Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

**DoveFeatheredRaven** · July 13th, 2007, 08:09 AM

The books are so well done but you cannot get all of that detail into the movies. They would be four-hour movies!

I always wait until all of the kiddies have seen it so I don't have to be in a theater full of annoying, over-stimulated kids. I did it once and NEVER AGAIN.

**Laurent** · July 13th, 2007, 08:36 AM

I wanted to see it opening night so much, but of course, had to work Thurs. I really want to see it ASAP, though.

They do cut a lot out of the books for the movies, and I agree with latinaforever, I'd rather they make a 4 hour movie than cut huge chunks out. I think people would sit through it, especially if they've read the books. Even if they haven't, the stories are so entertaining, they'd draw in the non-book readers.

**TheONe** · July 13th, 2007, 11:07 AM

Wow you guys are all nerds huh?

Just kidding...I have heard the books and movies are good but I just refuse to see them or the lord of the rings series...don't really know why? except with Harry Potter the truth is that I get annoyed by hearing british accents for extended periods of time...sorry to the brits out there!

**western** · July 13th, 2007, 02:02 PM

I took my 8 yr old nephew to see it yesterday. Ootp is my fave book of the series so I was really looking forward to the movie. For me, the movie was good. I was able to overlook the changes made to keep the movie going (like Cho being the one to rat out Dumbledore's Army) and really liked seeing how things looked compared to how I imagined them.

My nephew has only read bits of the books but has seen the first four movies multiple times. He got fidgety about 30 minutes in and stayed that way until the action near the end. For him there was too much dialogue and not enough action, but he also liked it. Not as much as he liked Pirates 3 as he announced the entire theatre.

One thing I found really interesting at the theatre was the number of young single men in the audience.

As for book 7... I'm seriously considering finding & attending a book party with my nephew. It'll be the last one ever and something to remember (I'm also hoping it'll give him that spark that yes, reading IS fun and here's proof that a lot of people besides me think so!) And since they're held Friday at midnight it won't interfere with the book delivery Saturday morning

**Sunrider** · July 13th, 2007, 03:53 PM

I saw it today and rather liked it. A few of the things I would have like to seen were cut out which was annoying but understandable - other changes were a bit odd but some were also quite ok so all in all I rather liked it. I loved Luna - she's perfect - and Tonks were also really good IMO. Can't wait for the 21st.

**sophie** · July 13th, 2007, 07:38 PM

Originally Posted by TheONe

Wow you guys are all nerds huh?

Just kidding...I have heard the books and movies are good but I just refuse to see them or the lord of the rings series...don't really know why? except with Harry Potter the truth is that I get annoyed by hearing british accents for extended periods of time...sorry to the brits out there!

As much as i LOVE the Harry films(dont read the books) i wont vouche for them.

I will however vouche for The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy. you truly have missed out. Do rent them, or better yet, buy them. you wont regret it.

**Eli** · July 13th, 2007, 10:07 PM

I saw it last night and it was quite good. I'm sort of over the whole movie hype, now I just sort of look forward to it, go, and move on.
The movies are severely lacking in charm was the books have, not to mention length.
Oddly enough, movie 5 captured more of the spirit I distinctly remember in the book. None of the other movies have done that, they seemed so radically different to what I remembered from the books.

The end scenes in the ministry were mind boggling. I got so creeped out with two Voldemort instances:

1. When half his head, in a sort of leading-away mist leered with gaping fangs at the back of Harry's head.
2. When there was a strange flash of him laughing and pointing his wand at the camera.

I now love the woman who played Umbridge. She was terrific. I'm so glad they didn't take the "scratchnig away at hand" detention any further because in the book it made me sick and angry.

One other thing though, when Fudge saw Voldemort and stopped dead in his tracks, and then said: "He's back." Everybody in the audience laughed. I then laughed because they laughed when they weren't supposed to.
It was meant to be serious, right?

