B+

I understand some girls in England think he is cute. Maybe it is his sense of humor that drives these girls to him.

I think he's hella cuter than Dan Radcliffe.... But of course, the object of the majority of my fangirling is Snape/Rickman. YUMMY. After him, I've got a soft spot for Neville... He's such a cutie.

Thankfully, I had a nice midnight audience.... I'd say the only annoying thing was unfortunately my friend's laugh; he's got this high-pitched "HEE hee" thing he does like he doesn't feel he should just laugh out loud; like he's keeping it in.

The reaction at the end when Fudge states "He's back" was great, and we had applause at the WB logo, when Neville finally mastered the Expelliarmus spell, and the most rousing applause came from when Sirius gave Lucius the what-for. God, that was great!

Joy

You mean Kingsley Shacklebolt?

Joy

I quite enjoyed the movie and put it on par with Azkaban.

Andaroo noted that the score was good. I like it as well and it was best in the D.A. scenes. Furious strings. Even though I'm not that biggest Cho fan, I think that the movie handled the kiss pretty well and the mistletoe was the only thing in the whole movie that even approached the artistic beauty of Azkaban or Goblet (the stained glass tear was very touching).

Going into the movie I had heard that Cho was scripted to be the traitor in the D.A. I thought that was an idea that would work nicely but the movie instead pulled it off in a highly confusing manner. I was left scratching my head as to weather Cho voluntarily snitched on the group or not. Then the confusion was further exacerbated when Umbridge revealed that she used Veristerum (sp) on Cho. All in all I was confused as to how the betrayal happened and I bet that a person that had not read the books better understood the scene then me.

I was also glad that the D.A.'s Ministry scenes wer truncated compared to the books, but I was not glad about adults scenes being pared down. All in all it was a solid effort that could have used some tinkering to be a great film but on its own merits was highly entertaining and I gave it a B+/A-.

I think it's odd that the main event that characterizes the book as anything more than a placeholder in the series - Sirius's death - is pretty much glossed over in the film. Now, I know that the events in the book and film aren't inconsequential in regards to the series as a whole, but like I think others have pointed out, the film felt like a bridge to me whose sole purpose was to introduce the idea of the prophecy. I'm never one to criticize the screenwriters for excluding portions of the book; there's a lot of stuff in the books, and it can't all fit in. But Sirius's death, I think, was what resonated strongest with readers (it's the only thing I really remembered about it), and I was surprised that it really didn't resonate at all for me here. In fact, I felt more after Cedric's death in Goblet.

I think the film, though, is generally solid. It doesn't have the energy of Goblet (my favorite of the films) or the directorial style of Azkaban, but it's fun, and despite a first 2/3 that I thought had some uninteresting lulls, the battles of the last 20 minutes are great.

I think it's about on par with Azkaban, which I gave a B.

Yeah, I really don't know where reviewers are pulling this "they've developed into mature actors" thing from. Radcliffe didn't impress me here any more than he has previously, Grint's screentime is limited, and Watson still does the eyebrow thing.

I mean, they're not bad. They have their moments. But I wouldn't even call them particularly "good" yet.

You can say this about every movie so far. I thought Globet of Fire was a freaking waste of time until the very end when Voldermot finally appears. Everyone can agree that nothing happens in PoA. CoS? puhlease. Sorcerer's Stone? Just established the characters. Order of the Phoenix may not have the climax of the series, but it's the first movie to have important and relevant character developments. Harry "grows" up in this one. The sense of pending doom is introduced. History is revealed about Sirius, Snape, Harry's dad. Everyone now knows Voldermot is back. An army is created. The stage has been set for a major showdown. We even had the first battle between good and evil in this one. How do you miss all this? The prophecy itself is huge! Yeah this is a placeholder of a movie, just like the rest of them. But it's the most thrilling one yet.

I watched GoF last night. Daniel Radcliffe alone has improved vastly in Order of the Phoenix. His internal struggle was believable. He actually made me care for Harry for the first time in 5 movies.

