hambone

This is right on.

I actually liked Harry a lot less in this movie due to him being older. Just didn't work for me.

I did think Ron was pretty good in this one though. very funny to me.

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Cynthetiq

3 hour movies have less showtimes, which has less asses in seats, which have less profits.

I'd love to see them do the last two books in conjunction production ala Back to the Future 2/3.

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kurty[B]

Absolutely nothing, but as Cynth says, fewer screenings, fewer seats available per day. For the industry to make a long movie on something that's going to sell out opening weekend anyway doesn't make the most sense. All they have to do is hit the mark so people will continue to want to watch 6 and 7. You can pull off 3 hour movies in a trilogy, that just means a 9 hour sitting for the entire thing, but the whole septology (I'm sure I'm making up words now), that's looking down the pipe to an almost full day extravaganza of wand flicking.

I know die hards wouldn't have a problem with that, but the producers are looking to advocate to the non die hards to increase money in pocket.

pan6467

Wait for the DVD, have a feeling that we'll see "the uncut version" with "scenes not seen in theatres" and so on.

The market has become 3 fold now for Harry, the books, the movies and the DVDs. As stated above, you need to have a movie to where they can get maximum screenings in. However, on a DVD you don't need to watch time, so you make sure there are new scenes and you can develop the plot a little more and so on. This raises the DVD price and the sales also. If you paid $30 to see the movie with your family at the cinema, then an extra $20 for the sodas, candy and food.... You'll be more than happy to shell out $39.95 for the DVD, with new scenes, etc.... plus throw on a computer game demo, your kids will love you as the can rewatch the movie over and over and then play the demo video game.... of course that's so much fun that the kids will have you go and shell out $49.99 for the game...... yadda yadda yadda.....

There is far more money to be made from the DVD sales.... and it is all about the $$$$$$$$$

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Cynthetiq

Licensing... that's where the cash is. DVD is just a subset of the licensing... toys, plush, tshirts, all of it.

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abaya

Yeah, I loved the new cast members, especially Bellatrix... right on, there is no one other than Helena Bonham Carter who could have done that role to a T. She was perfect for it.

However, MORE SNAPE, I say!! I suppose my wishes will come true in the Half-Blood Prince...

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Frosstbyte

My fiance and I both came out of the theater feeling mostly disappointed. It had some really cool visuals (Dumbledore's escape, Fred and George's exit) but there was SO MUCH not there and what was there felt disjointed and rushed. I feel like they put in just enough to get everyone from point A to point B without caring if it was much fun to get there. It was sometimes and it wasn't other times. Also, they spent WAY too much time with Filch nailing up edicts. We got the point the first three or four times; we don't need to see him do it ten or twelve. The characters were so slightly developed because there were so many of them and so many things going on. Luna was a shadow of herself. She seemed to just be an awkward girl who said awkward things and there really wasn't an opportunity to get close to her and appreciate her.

Essentially the problem is that on some level they're still trying to keep the HP series geared towards kids as much as possible. This was about as light a PG-13 movie as I've seen in YEARS and I think the only thing that bumped it up was the attack on Arthur Weasley, since that was pretty graphic. That's why a three hour movie is bad. For it to be as long as it was is surprising, but kids just don't have attention spans long enough to get them through three hours, even if it's HP. And, while Order is my favorite book, I found myself looking at my watch a few times throughout the movie.

I gues I'll stop rambling and say that if you want to read what I think about this movie, read Ebert's review. That's pretty much exactly how I feel about it.

FoolThemAll

Umbridge was my favorite part of the movie, hands down.

My biggest problem was Spoiler: the huge lack of emotional impact that the movie gave to Sirius Black's death. After Voldemort made his appearance, it seemed almost forgotten. The ending was entirely too upbeat.

But at least there's no way that'll happen with the next movie. Unless they're really committed to a PG-ish mood.

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Jove

I enjoyed the film even if it left out some detail from the book. I was a bit upset with the previous movie in the last tri-wizard tournament task where Harry is supposed to answer a riddle from a sphinx and almost attacked by a giant spider, but I got over it. I do think this was the best of the Harry Potter films and I think the actors did a better job at expressing emotion than in the other movies.

