Order of Phoenix Movie and Camping Trip
Well, so far summer has been surprisingly eventful. I don't particularly think I would like to live that far from civilization permanently, but camping is usually an interesting and relaxing experience. I've gone camping and fishing since I was a little girl, and there is something appealing about surviving in the midst of nature like that and knowing that almost no-one is around for miles.
I just saw HP and The Order of Phoenix today, and I actually think that it is the best of all the movies so far. The quality with which it was done and its entertainment value surprised me greatly, as I had been expecting them to get progressively worse. The last two movies were rather god awful, and POA convinced me that Alphonso Curon has made it his personal goal in life to give any of the movies he directs the disjointed feel of a drug-induced hallucination.
The fifth movie, while keeping better to the story-line of the book it was adapted from than the last two movies, also managed to retain the spark of life present in the HP series that the first two movies didn't quite manage to capture. The battle scene in the Department of Mysteries between the Order of Phoenix and the Death Eaters was amazing, and the duel between Voldemort and Dumbledore was even more so. The tension and emotional struggle present throughout the fifth book was vividly captured, and the actors playing Dolores Umbridge and Voldemort especially captured their characters well, though all the younger actors, especially Daniel Radcliffe, should be commended as well for capturing the increased complexity of their characters.
This movie’s only obvious flaw is that people who haven’t read the books might miss out on some of the briefer references to small, but important details in the book’s plot. There is a good reason for this, however. The makers of OOtP needed to cut down on the length of time in which the story could be told just like the makers of the previous films, but rather than using the droll summaries we see in the first movies or adding pointless fluff to cover how much of the story is actually missing like the second two, they used their more visual medium creatively in order to get the point across. All in all, they did a much better job than people who made the previous four of making an enjoyable book into an enjoyable movie. OOtP, the movie, gets an A- from me.
On a related note...The last book is coming out soon! Yay!