I enjoyed it.
Good movie.
Way better than GOF, thanks.
Umbridge was just fantastic, gold classic!!!!! Bellatrix was very good, too.

A-

Saw it a second time last night with the gf. She's only read them once or twice, and she liked it. Not loved it. Personally it didn't help up as well on a second viewing. It didn't flow as well as I remembered, and I can understand the "best-of" arguments a bit more than I had. However, I still think it's a good movie with the best flow of the series. I noticed more glaring omissions though that would have incredibly boosted my grade. Some I addressed in my original post. There needed to be more emotional turmoil with Harry throughout the entire film, especially after the death of Sirius. The music impressed me much more this time, although I think it was quite inappropriate during the middle act during the Dumbledore's Army scenes. It was too light and skittish. It should have been a bit darker. The fight in the ministry still wasn't long enough, although the fight between Dumbledore and Voldie was still just as good. It really needed to be good to show how powerful they both are, since we've never really seen anything to show it throughout the entire series. The scene in Dumbledore's office after the fight was still a joke. There was SO MUCH in that scene in the book, both in terms of emotion and in plot/character development. The reason why Dumbledore refused eye contact all year; the history of the connection between Harry and Voldie; how Voldie knew about the prophecy; why Harry must return to the Dursley's every year; the importance of Kreacher to the plot and to the themes....GAH! I could go on for hours.

I still really enjoyed it though. Third favorite of the series. B+

One thing I didn't mention that I just thought of is my dislike for the Dursleys. The actors just are not good...I know Richard Griffiths can be good as shown from the History Boys, but he (Along with the actors who play Petunia and Dudley are just bad). I cringed a lot during that scene.

I'm not really as concerned about Sirius' death, but you did hit on something. Phoenix is about the prophesy and about Dumbledore's apology.

Although I really liked this film, maybe the 2nd best of the Potters, it's the first one I'm really disappointed in where they cut a scene short of what it should been. I can forgive everything else, but Dumbledore's confession at the end of Book 5 is at the heart of Book 6 and maybe 7 and was handled poorly.

I thought Radcliffe did a very good job but I found the performances of Watson and Grint to be lacking primarily because it seemed like they were making cameos in the film. I know the movie is named Harry Potter so it should be about him, but come on. The magic of Harry Potter isn't just because it features Harry, it's because it has Harry, Hermione, and Ron. It be like if The Empire Strikes was about only Luke.

I really enjoyed it. And thankfully I went into it expecting alot of the book to be missing, and indeed ALOT of stuff was excluded from the film. I wish there could be more, and there probably could have been a little more to bump it to GOF's length, but I've come to accept this ever since I saw POA in theatres for the first time. POA was the first Potter movie I saw AFTER reading the book. The movie moves VERY fast, not a good thing or bad thing I suppose. I think Dan Radcliffe has greatly improved, not that he was bad before, he was solid, but there were scenes where you could feel for him. The scene where he is talking to Sirius during the Holiday break is the best example, imo. Umbridge is perfect. Don't think they could have cast anyone more perfect. That goes for about all the cast really. Ron seemed less funny this time around, and Hermione was her usual self, but at least they are on par with past films. Luna Lovegood, Evanna Lynch (sp?), is also perfect. I loved every scene with her in it. And Helena Bonham Carter was perfect, though I wish she had more screen time. Dumbledore was better in this than he was in GOF. He was too angry in GOF. The final battle is pretty cool, moves VERYYYYYY fast, and I will definately have to see this a few more times to remember it all correctly. Sirius death, hmm, mixed feelings about it. I liked and didn't like the surprise attack by Bellatrix killing him. It was unexpected, but at the same time took some emotional power away from the scene. Harry didn't know what the veil was, and yet resonding as though he was killed. Maybe he knew that Sirius was hit with the killing curse, but Bella appears so fast and says it so soft, I don't see how he could have known, unless he knew the spell that hit him. Posssible, but pretty vague. The Dumbledore/Voldemort battle was about what I was expecting, solid overall, but felt it could have been slightly bigger in scale, but still good. The battle in the book isn't THAT big either. The Dumbledore/Harry talk should have been longer, but at least it was an improvement from their talk in GOF, which annoyed me greatly. And the final chat between Harry and Luna was good too.


