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shadowkatMy workplace has decided to do "summer hours" on Fridays. This basically means every other Friday, I get to leave work at 3pm. Half the company takes one week off, the other half takes the other week off - so the company can stay fully functioning and open until 6. After some pressure from the finance department, I decided to take this Friday off. Wasn't getting a thing accomplished and it had been an annoying week, the type of week that at the end of - you just want to kick people.
So, to give myself a little treat for surviving the work week - I saw the 4:20 show of Harry Potter and The Order of The Phonenix - at that showing the theater was mostly filled with adolescent girls, women and a few boys. Interesting audience mix, actually. Loved it.
One note: If you have a cell phone, please do not turn it on during the movie to text message people, check your email, or use as a flashlight - the light in the cell blinds the person behind you and disrupts their viewing of the film. Respect the people in the audience with you. If you want to check your cell - do it outside the theater or don't go to the theater at all.
I'm starting to think I should bring a sling-shot with spit balls to aim at people who flip their cell phones open at movies. Really miss the days in which we did not have cell phones. Going to the movies was a far more pleasurable experience - heck walking, going to restaurants and to the theater was more pleasurable.
That said, the new iphone is wickedly cool - someone at work had one and I got to play with it. It's like having a PDA, Blackberry, cellphone, ipod, camera, internet, and photo album all in one. It's only $800 bucks upfront and $59 a month thereafter for internet. You get up to 500 minutes phone coverage with that and unlimited internet access - according to the guy who was showing it to me.
Regarding Harry Potter? I liked it a lot better than the book. Order of the Phoenix was my least favorite of the series and the one that took me the longest to read - I remember getting bogged down in the middle. Professor Umbridge annoyed the heck out me while reading it. And far too much time was spent on Harry being angry at his friends, his romance with Cho, Hermione and Ron's flirtation, and the house elves. I was bored reading Phoenix, I was not bored watching it.
It's funny, I scanned a few professional critical reviews before seeing the film and they all go on and on about how great a villian Umbridge is and that's she's the best and most creative one yet. How the film suffers when she's gone.
Uh. Okay. Does make sense in a way, critics have a lot in common with Umbridge. So maybe they identified with her? I just found her annoying.
That said, Imelda Staunton is perfect in the role. She joins Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman, and David Thewilis in a perfect portrayal of a character in a book. She even has Umbridge's twittering giggle down.
And the film? May be the best in the series next to Azkban. I still prefer Prisoner of Azkaban. But then I preferred the book. Azkaban does a better job of transistioning between scenes than this film did, and I liked the portrayal of the Dementors in it better.
Also the action built in a better way. But it did have the benefit of having better source material.
Most of Phoenix focuses on Umbridge, which is a drawback since I can't stand the character.
But, it's not a long film, and it manages to quickly get across things that took much longer to get across in the novel - such as what Harry's father did to Snape, and what happened to Neville's parents as well as the introduction of Kreacher.
The acting, special effects, and production value is quite good, the best of the bunch. The kids have grown into their parts and benefitted from their surrounding castmates. We have the creme of the creme in British Acting Talent here - Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Fiona Shaw, Julie Harris, David Thewilis, Gary Oldman, Ralph Fiennes, Imelda Staunton, Helena Bonham Carter, Jason Issacs, and Robbie Coltrain. It's a who's who of British Thesipians. (I'm sure I left out some people). And each makes the most of their limited time onscreen without chewing scenery or hamming it up.
Daniel Radcliff is astonishingly good in the part. But so is the unknown amateur actress who is playing my favorite character of the series, Luna Lovagood. A lady in the audience said that Luna was just weird. But I adore her. She's hilarious. While everyone else in the world was rooting for Harry and Hermoine or Harry and Ginny, I was rooting for Harry and Luna. But I think she may go with Neville.
What I loved?
There's a scene in which Harry asks Sirius what is wrong with him. Why he is so angry.
And what can he do with all the anger. He doesn't know what to do with it. Or why he feels it.
Anger and despair are tough emotions. You either lash out at others or pull it innwards and take it out on yourself. Here, we see Harry struggle with doing both and Voldemort attempting to take advantage of the anger, the hate, the rage - as demons do.
