How was the movie?
Just like the book. In fact, they relied solely upon the audience having read the book before seeing the film - an extremely safe bet. After every single scene, I kept waiting for the director to lean into shot, expectant grin on his face, and say encouragingly 'You know - like in the book!'
It was kind of lazy in that way, and that's the problem with making a movie from such a long and involved book: you can't show every nuance of character and twist of plot because there isn't the time, nor can you cut too many things out or it just becomes a crazy zombie of a movie. The only solution present is to do what they did tonight and brush over everything as briefly or as thinly as possible so that at least no one can accuse you of missing something out.
Well, to the directors and writers of Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix I say this:
J'accuse!
Yes, indeed. You missed out something. You missed out something big. And that was heart. And balls for JK's sake! The books are getting better and better because they are getting darker. The reason they are getting darker is because they aren't just delving into the evil within the individual person any more, they are beginning to expose just how evil manifests itself into society. The whole Stazi/Secret Police storyline courtesy of the wickedest character in the Potter series after Voldemort himself, Dolores Umbridge, was treated with all the darkness and danger of a Paul Robinson prank on Neighbours. Too much zany and not enough panoptical, self-surveilling fear.
So, yes, not so much a Harry Potter movie, as a slide show of the Harry Potter book upon which it was based. But, in the category of Movies I Have Watched This Week, it wins all the Oscars and a meat tray.
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In true double-post tradition, before I fall into bed, I have discovered via The Chocolate Witch, Blurb from the 'Burbs's Blog Award Sticker a new webcomic. I'm happy to say that it is far too intelligent for me at this stage. Either that, or it's not funny. But if it weren't funny, I wouldn't be posting about it after a sugar crash at one in the morning. It's called The Flowfield Unity and here is the first comic from its archives to make me laugh. Well, not so much laugh, as nod my head sagely and say "...aaaahhh ... I get it."
Nano nano nano, this is all getting a bit weird Franzy because we three saw HP and the OOTP last night. Love Chunks and I thought it lacked a bit of 'oomph' and that JK decided - fairly late on in the book - that "Oh geez, I need to slot in a chase or search for summat - I'll bung in a bit on that crystal ball stuff....
ReplyDeleteLC has read all of the books to Sapphire over the past couple of years, so as a newly-turned eight year old I was rather impressed with her calm acceptance of the dark and scary bits. As Sirius died, she cried, grabbing my arm and saying, "Oh I knew it was going to happen Mum, but it's still sad."
My biggest issue is that, after five flippin' years of school, poor old Hazz STILL has to convince his friends, classmates and the wider community that he's telling the truth.... Surely they would have accepted him by now?
C-c-c-creeeeepy!!! Were you at the Piccawilly?
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly my point about the movie - I believed all that stuff in the book because JK gave the development of fear and apathy time to get off the ground, whereas in the movie, you just had to cross your legs really hard and wait for the director to lean in front of the camera and go "You know! Remember? Like in the book!"
Even the Sirius death scene was over in under thirty seconds. First he's having a heart-to-heart-let-me-go-over-the-trenches-for-you-oh-chosen-one-because-i-love-you-and-we're-family with Harry, then you blink, they're battling side-by-side, blink again and zap - dead. Harry mourns, kicks and screams, tally-ho, on with the plot.
That hyphenated thing above should actually be a rant about the split second character relationship that Harry and Sirius get to build up in record time before he gets murdered.
ReplyDeleteALL the oscars AND a meat tray? wow, so everything else you've seen lately is truly awful then? Are you a movie critic? Or do you just go to the movies a lot?
ReplyDeleteCheck out the previous post on the Fantastic Four and you'll get some kind of idea ...
ReplyDeleteRead that post and have no idea who or what the Fantastic Four might be, but I'll take your word for it being a bad movie. I usually find books much better because of the extra detail and also because your imagination creates your very own movie so each person who reads a story can become enriched with their own experience. Also I clicked on your link to the Flow Field Unity and I find those comics quite funny, so I've added it to my "favourites" list.
ReplyDeleteI've just seen it, Sam. You're dead right about the death of Sirius Black. If I hadn't read a lot of gossip I wouldn't have known he actually died in that scene - nowhere near enough time. But not having read the book, I was engrossed and carried along by the story. Which is more than I can say for the previous instalment with its seemingly endless Quest competitioon.
ReplyDeleteJonathon
ReplyDeleteget back to work - or maybe this is work - i secretly love to read your comments...........and your blog