And now for the real review
I'll do it like last time - the things I liked followed by the things I wasn't so crazy about.
Needless to say, Daniel Radcliffe is a damn good young actor whose performances improve exponentially each film. He wins at being... emoriffic, I guess. Which is good for this movie.
GOOD IDEA:
1. "Get away from my godson." *DECKS YOUR PRETTY, DEATH EATING SOON-TO-BE-JAILBAIT ASS* Yes, ladies and gentleman, Gary Oldman has done it again. Regardless of the fact that he was still not given enough screen time, he milked every bit of that script and screwed it around until Sirius stood out the way the was supposed to. Plus, the winking was adorable. It helps having a actor who values the life of his character and understands his importance. And he took that perfect added moment and embedded it in my personal canon forever.
2. The pretty, death eating soon-to-be-jailbait ass was fantastic as well. Props to Lucius and his pimp cane. Let's face it, Jason Isaacs makes us all wish we were Narcissa Malfoy. He's just too damn pretty, too damn sinister, and gorgeously smug. In fact, all the death eaters were well done, even the ones you only saw for two seconds. Bellatrix is obvious in that aspect. Bitch be CRAZY. In a good way. Gives you all sorts of wrong ideas that you wish you never had.
3. OMG, RON IS A CHARACTER AGAIN? Thank you. No, really. I cannot say that enough. My darling friend youngcurmudgeon informed me that the reason that Ron was previously confined to blurting out "bloody 'ell!" every five seconds and mugging the camera at each turn was apparently because Steve Kloves (the man who wrote HP screeplays 1-4) loved Emma Watson so much that he just gave her all the good lines that should have been divided between Ron and Hermione. Well, we've got a new screenwriter now, and with him Ron's character mysteriously returned. Rupert Grint deserves it, the boy is a good actor and hasn't been given the chance to show it in these films. And you can tell that he enjoyed the chance to really play the character because Ron's strength shines in this, even when he's being a complete idiot. His growth spurt is another welcome addition, giving the trio a more canon look and Ron a better presence at Harry's back. Also, the nice dosage of R/H shipping was welcome and done fantastically (not over the top and so perfectly comfortable in ways that they don't even realize yet).
4. Snape. Erm, ♥. 'Nough said.
5. Luna was just... gah. The girl nailed it. So many flowers short of a bouquet, and so darling. As was Neville. Dear god, NEVILLE. There's just nothing to find fault with there. It's so funny that the kid shot up the way he did, and in a way, fits the character wonderfully.
6. Location, location. Wow. This movie was eye candy in so many ways. From the Ministry to Grimmauld Place to the Room of Requirement, everything looked amazing. Which was half of the reason that I had been looking forward to seeing the movie - more of the wizarding world for us to get glimpses of.
7. Umbridge. She's somehow even worse then I had envisioned her while reading the book. Which makes her even better. I think it's the squeak-laughter. And the way she fights with McGonagall (McGonagall yet again rules that screen whenever she's on. I only wish we could have had the career counselling scene).
8. Those Weasley's sure do grow up nice. Fred and George were given little moments not just to prove their pranking superiority, but that they were growing up into good young men (the bit with them comforting the kid? *wibble*). Ginny kicked ass in good preparation for her role in movie six. I'm sorry everyone, I don't have a problem with Ginny as a character, so save your rants. If you hadn't seen that coming from day one, you obviously haven't read Rules of Mythology 101 (rule #327 - hero gets with sidekick's sister because he must become a member of the sidekick's family. It's just the way they tend to do things - see: Roland and Oliver).
BAD IDEA:
1. Erm, here's my fantastic idea - let's push Remus' character to the back again. Because we like doing that. I'm sorry, you make me angry when you do this to my favorite character. In a Hulk sort of way. Nevermind the fact that David Thewlis is nothing like I saw the character, he plays Remus very well, and I want to see him, damnit. And not just him reacting to everyone else. Why was he not in the guard bringing Harry to London the way he was supposed to be? That was pointless and unlikely, since Harry only really feels safe once he realizes that Remus is there because it's someone he knows. It was also terrible at establishing any possible relationship between Remus and Tonks later because there is not one exchange between them; you are making it even more random than Rowling did, and that's saying something.