Sirius wisely tells Harry that we muddle through. There is nothing wrong with him. We all feel it. There is dark and light in all of us. It's not simple. Even Voldemort wasn't all evil. It's the choices we make that decide who we become. And they change daily. The dark and light is balanced - it's not one or the other.
This is one of the central themes of the series.
The other, which made me cry and feel happy but also, oddly, depressed ...was the difference between Harry and Voldemort. Harry has experienced friendship, love, caring, and the comfort of home and friends. Voldemort has none of those things. They are alike except for that one key difference. Harry has known love and Voldemort never will. It takes Harry a while to realize it, he feels like such a pariah, set apart from everyone at the beginning. The fact it is nothing more than an illusion put in his head partly by Voldemort pushes him out of his funk.
I highly recommend the film, but with the caveat that if you haven't been following the story or seen the prior films, you may not be able to follow it. IT does stand well enough on its own and I did not need to reread all the books to figure out what was going on.
In fact, I'd have to state not reading the book prior to it, probably aided in my enjoyment - since I could not remember certain things and was surprised. I also didn't miss the things left out, since couldn't remember them.
My memory of the Harry Books is weird. I remember the gist of what happened. But often can't remember in which book it occurred. Did the OWL examinations for example happen in HalfBlood Prince or Order of the Phoenix? I'm thinking Half-Blood, but can't remember.
Also did Harry find out that Neville could have been in the prophecy and Voldemort's nemesis in ORder or Half-Blood? If it was Order, they left it out in the film.
Overall, the best film I've seen this summer next to possibly Ratatouille...which I still adore. (I admittedly haven't seen that much.)
So, to give myself a little treat for surviving the work week - I saw the 4:20 show of Harry Potter and The Order of The Phonenix - at that showing the theater was mostly filled with adolescent girls, women and a few boys. Interesting audience mix, actually. Loved it.
One note: If you have a cell phone, please do not turn it on during the movie to text message people, check your email, or use as a flashlight - the light in the cell blinds the person behind you and disrupts their viewing of the film. Respect the people in the audience with you. If you want to check your cell - do it outside the theater or don't go to the theater at all.
I'm starting to think I should bring a sling-shot with spit balls to aim at people who flip their cell phones open at movies. Really miss the days in which we did not have cell phones. Going to the movies was a far more pleasurable experience - heck walking, going to restaurants and to the theater was more pleasurable.
That said, the new iphone is wickedly cool - someone at work had one and I got to play with it. It's like having a PDA, Blackberry, cellphone, ipod, camera, internet, and photo album all in one. It's only $800 bucks upfront and $59 a month thereafter for internet. You get up to 500 minutes phone coverage with that and unlimited internet access - according to the guy who was showing it to me.
Regarding Harry Potter? I liked it a lot better than the book. Order of the Phoenix was my least favorite of the series and the one that took me the longest to read - I remember getting bogged down in the middle. Professor Umbridge annoyed the heck out me while reading it. And far too much time was spent on Harry being angry at his friends, his romance with Cho, Hermione and Ron's flirtation, and the house elves. I was bored reading Phoenix, I was not bored watching it.
It's funny, I scanned a few professional critical reviews before seeing the film and they all go on and on about how great a villian Umbridge is and that's she's the best and most creative one yet. How the film suffers when she's gone.
Uh. Okay. Does make sense in a way, critics have a lot in common with Umbridge. So maybe they identified with her? I just found her annoying.
That said, Imelda Staunton is perfect in the role. She joins Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman, and David Thewilis in a perfect portrayal of a character in a book. She even has Umbridge's twittering giggle down.
And the film? May be the best in the series next to Azkban. I still prefer Prisoner of Azkaban. But then I preferred the book. Azkaban does a better job of transistioning between scenes than this film did, and I liked the portrayal of the Dementors in it better.
Also the action built in a better way. But it did have the benefit of having better source material.
Most of Phoenix focuses on Umbridge, which is a drawback since I can't stand the character.
But, it's not a long film, and it manages to quickly get across things that took much longer to get across in the novel - such as what Harry's father did to Snape, and what happened to Neville's parents as well as the introduction of Kreacher.