The battle at the end was freaking insane. I was not expecting them to bust out the moves, but they did and it was entertaining!

I cannot wait for next Saturday when book 7 comes out!

YaWhateva

Really? Everyone who read the books was actually disappointed? I thought this was by far the best movie of the series and the closest to the books. Harry and Ron seemingly got over their awkward phases (the actors not the characters) that they had in the fourth movie. Michael Gambon did a much better Dumbledore in this movie than in GoF. I think David Yates, the new director, may have told him to tone it down a bit. I was so mad at seeing Dumbledore yelling at Harry in the fourth movie. And this movie was way less rushed than the fourth.

The casting for all the new characters was spot on in my opinion. Even though she wasn't in the movie much, the actress who played Tonks was great, and I agree, Helena Bonham Carter was perfect for Bellatrix.

Sure they left some stuff out and there were some inaccuraciesm but what do you expect? And of course it's dark, like Roger Ebert said, but that is because the books are getting darker and a giant war is pretty much on the horizon. The movies can't be like the first two when Harry and Co. were just figuring out their magical abilities. They are getting hold of their abilities more and more, and I personally love the direction the movies are taking towards being darker. I just wish they would go a little further with it. The next movie should be much darker what with Spoiler: Harry nearly killing Draco and him bleeding out all over the bathroom floor.

I will totally agree with what FoolThemAll said in his spoiler tag though. That was the saddest part of the entire series for me and it was played off rather quickly.

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shoegirl

Agreed. The book captures all the emotion so well, nearly brings me to tears every time, and the movie just played the entire thing off so quickly. I feel so much more could've been done. All in all, the movie was okay (had it's highs and lows), but I definitely prefer the books.

ShaniFaye

Saw it this morning.....LOVED it

for those of you saying there wasnt much Snape, there was a hell of a lot more than there has been in the other movies, there was certainly enough to make me happy lol

If you take it on face value and dont decry what they left it, it was really good to me. Certainly didnt seem like I was sitting there for over 2 hours

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telekinetic

This is the first movie I haven't seen at midnight opening night, I've read every book the week it came out....


And I almost walked out of the theater at least four times (like, asked who I was with 'you guys want to stay?' 'you STILL want to stay?'

Totally pointless and unsatisfying. Half way through I remembered hating this book, too.

Someone who hadn't read the books said "Wow, this has the same basic plot as the last one but manages to be 100% less intersting"

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mrklixx

If one wanted to be nit picky, one could say that about all of the HP movies.

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thespian86

ok, enough; I loved this film. The montages were actually amusing and not rushed. The plot didn't feel horribly pasted together. The acting wasn't horrible either. Umbridge was fantastic... I hated her so much. Luna was good too. Enjoyed it. Everything but the part that everyone else felt was rushed... agreed. Anyways. I loved it.

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Lady Sage

I thought the movie was fine for someone who hasnt read the books. Unfortunately, they wrote out several key actors and parts that will be needed for those who dont read the books to understand things later on. They also took actors who would have had huge parts and dwindled them down to darn near nothing. I was not pleased.

Taking into consideration that there was a 900ish page book to cram into a 2 hour and 18 minute movie, they did alright. The acting was supurb. I just wish they could have touched on a couple other points that were very important.

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Cynthetiq

Spoiler: Just like Goblet... No Dobby

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Lady Sage

Amen brother Cyn! They were running around in droves if I recall correctly!

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Frosstbyte

I can't say I lament the removal of house elves from the movies. They're pretty much Jar Jar v 2.0 as far as I'm concerned, both in voice and animation. Murtle is pretty brutal, too. I'm not exactly sure why they chose to do them that way; I suppose they were trying to make them cute and I'm just not the target audience.

Though, house elves in general bother me. They mostly seem to be an annoyance that takes attention away from the main plot thread.

Cynthetiq

Spoiler: Well, if you accept that it was Neville that suggested gilliweed to Potter, and that Neville shows him the room of requirement, (at least they were consistent)

I'd guess you are fine with the changes of things like Han not shooting first and FBI agents chasing ET with walkie talkies in their hands since they don't take away from the plot points, but draw different emotional character points.

