Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

[simons_flower]

My PoA review.
My GoF review.

I will start with the essentials I asked for at the end of my GoF review.

My OotP essentials:

• CAPSLOCK!Harry.  Daniel is getting better at portraying emotion and after the snarky!Harry in PoA and the anger and (some) nuance in GoF, I can't wait to see him angry.
• The Ministry fight.  Yes, I know Sirius dies, but I hope they keep quite a bit of the firefight.
• Sirius.  It was disturbing that he really was a non-entity in GoF the movie.
• Umbridge.  She's so evil.
• I will not tell lies.

After seeing it for the second time, these are my thoughts.  First, with the essentials:

• CAPSLOCK!Harry.
  Harry was quite underplayed in this.  Not that it's a bad thing -- one thing that the director and Dan clearly communicate to the audience is that Harry is an angry, alienated young man -- but there were no real blow-ups from Harry except after the snake attack.
• The Ministry fight.
  The scene in the Prophecy Room was great, nearly exactly as I'd pictured though I'd pictured it lit better.  Skipping to the fight between Dumbledore and Voldemort, it was really brought through that they're both powerful wizards and the fight between them is essentially a draw.  Voldemort's trick of blowing out all the windows is pretty damn cool.  However, the shining scene here is Harry's possession.  The trick with his eyes clearly shows Dumbledore something's wrong, but when Harry speaks in that otherworldly voice, he's quite positively channeling Voldemort.  Harry would never say such terrible things to Dumbledore, though he might think them earlier in the movie.  Dan did a great job with this scene.
• Sirius.
  David Yates did what Mike Newell didn't:  showed how much Harry sees Sirius as a father-figure and, conversely, shows us that Sirius either isn't quite playing with a full deck or can't separate Harry from James.  The last goes by so quickly just before the Veil that it's easy to miss, but is shocking.  David Yates showed the audience why Harry is devastated by Sirius' loss...even if he doesn't later show how devastated Harry is.
• Umbridge.
  Imelda Staunton is absolutely perfect in this role.  If Brendan Gleeson was perfect as Moody, she is this movie's Moody.  From her second moment on screen (the Wizengamot scene isn't as overbearing because you can't see the pink), Umbridge is a reviled character and she is never redeemed.  This is a good thing.  Just for comic value, though, I liked the end in the book in which Ron makes clip-clop noises and terrifies Umbridge.  That's not in here, though the Centaurs are and do drag her off.
• I must not tell lies.
  The fans got the wording changed, "I must not tell lies."  Oh my god is Umbridge creepy in this scene.  And Dan, watching the words being etched into his skin?  Great.

Things and scenes I loved...

• The Black Family Tapestry.
  Though there could have been more with this -- we were shown Sirius' name burnt off, as well as Andromeda's, and Bella's picture -- not showing everyone leaves it open for the next two movies.  Especially if it's revealed that RAB is Regulus.
• Floo.
  This was much more in-line with how I'd pictured it, both the Ministry and especially Floo-talking, than was seen before.  Sirius' head really was in the fire, not a face of embers.
• The use of flashbacks and scenes from previous movies.
  This was used sparingly, but at completely appropriate moments, to great effect.  During Voldemort's possession of Harry, rather than just show him writhing (which it would have been fun to watch Dan writhe), flashbacks were used to show the love he uses to resist Voldemort.  Flashbacks were also used during the Occlumency scenes.
• Bellatrix.
  Helena Bonham-Carter was perfectly creepy.  Her maniacal laugh during the Ministry battle just adds to the creep-factor.
• Backstory.
  It was brought up in the pre-movie chats at Phoenix Rising that so much backstory could be told with a few words, namely that of the Marauders and the Maruader Map.  Some of that is taken care of as the group heads to the Express to go to Hogwarts and Moody chastises Padfoot for nearly tripping them.
• Foreshadowing.
  The last two movies have seemed like stand-alones fitted into the Potter story compared to this one.  The Harry/Ginny relationship was subtly foreshadowed here in the dirty looks Ginny shoots at Harry when Hermione teases him about Cho not being able to keep her eyes off him, as well as a couple other scenes like that.  Ron and Hermione are not at each other's throats in a vicious way, but more in a teasing fashion that's really teasing and not mean-spirited.
• McGonagall.
  I understand that the confrontation with the Aurors at Hagrid's hut wouldn't have fit the constraints of the movie plot, but how McGonagall's snarkiness and utter disdain for Umbridge comes through completely.
• IMAX 3-D.
  Oh my god, this was so cool!  It was really more like a hologram or dimensional picture than traditional 3-D.  It was also quite amusing to have an entire audience -- relatively quiet to that point -- say "whoa!" at the same time as the sextet entered the Ministry.

Complaints...

• The Dursleys and post-Dementor.
  This complaint is mixed.  I liked Dudley's continued space-case look after the Dementor attack, but the Dursleys weren't what I expected.  auntee_mame got it right when I mentioned this and she said it was like a throwback to the PS/SS and CoS Dursleys in which the parents are larger-than-life and meant to tower over the children.  Vernon and Petunia didn't feel real in this.  Additionally, I missed hearing "Remember my last, Petunia," when Vernon tries to boot Harry from the house after he's been expelled.  The single letter, while neat as a tame-Howler-type letter, wasn't enough.
• Occlumency.
  This is both here and under nitpicks.  My complaint about it is the lack of a Pensieve and the lack of real explanation for why Snape is giving Harry Occlumency lessons in the first place.  The timing of it implies that it has something to do with the "I am a snake" vision, but neither Snape nor Dumbledore outright tells Harry why he's being forced into the "lessons" at all.
• Dumbledore.
  Each movie I like Michael Gambon less and less.  Can we make Richard Harris an Inferi for the next movie?

Overall and nitpicks...

• Grimmauld Place.
  Definitely grim and old, but not as big a part of the movie as in the book.
• Arthur's patrol.
  Harry clearly sees Arthur in the Hall of Prophecy in the movie, rather than outside the door as in the book.  Why doesn't he pick up on this later?
• Harry's character.
  Dan does a wonderful job with showing us how alienated Harry becomes as the movie progresses.  He's tense, he's angry (though not CAPSLOCK-OF-RAGE), and increasingly seen as a nutter.  The DA turns this around for him, seems to center him in a world gone mad.  Finally, it's something he can do, to be proactive after being alienated by Dumbledore and tortured by Umbridge.
• The Trio.
  Which brings me to the Trio.  Their friendship shines in this movie like it hasn't since CoS or PS/SS.
• Occlumency.
  No Pensieve means that the only view Harry gets of his father is one from an invasion of Snape's mind that's improbable at best with a Protego after Snape casts Legilimens on him.  And Lily was cut entirely.
• Harry's nightmares.
  Watching Dan writhe under the influence of the Voldemort-sent nightmares was very nice.

My HBP essentials

• Tom's backstory.
• "You don't have to call me sir, Professor."
• The "meeting" with Scrimgeour at the Burrow at Christmas in which Harry reasserts he's Dumbledore's man.
• The Cave.
• Harry chasing Snape post-Dumbledore in which we learn who the Half-Blood Prince is.