WOOt! I'm typing this from Dad's palm pilot in the cinema. The previews have just started! I can't wait! *dies*
EDIT: I'm ba-ack! And I absolutely loved it! This has got to be the best one yet! But ya know, I think I said that about the first movie as well. It's interesting because I've grown up right alongside these characters. I was 11 when the first movie came out and it makes sense that I love that one at the time. Now that I'm older and the series is getting darker and made for an older audience I've found myself moving away from the simplicity of the first movie and falling in love with the darkness that is taking over in the fifth.
Likes:
- The acting in this film was phenomenonally different than in the last movie. The cast has really stepped up to the plate and hit a home run with this movie. Everything flowed, the acting was less stiff than in the past few movies. They've finally found their niche. Especially Daniel Radcliffe. I think doing Equus was a very good desicion on his part. It gave him the chance to explore the way he acts and learn new techniques. He was fantastic.
- Evanna Lynch playing Luna Lovegood was a match made in heaven. From the moment I saw her reading the Quibbler upside down and as soon as I saw those radish earrings and heard mention of knargles all I could do was squee.
- Wheee!
Did you hear/see all those HermionexRon references? They are sooo adorable. The entire audience couldn’t help giggling at them. All HarryxHermione shippers should know by this point, if they haven’t figured out the subtle hints before that these two characters were meant to be. Emma and Rupert did a great job. They really opened up to eachother in this movie and I can’t wait to see their supposed kiss in the next one!
- Ooh, GinnyxHarry was definitely hinted at in this movie. Especially when Cho was around. Ginny has really grown up and I’m hoping she takes a more active role in the next movie.
- Michael Gambon, as many of you know, would not have been my choice for Dumbledore in place of Richard Harris. Many people have critisized his performance and portrayel of Dumbledore, saying that he is too forceful or not at all the Dumbledore we imagine. However, OotP has proved us wrong. Michael has greatly improved, and although I don’t think he’ll ever have the magic that Richard had I definitely think he pulled it off quite well.
- So, Kreacher’s part was sort of short and really you couldn’t understand him half the time, but I still loved the poor elf. He did everything I would’ve expected of him, except for the stealing of family heirlooms, which were sadly lacking. [I hope they don’t have problems later on if that locket really is a horcrux..]
- Imelda Staunton pawned Umbridge. Wow. From the first time I heard her high pitched “hem hem” and her annoyingly girlish laugh I was satisfied. This is the Umbridge I imagined. Every scene she was in made me progressively hate her more. She was the essence of evil.
- Awww, Grawp was adorable! He had that simpleton look about him that just made me want to hug ‘em. And when he picked up Hermione I couldn’t help going “awww” along with the rest of the audience.
- A huge fantabulous fwee for Tonks! I couldn’t’ve been happier with her even though she didn’t get a very big role. It was absolute brilliance when Moody called her Nymphadora and her hair turned from purple to orange. One thing I was disappointed in though was the fact that they didn’t exactly explain she was a metamorphmagus. For non book readers it probably didn’t make sense when she turned her nose into that of a ducks and pigs. Ah well, great fun she was, and I hope they keep her in the next movie so that we can have some RemusxTonks stuff.
- Every single DA scene had to be my favourite parts of the movie. Daniel [as Harry] really stepped it up and did a wonderful job teaching. There were plenty of good laughs, like when Hermione stunned Ron after he said he’d go easy on her [RonxHermione moment!!
], and some really triumphant moments as well [when Neville managed to finally do the experlliarmus spell].
- My favourite Dumbledore moment, where I really saw the Dumbledore I know from the books was when Dumbledore escaped via Fawkes from the Umbridge and Fudge. The comment Kingsley made afterward just sealed the deal
- Grimmauld Place was just as I thought it’d be. It was plenty dark and dank which made me quite happy. Although, the absence of Mrs.Blacks portrait did make me a wee bit sad. Minor detail I guess. *shrugs*
- So when the trio stepped into the Hogs Head I immediately screamed inside my head “ABERFORTH!!” Yes, I was that excited. He was wearing a kilt and I saw a goat so I was happy.
- Trelawny’s dismissal was brilliantly done. Emma Thompson is an superb actress and she impressed the heck out of me. I was expecting a bit more tears, but nevertheless the audience did illicit several “awws” at this point, as did I.
- All I have to say about the Thestrals was that they were perfect. I couldn’t imagine them any other way. Great CGI work.
- Swirly flying Death Eaters and Order members… that was new.
But I loved every second of it! And I especially liked how the DE’s little swirly stuff was black and the Order’s swirly stuff was white. WOOt for good vs. evil!!
- What a great climactic battle between Voldie and Dumbledore! I mean, when Dumbledore walked out the fire and said something along the lines of “You should have known better than to come here tonight, Tom”, I thought “Oh yeah, Dumbledore’s gonna kick some booty!!” And he did. I couldn’t help cheering along with the entire audience throughout the entire thing. However, I was a bit confused about when Voldemort and Dumbledore were firing spells at eachother with their wands. Why was it doing that Priori Incantatem thing again? It shouldn’t have been unless Dumbledore was using Harry’s wand, which makes even less sense.