GOF: A-
POA: B+/A-
OOTP: B+
SS: B
COS: B

That's always been and will continue to be the problem about the HP movies. The books take plenty of time to revel character and backstory/history. When iether things do come out, it's usually veiled as some random event or another. With such a huge main plot to translate to film, its hard to get the little things about the history or characters in and still have a decent movie.

I honestly think to make the best movies, the producers should have waited until the last book was released, and then written all seven films at once. There'd be no tangible way to film it all at once, a la LotR, but this would be a step in the right direction to ensuring continuity between movies and fulfilling the overall story arc and individual plots/subplots of the book(s).

The more I think about the film the less I like it, and I think the reason is this:

Harry Potter is very popular not just because of the fun plotline, but because we like the characters. We care about what happens to them. That's why so much time was spent in the last film on the Yule Ball. And that's why previous films spent time on Quidditch and the fight for the school cup.

Harry Potter is more than just another action/adventure series -- it's also a Dickens-like story, where characters overcome many types of adversity.

The desire to turn the longest book into the shortest movie doesn't make sense given that. Things always have to be cut when making a film, but the things that were cut here were important. Ron becoming Quidditch "King" and getting some confidence for himself is important; Harry agonizing over Sirius' death is important; Harry yelling at Dumbledore at the end and Dumbledore explaining more about the prophecy and so on is important; Ron and Hiermone's growing attraction is important; Harry's protectiveness of Ginny is important... and so on.

It seems that the things that make the Potter books so much fun are being sacreificed for the action sequences. And that's why I am disappointed in the film.

I think a TV series would be great. Maybe they'll do that in a few years....

Problem is if they include those subplots the movie becomes like 3.5 hours long. I understand why they had to be cut. Really the Weasley is our king subplot didn't do anything to the overall plot. Sure I think the movie could have been longer. Some of the scenes that got cut (I have mentioned them before) probably should have been included. You can blame WB there though they wanted a shorter movie because of the summer time. Have to wait for a future extended DVD version to come along I guess. If it had been released in the fall it would have been 2.5 hours I bet. It still would have been hard to get more for Ron and Hermione to do. Although, I felt I liked Ron better in this one. I loved how he stood up for Harry and he didn't seem so cowardly. Not sure how it will work for the next one. With the romance sub plots being included I think Ron and Hermione will get more to do, although they will get pushed to the side for the last part of the film. Since that is mostly about Harry, Dumbledore, Draco and Snape.

Well, they didn't have to do all the quidditch scenes, admittedly, but they could have easily added another 15 minutes to the film and it would still be shorter than the first two films.... I think they lost much of the heart of the film by cutting so much character development. Even Harry and Cho's fleeting romance was rushed.

Well I think they could have added 15 minutes back in but I would rather that 15 minutes have been the sacking of Hagrid and Mcgonagall getting hurt and Harry crying by the lake. They could have even thrown in the party for Ron and Hermione and them becoming prefects. I don't think they filmed any Quidditch scenes.

Both Groucho and insomniacdude bring up good points. I (kind of) said this before, where it was easier for LOTR to be written in a cohesive, understandable, yet still emotionally effective manner, because the trilogy (first off) was only a trilogy, not seven books, AND because the ending was already known, characters' roles throughout the entire journey were known, and who was really important at the end, and who you were really supposed to care about, was already determined. Starting midway through the completion of the series really crippled the movie franchise.

And Groucho's right too. The essence of Harry Potter that helps it rise above other fantasy novels is the amount of detail that goes into each character, and how you have some form of attachment towards just about every one. If I had simply watched the movies, I really would care less for Ron, Hermione, Snape, and even Dumbledore. None are really developed enough. Same went for Sirius. So how do they expect a big reaction, alike to the one found by readers, when Dumbledore is killed by Snape in the 6th? It just won't mean as much to viewers.

All this back and forth is rubbish! The movie is awesome. the best. It has made me a Potter fan.

So...the F's still there.