Yes, but there's a full two and hours and change until that point. It doesn't develop anything until Harry has escaped from the graveyard. Order of the Phoenix, for all its faults, isn't lifeless.

After all of the doom and gloom from The Dark Shape and Gulli I expected the worst.

But I actually rather enjoyed it.

I don't think the acting here is really any better/worse (as far as the three child leads are) than any of the other films. Take that for what you will.

I thought this film had a more centered emotional line through it that really tied the whole piece together as *a film*. Pretty impressive for a middle chapter.

Yates and his cinematographer don't find the little small bits of visual wonderment that Cuaron and Newell does, and it's a bit less exciting than those other two, but on the whole I actually think this film has a better script than the other five.

My mom, who admits she has had trouble following some of the movies, said she didn't have a problem with that and thought it was the most enjoyable of the 5 to date. I still think Goblet is better, but all in all, this was a very good adaptation of my favorite book of the Potter series (so far).

I am wondering how much got filmed but got cut. Yates had said that the movie was 3 hours on first cut. But he had to cut it down to under 2.5 hours. It sounds like WB wanted it that way, probably afraid of a long movie in the summer time. So there could be 30-40 minutes of deleted scenes out there.
I know these scenes were filmed because I read about them in set reports
spoilers






Ron and Hermione being named prefects and having a part celebrating it. This was mentioned in a set report.
More detail to Snape's worst memory" Lilly being there. I saw pictures of this.
Hagrid getting sacked and Mcgonagall getting hurt. This was actually in the advanced screenings because I read it being mentioned
Harry crying by the lake. I read about Daniel having to cry. Also saw pictures of Mcgonagall with a cane sitting in a chair and Malfoy looking mad walking around the lake.

Those four are probably the largest scenes. The first one doesn't bother me because them being prefects really don't do anything to the plot. I think they should have kept Hagird's scene in because it might have made the film feel less rushed. I think the crying scene really should have been included unless Daniel was god awful in it or something. It would have shown Harry mourning which was my biggest complaint for the film. I wonder if we will get and expanded version of this DVD? I am sure the deleted scenes will be on the DVD but none of the movies have got expanded versions yet (although I am sure WB is planning on it to make more money). It will be curious to see although I bet they put that on hold to make more money.

Have you read the book? If not, Sirius is the only Black who isn't like the Pure-Blood > Everyone else clan. He was hated by his mother, and likely all his other relatives. Not sure if he mentions anything like this in the movie (going to it MON night). Bellatrix is kinda insane, and is purely devoted to Voldemort. Saying in Book 6 that if she had children, she would give them up to him and decided to try and find him after he lost power, unlike most of the other Death Eaters. So to her, there is Voldemort, and only Voldemort. ****SPOILERS!!!!! And in Book 6 when she is trying to persuade her sister not to go to Snape, she showed no sympathy towards her, always saying the Dark Lord wouldn't approve, etc. So she seems to hardly care for her sister also. And in BOOK 5, not sure if it happens in the movie, she duels Tonks (her niece) and severely injures her. So she could care less about family.

I would sort of agree with the idea that the weakest scene was the Dumbledore heart to heart with Harry at the end. That was one of the highlights of the series. I didn't mind so much omitting Neville and Professor T. those details are still there, and there for the hardcore, but with Rowling overseeing the scripts for the movies, one can assume that Neville's part in the prophesy doesn't really play into the ending in 7 as much, and that Professor Trelawny's part in it wasn't that important.

Still it was a highlight of the book series when Dumbledore sat Harry down and was basically like, "I've been an idiot, I should have told you the first year, the second year, the third year, the fourth year.." and was a crying old man. This is one scene from the last 3 movies that Harris would have been better in, even though I really like Gambon as Dumbledore.

I also would have liked the question Harry had about Sirius' inability to come back as a ghost to add finality to the death, but Luna's scene about "it always comes back to you" was in some ways better.

I'd like to mention how much I love Luna in this. They should CGI Evanna Lynch into the other four

She was really fantastic.

