The Mole from the Ministry of Magic

[vovat]

So, as I indicated would happen, bethje and I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix today. Since I'm sure some of you haven't seen it yet, I'm going to use a cut for spoilers.

Overall, I enjoyed the film, and I think they did a decent job of streamlining the plot. Seeing St. Mungo's might have been nice, but I really didn't expect to anyway. I did think the way they wrote out Marietta was kind of sloppy. The way it played out in the film, it was Cho who sold out Dumbledore's Army, but she apparently only did it under the influence of veritaserum (as Snape essentially admitted in front of Harry and a bunch of other people). So it kind of seems like there's no reason, within the context of the films, for Harry to hold a grudge against Cho. Since I don't think including Marietta would have taken a lot of time or anything, they probably should have just included her. Having Sirius killed by an Avada Kedavra spell rather than falling through the veil was a weird and unnecessary change. Even worse to me, though, was how much they chopped out of Snape's memory of being bullied by James, since I always found that to be one of the more memorable parts of the book.

As far as the new characters go, I thought Luna was really good. As for Umbridge, while I was initially bothered by how un-toadlike the actress looked, she pulled off the role quite well. I'm glad Kreacher was there, and I liked how he was portrayed, but they didn't include the part about him selling out the Order. (What was it with the screenwriters cutting out all the betrayals?) And catching a glimpse of Aberforth Dumbledore was nice.

Michael Gambon still didn't really do Professor Dumbledore justice, but at least he was better than in the last movie. The fact that they kept in Snape's habit of slapping people from the Goblet of Fire film was irritating, since I'd say that's really out of character for him. And was there really a need to bring back Nigel, who was never in the books at all? They also had another cartoony talking letter, which I didn't like in Chamber of Secrets and didn't care for this time, either. On the other hand, I liked the way they handled Sirius' face in the fire better in this movie than in the last one. I did think the design for the Ministry of Magic, and Umbridge's office was excellently rendered. I'm sure I could go on about stuff I did and didn't like, but I think this is long enough. I welcome anyone else's comments on the film, though.


I had some crazy dreams today. There was one where I heard about a promotion for some horror movie, which I think was originally supposed to be online, but I was later able to see it just by closing my eyes. It consisted of some weird images that I can't remember, and ended with an offer for a free sundae. I believe the same dream had a small giraffe walking into the refrigerator, and all three of the cats having duplicates. One of the the duplicates scratched me pretty badly when I tried to take him out of a room, and I think I had another dream where I was being scratched by a small mammal. I'm not sure why being attacked by animals is something that keeps coming up in my dreams. Okay, I guess it's not THAT common, but I remember another one from a few years ago where I was attacked by a miniature camel.

Comments

[obsessical.livejournal.com]

I really don't like Michael Gambon as Dumbledore. To me, Dumbledore seems like one of those dudes who pratically NOTHING phases. Richard Harris pulled that off PERFECTLY. That, "I care, but none of you will ever know that" attitude is what makes Dumbledore dumbledore!

Also, he freaked me out in GoF when he like, shook Harry. My dad, who has never read the books gasped and went "Dumbledore would never shake Harry."

But yes, he was better than GoF, at least. The scene with him and Harry in his office at the end made me cry, just like it did in the book.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I remember reading that Gambon never read any of the books, because he figured everything he would need to play the part would be in the scripts. Apparently it wasn't, because the angry, Harry-shaking Dumbledore from Goblet of Fire was totally unlike the character from the books. There was a little bit of that characterization in Order of the Phoenix when he yelled at the students after allowing Trelawney to stay at Hogwarts, but I give either Gambon or the director credit for toning this down during the all-important talk with Harry.

I like the idea of tiny fridgerator giraffes

[bec-87rb.livejournal.com]

Tiny giraffies! What an oxyomoron! What little things are metaphorically scratching at your these days?

Re: I like the idea of tiny fridgerator giraffes

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I can't even remember for sure that it WAS a giraffe, but I think it was. I believe it was proportionally smaller than a real giraffe, with the legs and neck still being really long in relation to its body.

I'm not sure where the scratching mammals are coming from, but I DO think I actually felt the scratching within the dream. It didn't cause any lasting damage even within the dream, though.

hem hem

[zimbra1006.livejournal.com]

They also didn't redeem Snape by having him go to contact Sirius after Harry's cryptic message to him. that bugged me a little. Really there was not enough Snape period.

I thought the movie was well-done though, overall. Umbridge in particular was pretty perfect. And I was in favor of them cutting out Quidditch and other such time-consuming non-plot points.

Re: hem hem

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Snape was definitely underused in this film. You'd think that, what with the female fans who are obsessed with Snape and the ones who are obsessed with Alan Rickman, they'd purposely put in more of Snape played by Rickman. {g} I guess they'll pretty much have no choice but to use him a lot in the next movie (since, y'know, it turns out he's even in the friggin' TITLE). Or, since the one thing that pretty much every director of a Potter film has been eager to keep in (and sometimes even add) is the romantic tension between Ron and Hermione, maybe that's all they'll show in Movie 6. :P

I agree that cutting out Quidditch was a good idea. It was actually somewhat relevant to the main plot in the first three books, so they pretty much had to leave it in then. In the later ones, though, it's more of a diversion. I don't really find the Quidditch scenes in the books that interesting, although I do have to give Rowling credit for making up her own sport. I think Quidditch is a good example of how some parts of the wizarding world are rather unnecessarily complicated and weird. I'm sure part of it is because writing that kind of stuff is a lot of fun (I know this from experience), but from a within-the-story point of view, it could be an intentional way in which wizards tried to differentiate themselves from Muggles. Their refusal to adopt modern technology is probably much along the same lines.

[yosef.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't see much reason for Harry to not like Cho in the next film now, since Cho doesn't get mad at him and her friend Marietta doesn't betray them (I wonder if one of the extras who is shown as Cho's friends is meant to actually be Marietta?). Although, it could just be a matter of Harry realizing Ginny's the better choice and that's why he'll lose interest in Cho. I was going to write that might seem out of no where, but I think I recall it's out of no where in the books too (Harry's affection for Ginny at least, not hers for him).

The photo of the Order in the movie made me think... did the Weasleys and Potters know each other? I feel like at some point I read that they weren't involved originally (and I don't recall them being in the movie version of the photo anyway), so it's likely they didn't.

I thought maybe Nigel was originally some sort of Creevey replacement character in the fourth movie because he wants Harry's autographs, but in this one he just seemed like filler. I was disappointed that Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott weren't brought back for Dumbledore's Army scenes, since they were brought back in the fourth movie but didn't get to do much. I'm still wondering if characters like Prof. Sprout and Madam Pomfrey will be returning in the next films, like for the funeral. I'm guessing not, unless the script makes them have some other significant role.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I wonder if one of the extras who is shown as Cho's friends is meant to actually be Marietta?

I got the idea in the earlier films that all of the extras were carefully chosen to correspond to actual minor characters, even if their names aren't mentioned. I'm not so sure that's the case anymore, but it might be. For all we know, maybe Nigel IS an actual Hogwarts student; we don't know all of the students in the lower years, and "Nigel" is a common enough British name that it's likely someone there would have it. Even if he's real within the book continuity, though, he definitely wasn't in Dumbledore's Army.

I doubt the Weasleys and Potters really knew each other, although it's possible that they ran into each other at some point. The wizarding world seems small enough that most of the wizards know OF the others, even if they haven't had any personal contact. And the Potters and Weasleys are both pureblood families.