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Lady Sage

Is the next Rita Skeeter episode book 5 or 6? I dont recall, if it was book 5, it should have been in there, book 6 they will write it out and shoulda left it in. *LeSigh*

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Frosstbyte

Rita is supposed to interview Harry for Luna's paper in 5. I don't specifically remember if she's in 6 or not, but I'm going to guess no. Tthey just dropped that entire competing newspaper story arc.

Impetuous1

I saw it yesterday and I was pleased with the acting and special effects. I felt that all the salient points were kept in the movie. IMHO, it was the best Harry Potter movie yet. I too have read all the Harry Potter books. I just view the movies as separate pieces of entertainment based on the book; not a direct representation of what's in the books. But I must admit, I'm not really that crazy about J.K. Rowling's writing style to begin with. It always felt a little too emotionally flat. But I suppose that's because she's writing for children?

Frosstbyte

That's QUITE the conclusion to draw from my statement, Cyn. Generally speaking, I don't like anything to do with house elves in the books because I think the entire "OMG THEY'RE SLAVES OH NOEZ" thing is trite and annoying and some of her worst plotting. More specifically, I really dislike how they chose to portray them in the movies (thanks Chris Columbus) because their voices are like nails on a chalkboard and they're far too cute for my tastes.

Given that, I'm more than happy to NOT have to sit through house elves in the movies. The whole house elf "thing" has been pretty much excised from all of the movies, except for Dobby's role in the second which was completely essential. That removes whatever element it is house elves add to the books, yes. Personally, I don't think that's anything, so I'm happy to not have to sit through it. The director/writer took blood elves out for time constraint reasons, not because they were trying to change a character (Han) or make something more politically correct (ET). I'm enjoying the benefits of that change. You're welcome to disagree.

jorgelito

But Rita is critical to restoring Harry's credibility and getting people to believe that Voldemort is back. The Rita story line is also critical to the kids' rebellion against Umbridge. Especially with Luna Lane's involvement in getting Harry's story told through her father's paper. As for the elves, they are definitely important to the story, especially the house elf at the Order of the Phoenix' headquarters. His betrayal is pivotal to the story. Even Dobby and his girlfriend have a role to play as well.

Cynthetiq

Sure it is. It adds to Neville's character depth showing that Neville is a better herbologist than he was portrayed in the book and not to Dobby's. Dobby is an established character. He could have easily just shown up and passed on the information in a small cameo to both movies and be done with it. It need not be a long drawn out process to establish anything more than just someone passing him information. Since the character is CGI I'd go with that the director/producers removed him due to cost.

right there are several story holes that exist but are missed because well it is still a happy ending.

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Frosstbyte

Actually, we don't have a higher opinion of Neville by the end because Barty Crouch Jr. admits that he told Neville about it in furtherance of his plan to get Harry to get the goblet. The bottom line is that in movie adaptations, something has to give, and Rita and the house elves (unless they come back with a vengeance in book 7, which is entirely possible) have not been the kinds of things that have needed to be kept around. I think that's a good thing; you clearly don't. Again, it's a matter of how to cut costs or length or what have you which is always going to be a judgment call. There's no need to impugn my taste with sweeping generalizations about what I do and don't like in movies.

On a side note, Creecher's role is something that ought to have been kept in, since the conclusion made little sense without it. This movie was rushed and kept the plot moving without giving us a lot of reasons for why the plot moved. Rita and Creecher would've been much better uses of time than the 500 Filch posting scenes.

Lady Sage

Not to mention not seeing the Longbottoms nor Percy's defection. So many minor details that have such strong ramifications later on.

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Sue

Here's one vote for hoping they do an uncut dvd. I liked the movie too, but I also wish that they'd not left certain things out. I hate when they do that, and change the scenes around so it's not the way the book told it. But I also feel that the majority of the movie felt too rushed along, even for a three hour flick.

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ColonelSpecial

After watching "Prisoner of Azkaban" for the first time I remember thinking that it was really disjointed and it did leave a lot out of the books but after watching it again on DVD without having just read the book, it seemed to flow a lot better. Same for Goblet of Fire. Of course there were things in the books I wish would have been put in but it is really hard to take a 700 page book and put it into a 3 hour movie.