About the audience, the girl next to me looked exactly like a 12 year old Ugly Betty. She went to the toilet approximately 7 times throughout the movie. I counted. She also had a full-on pleading with the person next to her whenever she wanted to go. I found this very weird.
Also right in front of me this blonde tween with two other friends had one of those cream-sprayer thingies. I've momentarily forgotten the name for them. Like fly-spray cans, except you spray whipped cream onto cakes with them. Anyway she had that and the whole movie and before, she was lifting in above her head and spraying in noisily into her mouth. The pig. At one point in the movie she said (about Harry) "I love him." really loudly. And I then said: "Yeah, well I don't think anyone hear loves you, cream girl." Nobody said anything but I think she got the point. I'm not usually that brave when I go to things on my own. But she was really outrageous.

**NoDayButToday** · July 13th, 2007, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by Allie

2. When there was a strange flash of him laughing and pointing his wand at the camera.

At this point a bunch of people in my theater laughed. It didn't have anything near the intended effect for that audience at all.

I generally liked the movie. I missed having the Ron/Hermione prefect storyline, and I didn't like that they sort of passed over the Tonks/Sirius family connection. I also would have liked to see a Cho/Harry date, but it wasn't necessary, so I'm OK with it not being there. I loved the headlines being used to advance the story, it worked really well. There were moments of the movie that felt like it was just skimming over the book, giving a few moments to summarize entire chunks without really giving any of it any depth. I understand that the book is so enormously long that they can't hit all points in depth, but it just felt so rushed and shallow at times. Maybe I shouldn't expect so much from something that's based on a kids book

**Eli** · July 14th, 2007, 12:32 AM

Yeah, obviously they can't have everything from the book in the movie, but I think that they focussed on what was necessary for the plot so fans of the movies who haven't read the books will know what's going on.

**Sunrider** · July 14th, 2007, 01:21 PM

Originally Posted by Allie

One other thing though, when Fudge saw Voldemort and stopped dead in his tracks, and then said: "He's back." Everybody in the audience laughed. I then laughed because they laughed when they weren't supposed to.
It was meant to be serious, right?

How weird - there was a lot of laughter when I saw it too. I actually laughed also because Fudge is such an idiot. He seemed to actually believe his own lies - I guess the laugh was a sort of "you don't say" kind of thing.

**sophie** · July 15th, 2007, 12:10 PM

saw it yesterday, LOVED it. each film gets progressively better. dont know if i liked it more than GOF, but thats not to say it wasnt great. the next two films are gonna kick ass. i just feel bad that we have to wait an entire year.

it was so funny, when the movie was over, and ppl were clearing out. this group of like 10 senior citizens, were having this monumentous(seriously) argument about it. they even tried to bring me and my pose into it. we were like huh, old pll watch harry potter for sport. they were even screaming about the book. im talking walking with canes ppl. it was cute.

**Bellatheball** · July 15th, 2007, 01:08 PM

Everyone in our theater laughed at Fudge too. I think everyone found his denial absurd and therefore laughed when he finally got it.

**Karistiona** · July 15th, 2007, 02:57 PM

oh i love love love loved it!! Went to see it with my little sister on Friday evening, it was brilliant. I like that it stayed so true to the plot. Now i'm gearing up for the book on Friday night - five sleeps to go!! woop woop!! hooray!!!

**A*O** · July 15th, 2007, 10:52 PM

Just took the kids to see it. I haven't read the books so I can't make a comparison and because of that I got a bit 'lost' in places where I suspect they missed some chunks of the storyline or they refer to past events that I wasn't aware of. Overall I enjoyed it and the 2+ hours seemed to pass quickly which is a good gauge. The kids got more out of it, natch. I'd give it 8/10 but it certainly won't be on my "must get the DVD" list.

**PaintTheTownRed** · July 16th, 2007, 08:52 PM

I was disappointed and thought the movie was a mess. This was the worst HP film IMO. The writers and the director made alot of bad choices. For anyone who didn't read the book, it was Umbridge who sent the Dementors at the beginning of the movie. I can't remember if they made that clear. Anyway, this is the first HP movie that the story wasn't about the title. The "Order of Phoenix"should have been 2 movies. One before he went to Hogwarts which was more about the Order and Black's house. The other about Hogwarts. The cuteness of HP was gone and Ron and Hermoine had almost no lines. And how about the 80s lines like "Yesss"?