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1. Go see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2. See it on an IMAX screen.
3. Be glad you don't need Dramamine.
*G*
They ran HP:PoA as the teaser. And then they had a trivia contest with prizes run by people cosplaying as HP characters.
Hardest question: What was the very first Gryffindor password Harry had to learn?
Best wrong answer: What is Ron Weasley most afraid of? "GIRLS!!"
While she doesn't look like a toad (and seriously, finding an actress who both looks like that and can pull off the part is unlikely) I felt justified in feeling that Imelda Staunton would do justice to the part. Umbridge is scarily and cheerfully just Evil.
It's interesting to see what the screenwriters (with JKR's help) have picked out as the salient points to film. Of course, there are changes made and things condensed much as there were in GoF.
Probably the one thing that doesn't work as well in the movies as in the books is that the movies are forced to jetison the interpersonal aspects and the details, all the depth of what's happening, in order to streamline the story. The emotional states of any number of characters are given, by necessity, short shrift to the extent that I wonder if someone who had not read the book would know that Harry was really furious about being left out in the beginning, that Sirius was being pushed to an emotional boiling point by his enforced inactivity, that one of the big reasons for Harry's failure at occlumency was Snape's inability to stop sneering and commenting, and many more. Timelines were rearranged which meant that other things had to be rearranged, enough to leave us wondering if Harry and Cho ever spent any time together other than during the DA practices, and that it was Cho who betrayed the group. O_o The hospital scenes are gone, so no one besides Harry appears to know about Neville's parents.
The biggest disappointment, for me, was the whole Ministry of Magic climactic scenes at the end. If I didn't know better (i.e. hadn't read the book) I'd think they entered the Ministry, went directly to the door, and it opened into the room holding the prophecies. None of the difficulty of getting there was shown. Even when the Deatheaters showed up the fight between them and the kids in the DA resulted in, ummm, none of the DA being even so much as injured beyond a few bumps and bruises? And then the OotP arrived and the DA (except Harry, of course) essentially fade into the background. There was also one other change, one that was more serious, in my opinion. When Harry picks up the prophecy it 'speaks' for all the DA who were there to hear. Which is very different from the book, where the prophecy breaks when no one can hear it and Harry only learns it from Dumbledore meaning that the only one who now knows it is Harry. Not Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and Luna.
I have to admit that Michael Gambon finally stopped acting like he was confused by the part and stepped up to the final confrontation of Dumbledore with Voldemort. Well done.
Best line (which got a laugh throughout the theater): Cornelius Fudge, upon entering the Ministry, seeing Voldemort, watching Voldemort exit [appalled expression on face]: He's back!
Scene that should have been left in just because I wanted to see it: Umbridge in McGonagle's classroom 'hem hem'ing to Minerva's "I wonder how you expect to gain an idea of my usual teaching methods if you continue to interrupt me? You see, I do not generally permit people to talk when I am talking."
And still no Bill. Grrr.
And I'm seeing it again tomorrow afternoon. Hee!
2. See it on an IMAX screen.
3. Be glad you don't need Dramamine.
*G*
They ran HP:PoA as the teaser. And then they had a trivia contest with prizes run by people cosplaying as HP characters.
Hardest question: What was the very first Gryffindor password Harry had to learn?
Best wrong answer: What is Ron Weasley most afraid of? "GIRLS!!"
While she doesn't look like a toad (and seriously, finding an actress who both looks like that and can pull off the part is unlikely) I felt justified in feeling that Imelda Staunton would do justice to the part. Umbridge is scarily and cheerfully just Evil.
It's interesting to see what the screenwriters (with JKR's help) have picked out as the salient points to film. Of course, there are changes made and things condensed much as there were in GoF.
Probably the one thing that doesn't work as well in the movies as in the books is that the movies are forced to jetison the interpersonal aspects and the details, all the depth of what's happening, in order to streamline the story. The emotional states of any number of characters are given, by necessity, short shrift to the extent that I wonder if someone who had not read the book would know that Harry was really furious about being left out in the beginning, that Sirius was being pushed to an emotional boiling point by his enforced inactivity, that one of the big reasons for Harry's failure at occlumency was Snape's inability to stop sneering and commenting, and many more. Timelines were rearranged which meant that other things had to be rearranged, enough to leave us wondering if Harry and Cho ever spent any time together other than during the DA practices, and that it was Cho who betrayed the group. O_o The hospital scenes are gone, so no one besides Harry appears to know about Neville's parents.
The biggest disappointment, for me, was the whole Ministry of Magic climactic scenes at the end. If I didn't know better (i.e. hadn't read the book) I'd think they entered the Ministry, went directly to the door, and it opened into the room holding the prophecies. None of the difficulty of getting there was shown. Even when the Deatheaters showed up the fight between them and the kids in the DA resulted in, ummm, none of the DA being even so much as injured beyond a few bumps and bruises? And then the OotP arrived and the DA (except Harry, of course) essentially fade into the background. There was also one other change, one that was more serious, in my opinion. When Harry picks up the prophecy it 'speaks' for all the DA who were there to hear. Which is very different from the book, where the prophecy breaks when no one can hear it and Harry only learns it from Dumbledore meaning that the only one who now knows it is Harry. Not Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and Luna.
I have to admit that Michael Gambon finally stopped acting like he was confused by the part and stepped up to the final confrontation of Dumbledore with Voldemort. Well done.
Best line (which got a laugh throughout the theater): Cornelius Fudge, upon entering the Ministry, seeing Voldemort, watching Voldemort exit [appalled expression on face]: He's back!
Scene that should have been left in just because I wanted to see it: Umbridge in McGonagle's classroom 'hem hem'ing to Minerva's "I wonder how you expect to gain an idea of my usual teaching methods if you continue to interrupt me? You see, I do not generally permit people to talk when I am talking."
And still no Bill. Grrr.
And I'm seeing it again tomorrow afternoon. Hee!
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