Staunton was great too.

The Score was the best since Chamber.

Really? Better than Azkaban? I thought this was okay but hardly spectacular.

And yes, Lynch was really fantastic. Hopefully she'll have a career after Potter.

I'm actually not a big fan of the score (and I think Chamber's score is the weakest of the series, due to it being retracked Sorcerer's Stone stuff 80% of the time). It's not bad, but it's basically background noise. Prisoner of Azkaban's score is the most beautiful, and Goblet's is the most atmospheric.

Hrm.

Okay maybe not better than Azkaban. Definately better than Goblet's score. Doyle threw out of lot of William's music, which is fine, but didn't replace it with anything particularly memorable.

I'm happy that Hooper will be doing the music for 6 too, maybe it can develop more.

My favorite bit during the film score was the whole "Dumbledor's Army" bit and the closing song.

The only cue I can really remember is when Harry wakes up from his dream of Voldemort at King's Cross and the approach to Hogwarts. Patrick Doyle composed 'Harry in Winter,' a theme I love and wish had been brought back.

Yes she was quite fantastic.

1) It's kinda complicated
2) No
3) No

I take it you were less than fond of it?

And you still have Bourne 3 and Rush Hour 3 to go! Or are you skipping those two out of mercy for yourself?

But you don't seem to have an overt hatred of this, just a meh reaction from the sounds of it. Not too awful.

Yeah, in the book they make a much, much bigger deal out of it, and it torments Harry that his dad was a bullying prick. A LOT was either cut out or cut up and scrunched up, that being one of the cases.

As for Rickman...I'm sure you've heard what his character does at the end of Half-Blood Prince? To say the least, no one will know what's truly up with his character until next week.

Unfortunately. Nothing really happens in HBP until the very end. It's mostly flashbacks to Tom Riddle's life and lessons. I hope the cutie that was Tom in HP2 returns.

Yeah, this is my main problem with the idea of the film breaking out the way Magnus predicts. The only really marketable scene is what, Harry and Dumbledore in the cave? Otherwise, you have the Tom Riddle flashbacks and some sappy teen romance.

HP6 won't break out, it's not exciting enough to attract people outside the HP fanbase. It'll make more than HP5 but only because it's opening in November. Won't gross more than HP4, I think. HP4 only made so much because it had plenty of actiony scenes, the Triwizard Tournament offered oodles of money shots to put in trailers and TV spots to attract people. HP6 doesn't have that so I don't think it can get higher than $280 - $285 or so. And I doubt HP7 will outgross HP1's, what, $318? There will be no "let's see how it ends!" factor to it, because everyone will already know. Everyone will know how the series ends in just a week. HP7 may be able to eclipse HP1 if it opens Nov. 2010 but not if it comes out in the summer.

Why don't you guys talk about Box Office shit in the Box Office forum where people care?

They translated it to F I beleive.

I agree with your ranking of the films, and imho the Longbottom is the biggest problem with the movie. I understand that they need to leave out a bunch of stuff from the book, but after watching this you have no idea that Longbottom is potentially as important as Potter in the fight against Voldemort. That was a big mistake.

I also wish they had covered more of the giants, and any of the centaurs.

Must admint that the big fight with Dumbledore and Voldemort was very cool.

Anyone else notice the open ending and interpret it as a reference to Sirius' death? I feel he will be returning in some way, and I will be finding out in a few more days.

My grade was a B btw, and I was kind of let down, but honestly no matter how good I think the movies are, I have no choice but to go see them all in the theater. Only two more to go.

FWIW book 5 is my least favorite, even below #2, and #3 is still the top.

Question for the book readers.

Is that Fudge fella a deliberate nod to 1984?

It felt like it with some of his scenes and those massive posters of him hanging around.

In the books? No. In the books it's actually thematically similar to the War on Terrorism.

Snape is all over Book 6.

I think if they ramp up the whole Snape and Draco stuff in the HBP movie, it could be very marketable....

Joy