Quote:
Originally Posted by flatplat
I saw the film last night. It wasn't too bad, defiantly better than the cutesy, famous five like trash that we had in the first two movies (fuck, why did they ever give the project to Chris Columbus?) , but it wasn't brilliant either. They reduced the biggest book in the series so far down into the shortest of the Potter films. Result? The film just felt like they were rushing along, dragging you from one plot-point to the next. I suspect people who haven’t read the books were probably feeling very left behind.
A major problem I've had in all the films that was really prominent in this one is that the kids just aren't very good actors and they're the one's in the limelight. (Exception - the girl who played Luna) The adult characters are often very well cast with some of Britain's finest, but they are criminally underused. And Daniel Radcliff, although he has shown some improvement over the years, still isn't a very good actor. Especially when it comes to teenage angst. He can't do angry very well. Comes off more like constipated.  And since the whole film was mostly centred on how angsty his character was feeling, the effects were really felt.
And because of the increased focus on Harry, almost every other character was reduced to a minor role. Even Ron and Hermione didn’t really have much of a part. And they reduced Snape to only a handful of lines! (Mind you, they were the ones that got some of the biggest laughs in the cinema. Alan Rickman is a gun) At least Sirius/Gary Oldman got some half decent screen time in this film, but the way they did his death was just terrible. Poor Padfoot deserved to go out with more of a bang.
Good things though included Helen Bonham Carter as Bellatrix (She does crazy psyco bitch very well) and the final fight between Dumbledore ad Voldie (Slightly ruined at the end by Harry withering around on the floor looking like he couldn’t shit) Umbridge wasn’t bad either. She really is the pure personification of the nanny state.
And Gwarp was rather sweet. I quite liked him. |
I hate using this term, but QFT.
I thought that maybe Sirius' death seemed so weak because I was slightly drunk and seeing a dubbed version, but now I know that it wasn't just me. That's a shame, because he was easily the best character (definitely the best actor) on screen. He can only do so much to show that he's dying, but you'd think with the millions of dollars of special effects and sound they could have made it more dramatic.
The biggest problem with their decision to severely abridge the book was that they killed all the tension and drama. It wasn't 1000+ pages for no reason, and most of the movie's events had a lot more of an impact in the book since they were built-up so well.
I hope they learn from their mistakes and make some changes to the screenwriter and perhaps the director...
The director had potential, but he really doesn't know how to get the audience involved in the film. Oh well...maybe there's some directors cut with 30 more minutes of footage, eh?
Re: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix *spoilers*
Re: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix *spoilers*
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