look at it now.
The "new" Dumbledore is weak. They should have pulled out all the stops to get what's his name from the "Lord of the Rings."
Jeff: The possession of Harry by Vold. during the fight scene would be a real challenge for the big screen. They seem to have done their best. They juxtaposed images of bad things happening to Harry with his cries of pain to represent when Vold.'s possession was in ascendance and images of his friends and family with Harry more at peace or saying things like "I feel sorry for you" to represent the ascendancy of the love in him over Vold. I'm not sure it worked. Would someone who had not read the books understood what was happening? Perhaps, after reflection on the movie.
I am so very pleased with how JKR has finished her saga with an expressly Christian resolution to her main plot. I wish she would speak more to it in the interviews now being aired, but then perhaps the interviewers are trying to avoid it!
God bless!
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