What I love about these movies is how the creators visualize everything. It was eerie watching the first 25 minutes of this newest movie and how closely it matched with the visual style I had in my head while reading the books. I figure that we have the books for all of the depth of history and back knowledge in them. We have the movies to see in 'real life' the cool things originally on the paper. Watching the knight bus scene from POA was awesome! Watching this movie with some of the scenes was cool to see the book translated to the page. Plus, as much as we can imagine the characters and how they sound and interact, it is nice to see it on screen.

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Willravel

ColonelSpecial has one of the most original screen names around.

Saw the movie, reluctantly. I'll admit it actually started getting interesting in the end, but I feel like the movie missed out on a lot of substance in character exploration. The only real character exploration we had was Spoiler: Snape's relationship with Harry Potter's father in school. This was actually an interesting segway, and I would have enjoyed further exploration. Sure, the part where Spoiler: there was a battle between the unnamed Voldamort support group and the older members of the Order of the Phonenix, and the loss of Gary Oldman, the raddest dude alive, had me sitting forward in my seat, but visual effects are really only as good as the story they tell. Not only that, but the Harry Potter "The difference between us is I have buddies" thing had cliche written all over it. Meh.

abaya

I agree with you here... I thought the Kreacher character in the movie was great (much better than the previous Dobby stuff). I was looking forward to seeing more of his muttering and spitting on the non-purebloods, and his eventual betrayal... but instead he had just a token role, which most likely did not make sense to the non-readers of the audience.

That said, I did not really miss Rita Skeeter. I do wish they had developed more of the Snape/James Potter stuff, because that was the most interesting part about the Occlumency lessons. The Pensieve did not even make an appearance, and damn I love that device in the books. Wish I had one.

Oh yeah, and Will... that cliche at the end about the difference between Harry and Voldemort IS cheesy, but is it really any different than the endings of the previous movies? Not that it's entirely different in the book, but it's a bit more subtly stated, and better written than heard in a few soundbites, I think. But yeah, classic fable stuff, moral of the story, etc.

Sidenote: I JUST finally recognized, in the movie (even after all the books), the word "Wizengamot," which hearkens back to Old English, and eventually Old Norse... and it's still used in Icelandic today! The suffix "mot" means a gathering, crossroads, or meeting place ("meet" comes from that word), and in Icelandic we have a word for family gathering, which is "Ættarmót" (related-people's-gathering). Tolkien used it as well for the word "Entmoot" in Lord of the Rings. I love that nerdy etymological stuff.

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hambone

I was thinking about this today. I missed that you didn't see Sirius' screaming mother in the painting. I wanna know what she looks/sounds like on screen.

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fresnelly

I enjoyed it.

Imelda Staunton was great. She looked genuinely hurt as much as shocked by the "injustices.". When she slapped Harry, the entire theatre gasped.

A few moments really stood out for me.

Filch swaying precariously at the top of the ridiculously tall ladder to hang the Educational Decrees.

The Order's headquarters jostling itself into existence.

Sirius Black's Family Tree

All of the Educational Decrees slipping from the wall together and smashing on the floor around Umbridge. Brilliant!

The Hall of Prophecies slowly, then rapidly collapsing in on itself. I loved how high the shelved extended into the blackness.

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Lady Sage

Not to mention how the entire theater broke into cheers and clapping with the single line... "I'm sorry professor, I must not tell lies."

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guthmund

I thought the movie was pretty good.

Obviously they've left some parts out. Obviously they've taken a few shortcuts and changed some things to tell the story. They kind of have to, as many have pointed out, because 600+ page books do not translate well to the big screen unless you edit them accordingly. And for that matter, why should they? Different mediums, different visions, different accomodations.

It's like, "Tom Bombadil" all over again, sheesh.

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Not Right Now

this was by far the most emotional Harruy potter film thus far, and definitely my favourite. With the exception of Syrius dying (I love gary Oldman). I was not a fan of the first two Harry films but as they got darker and more emotional they got exponentially better.

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