- Best freaking piece of acting from Daniel Radcliffe was when Voldie possessed Harry. My first thought was “Oh no, this is gonna suck. Harry’s just gonna be lying on the ground screaming or something.” But then it turned out to be completely different. And when Harry started to speak I nearly burst out crying. I had always wondered how they were going to get Harry’s message of love across, but they did. And I cried.
- The Luna/Harry bit at the end was a moment I was looking forward to the most. I was sad that they took out Luna’s line about how it’s not like we’ll never see the ones we love again once they’ve died, but I can understand why they left it out. Some people may have taken it the wrong way. Otherwise I thought Luna holding Harry’s hand was really sweet and it made we go squee. I’m sure the LunaxHarry shippers got a kick out of it too.
- One of the things that really made me happy was the fact that the ending to this movie was not cheesy in any way or form. It was genuinly good. It had a bit of a happy-go-lucky attitude, but it was very well done.
- We didn’t get to see as much Occlumency as I would’ve liked, but what we did see was very good.
Alan Rickman is to die for I say! I was a bit disappointed that Snape’s Worst Memory was so short, but it was very well done and not as stupid as I thought it was going to be. Yay for wee Snape-y!
I have to say that originally I didn’t intend to write out too many dislikes or disappointments, because I was actually very pleased with how things turned out, but I guess it won’t hurt to list a few minor [very, very minor] complaints.
Dislikes/Disappointments:
- Okay, people are going to kill me for saying this, but I didn’t like the kiss. It wasn’t wet enough for me. Cho should have been crying more, and really it was more like a make out session than anything else.
- Voldemort didn’t really impress me as much this time ‘round. I don’t know if it was because we first saw how amazing he was in the last movie or what, but he just didn’t top it this time.
- One thing I was looking forward to was seeing the time room, brain room, and the planet room in the Dep. Of Mysteries. But there just wasn’t enough time I guess.
- The biggest disappointment of the entire movie was the veil and Sirius’ death. I mean, there wasn’t really a veil. It look like shimmering water. Am I the only one who was expecting a tattered black cloth hanging down. As for Sirius death, I thought it was sort of stupid that he got hit with Avada Kedavra before he fell into the veil. And really he didn’t even fall the way I thought he would. More like floated, he did.
- Did Mrs.Figg creep anyone out? I didn’t like her at all. She wasn’t crazy enough and I dunno.. she didn’t look old enough either.
- The change in the dementors was a bit interesting. I was never under the impression that they could grab people like that. They looked to solid this time ‘round, I expected the ones from PoA. They were a lot better.
- A minor disappointment was that Petunia didn’t get her Howler and nor did she mention Azkaban. I hope this doesn’t bring problems later, because I was always under the impression that Petunia knowing about Azkaban is bigger than it seems.
- What happened to “yelling” Harry? That was a big thing in the fifth book. All he did was yell at people. And really, in the movie he only yelled once and it was at Dumbledore.
- So, Cho rats out the DA. Not exactly canon, but I guess it was easier to break Harry and Cho up that way.
- Another big disappointment was the Weasley twins escape from Hogwarts. They never mentioned the Triwizard earnings and neither did they get their famous last words with Peeves [which I guess couldn’t be helped since he doesn’t exactly exist in the movies]. Another thing that hampered that scene was the fact that Harry had some sort of vision. Really odd to have it in the middle of the movie like that, but I guess they couldn’t wait til nightfall.
- I hope they make Ron and Hermione prefects in the next movie as it was sorely missed in this one. Besides it would’ve made more HermionexRon moments.
- The absence of quidditch was a slight disappointment as well. I hope they bring it back in the sixth movie so that we can finally make Ron keeper, like he deserves.
- Changing the prophecy was sort of a stupid mistake I think. Yeah, it saved maybe 10 seconds, but other than that I don’t understand why they took parts out. That’s a pivotal part of the series.
- Because they didn’t bring Firenze in to teach at Hogwarts I don’t think many people will have got why the centaurs attacked [besides the fact that Umbridge threw out a number of insults at them]. I dunno.. the centaurs attacking Umbridge seemed rather random.
- What happened to the Percy/Weasley family feud? I mean, we only got to see Percy once toward the end. This is supposed to be a big deal. What if they make up in the seventh book and then Percy goes off and gets killed. That won’t be very emotional for people who watch the movie since we haven’t really seen Percy at all.
- When Seamus sort of came to about how Harry and Dumbledore really weren’t lying I was disappointed. I was so hoping they’d bring back Rita Skeeter for that interview. Too much content, not enough time I guess.
-One of my favourite chapters from OotP was “Career Advice”. It would have made a very good laugh [at Umbridge]. I’m sorry they left it out, but again, it was all for the sake of saving time.
So that’s it.
I loved this movie and I’m excited to see what David Yates does with the next movie. He’s definitely won my heart with this one.
Avatar by JF, banners by Taurquende, Nurrantiel Mashiara, Silme Meleth TarNymphadora, and JF taught me how to use banners. Thanks to all!
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