2. WTF SNAPE'S WORST MEMORY? First off, found it the wrong way. I get that you were trying to save time, but that was hokey as hell. Second, why was it TEN BLOODY SECONDS LONG? What was the point of that? You left out everything relevant about that entire scenario; chiefly, Harry seeing his dad being a shithead and no one having the guts to stop him but his mother, who seems to hate daddy lots. And then the vital scene between Harry, Sirius and Remus where he asks them about his shattered image of his father. This was never addressed in the film. It's kind of important. And now he can't ask Sirius BECAUSE HE'S DEAD. I'm sorry, it was one of my favorite points in Book 5, and I was angry that it got such a poor treatment (proof of my Marauder love: for the five seconds where we got to see James torturing Snape, I was grinning like an idiot. Because I was that elated just to see James, even at his most awful charmlessness. Love you, Prongs).
3. The Veil. I'm sorry, Sirius' death did not work for me. J.K. says that he falls back into it and disappears, not that he gets sucked up into the Glittery Invisible Zen Vortex of Invisible Voices. Sometimes we don't need all the fancy CGI to make a thing work, people.
4. Cho being the traitor to the DA. Again, I get it, you didn't have time to go through all the reasoning for why things really didn't work out between her and Harry. So you took the easy way out by cheapening her character. That's lame. And kind of infuriating, even if you did try to make up for it by finding out that she had been dosed with Veritaserum.
5. Sirius calls Harry James right before he dies. Uh, let me think, how about... NO. That was character wreckage, right there. We know Sirius has moments where he does want Harry to be James, that he likely does have instances where he thinks 'James' instead of 'Harry', but to have him actually call Harry by his father's name at such a huge moment is in poor taste, not even counting the fact that I don't think it's a reasonable assumption that Sirius could have made that mistake then. It really smudged up the image of them fighting side by side the way they were. Be smarter, guys. If you wanted to make that point then you should have made it at the appropriate time - during the conversation that was in the damn book after Harry arrives at Grimmauld Place. Making it just between the adults without Harry & Co. there kind of ruined Sirius and Molly's argument.
6. It would have been nice for them to have explained Percy's fall to the Dark Side. Just saying, is all. Instead of him just being there randomly.
Yes, many of my issues were Marauder-related. I can't help it; it is my era of choice in the HP 'verse, and when your top favorite characters are Moony and Padfoot, you want to see them get their dues.
Needless to say, Daniel Radcliffe is a damn good young actor whose performances improve exponentially each film. He wins at being... emoriffic, I guess. Which is good for this movie.
GOOD IDEA:
1. "Get away from my godson." *DECKS YOUR PRETTY, DEATH EATING SOON-TO-BE-JAILBAIT ASS* Yes, ladies and gentleman, Gary Oldman has done it again. Regardless of the fact that he was still not given enough screen time, he milked every bit of that script and screwed it around until Sirius stood out the way the was supposed to. Plus, the winking was adorable. It helps having a actor who values the life of his character and understands his importance. And he took that perfect added moment and embedded it in my personal canon forever.
2. The pretty, death eating soon-to-be-jailbait ass was fantastic as well. Props to Lucius and his pimp cane. Let's face it, Jason Isaacs makes us all wish we were Narcissa Malfoy. He's just too damn pretty, too damn sinister, and gorgeously smug. In fact, all the death eaters were well done, even the ones you only saw for two seconds. Bellatrix is obvious in that aspect. Bitch be CRAZY. In a good way. Gives you all sorts of wrong ideas that you wish you never had.
3. OMG, RON IS A CHARACTER AGAIN? Thank you. No, really. I cannot say that enough. My darling friend youngcurmudgeon informed me that the reason that Ron was previously confined to blurting out "bloody 'ell!" every five seconds and mugging the camera at each turn was apparently because Steve Kloves (the man who wrote HP screeplays 1-4) loved Emma Watson so much that he just gave her all the good lines that should have been divided between Ron and Hermione. Well, we've got a new screenwriter now, and with him Ron's character mysteriously returned. Rupert Grint deserves it, the boy is a good actor and hasn't been given the chance to show it in these films. And you can tell that he enjoyed the chance to really play the character because Ron's strength shines in this, even when he's being a complete idiot. His growth spurt is another welcome addition, giving the trio a more canon look and Ron a better presence at Harry's back. Also, the nice dosage of R/H shipping was welcome and done fantastically (not over the top and so perfectly comfortable in ways that they don't even realize yet).
4. Snape. Erm, ♥. 'Nough said.
5. Luna was just... gah. The girl nailed it. So many flowers short of a bouquet, and so darling. As was Neville. Dear god, NEVILLE. There's just nothing to find fault with there. It's so funny that the kid shot up the way he did, and in a way, fits the character wonderfully.
6. Location, location. Wow. This movie was eye candy in so many ways. From the Ministry to Grimmauld Place to the Room of Requirement, everything looked amazing. Which was half of the reason that I had been looking forward to seeing the movie - more of the wizarding world for us to get glimpses of.
7. Umbridge. She's somehow even worse then I had envisioned her while reading the book. Which makes her even better. I think it's the squeak-laughter. And the way she fights with McGonagall (McGonagall yet again rules that screen whenever she's on. I only wish we could have had the career counselling scene).
8. Those Weasley's sure do grow up nice. Fred and George were given little moments not just to prove their pranking superiority, but that they were growing up into good young men (the bit with them comforting the kid? *wibble*). Ginny kicked ass in good preparation for her role in movie six. I'm sorry everyone, I don't have a problem with Ginny as a character, so save your rants. If you hadn't seen that coming from day one, you obviously haven't read Rules of Mythology 101 (rule #327 - hero gets with sidekick's sister because he must become a member of the sidekick's family. It's just the way they tend to do things - see: Roland and Oliver).
BAD IDEA:
1. Erm, here's my fantastic idea - let's push Remus' character to the back again. Because we like doing that. I'm sorry, you make me angry when you do this to my favorite character. In a Hulk sort of way. Nevermind the fact that David Thewlis is nothing like I saw the character, he plays Remus very well, and I want to see him, damnit. And not just him reacting to everyone else. Why was he not in the guard bringing Harry to London the way he was supposed to be? That was pointless and unlikely, since Harry only really feels safe once he realizes that Remus is there because it's someone he knows. It was also terrible at establishing any possible relationship between Remus and Tonks later because there is not one exchange between them; you are making it even more random than Rowling did, and that's saying something.
2. WTF SNAPE'S WORST MEMORY? First off, found it the wrong way. I get that you were trying to save time, but that was hokey as hell. Second, why was it TEN BLOODY SECONDS LONG? What was the point of that? You left out everything relevant about that entire scenario; chiefly, Harry seeing his dad being a shithead and no one having the guts to stop him but his mother, who seems to hate daddy lots. And then the vital scene between Harry, Sirius and Remus where he asks them about his shattered image of his father. This was never addressed in the film. It's kind of important. And now he can't ask Sirius BECAUSE HE'S DEAD. I'm sorry, it was one of my favorite points in Book 5, and I was angry that it got such a poor treatment (proof of my Marauder love: for the five seconds where we got to see James torturing Snape, I was grinning like an idiot. Because I was that elated just to see James, even at his most awful charmlessness. Love you, Prongs).
3. The Veil. I'm sorry, Sirius' death did not work for me. J.K. says that he falls back into it and disappears, not that he gets sucked up into the Glittery Invisible Zen Vortex of Invisible Voices. Sometimes we don't need all the fancy CGI to make a thing work, people.
4. Cho being the traitor to the DA. Again, I get it, you didn't have time to go through all the reasoning for why things really didn't work out between her and Harry. So you took the easy way out by cheapening her character. That's lame. And kind of infuriating, even if you did try to make up for it by finding out that she had been dosed with Veritaserum.
5. Sirius calls Harry James right before he dies. Uh, let me think, how about... NO. That was character wreckage, right there. We know Sirius has moments where he does want Harry to be James, that he likely does have instances where he thinks 'James' instead of 'Harry', but to have him actually call Harry by his father's name at such a huge moment is in poor taste, not even counting the fact that I don't think it's a reasonable assumption that Sirius could have made that mistake then. It really smudged up the image of them fighting side by side the way they were. Be smarter, guys. If you wanted to make that point then you should have made it at the appropriate time - during the conversation that was in the damn book after Harry arrives at Grimmauld Place. Making it just between the adults without Harry & Co. there kind of ruined Sirius and Molly's argument.
6. It would have been nice for them to have explained Percy's fall to the Dark Side. Just saying, is all. Instead of him just being there randomly.
Yes, many of my issues were Marauder-related. I can't help it; it is my era of choice in the HP 'verse, and when your top favorite characters are Moony and Padfoot, you want to see them get their dues.