The acting, special effects, and production value is quite good, the best of the bunch. The kids have grown into their parts and benefitted from their surrounding castmates. We have the creme of the creme in British Acting Talent here - Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Fiona Shaw, Julie Harris, David Thewilis, Gary Oldman, Ralph Fiennes, Imelda Staunton, Helena Bonham Carter, Jason Issacs, and Robbie Coltrain. It's a who's who of British Thesipians. (I'm sure I left out some people). And each makes the most of their limited time onscreen without chewing scenery or hamming it up.
Daniel Radcliff is astonishingly good in the part. But so is the unknown amateur actress who is playing my favorite character of the series, Luna Lovagood. A lady in the audience said that Luna was just weird. But I adore her. She's hilarious. While everyone else in the world was rooting for Harry and Hermoine or Harry and Ginny, I was rooting for Harry and Luna. But I think she may go with Neville.
What I loved?
There's a scene in which Harry asks Sirius what is wrong with him. Why he is so angry.
And what can he do with all the anger. He doesn't know what to do with it. Or why he feels it.
Anger and despair are tough emotions. You either lash out at others or pull it innwards and take it out on yourself. Here, we see Harry struggle with doing both and Voldemort attempting to take advantage of the anger, the hate, the rage - as demons do.
Sirius wisely tells Harry that we muddle through. There is nothing wrong with him. We all feel it. There is dark and light in all of us. It's not simple. Even Voldemort wasn't all evil. It's the choices we make that decide who we become. And they change daily. The dark and light is balanced - it's not one or the other.
This is one of the central themes of the series.
The other, which made me cry and feel happy but also, oddly, depressed ...was the difference between Harry and Voldemort. Harry has experienced friendship, love, caring, and the comfort of home and friends. Voldemort has none of those things. They are alike except for that one key difference. Harry has known love and Voldemort never will. It takes Harry a while to realize it, he feels like such a pariah, set apart from everyone at the beginning. The fact it is nothing more than an illusion put in his head partly by Voldemort pushes him out of his funk.
I highly recommend the film, but with the caveat that if you haven't been following the story or seen the prior films, you may not be able to follow it. IT does stand well enough on its own and I did not need to reread all the books to figure out what was going on.
In fact, I'd have to state not reading the book prior to it, probably aided in my enjoyment - since I could not remember certain things and was surprised. I also didn't miss the things left out, since couldn't remember them.
My memory of the Harry Books is weird. I remember the gist of what happened. But often can't remember in which book it occurred. Did the OWL examinations for example happen in HalfBlood Prince or Order of the Phoenix? I'm thinking Half-Blood, but can't remember.
Also did Harry find out that Neville could have been in the prophecy and Voldemort's nemesis in ORder or Half-Blood? If it was Order, they left it out in the film.
Overall, the best film I've seen this summer next to possibly Ratatouille...which I still adore. (I admittedly haven't seen that much.)
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-14 06:33 am (UTC)(I did like it more than Goblet of Fire however)
http://embers-log.livejournal.com/163352.html
However I, like you, have become a huge Luna Lovegood fan! Here on the last page of my saved icons are a bunch of new Luna icons:
http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b4/embers_log/icons/?start=940
(she was so low key, so funny, so sweet!)
no subject
Date: 2007-07-15 12:42 am (UTC)They seem to have written Neville out of the prophecy entirely. Harry originally learned it from Dumbledore afterward because the actual prophecy was lost when it broke and no one could hear it, so Dumbledore had to tell Harry himself. He told Harry about Neville being the other possibility and that it was Voldemort himself who made it about Harry.
The film does stand on its own, but it really helps to have read the book at some point. So much is subtly portrayed and recognizing made the experience richer.
(By the way -- I really like the Harry/Luna interactions, too. And Luna. She's so delightfully in another world, and she's able to take so many negative things with such equanimity.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-15 04:42 pm (UTC)Luna was wonderful.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-15 04:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-15 05:22 pm (UTC)I think abridging the whole bit about the prophecy might hurt them in the films. The fact that it was Voldemort and Beatrice Bellatrux's actions that created the prophecy was a very interesting theme in the novels and emphasized the view that we create our own futures. Not to mention a nice ironic twist to the phrase - self-defeating prophecy. Voldemort created his own counter or nemesis. The removal of that bit from the film sort of makes the story a little more cliche and less interesting.
The other thing they cut, was the explanation of what happened to Sirius, what that curtained arch really was. It's barely explained. I guess they assume at this point in the proceedings everyone who is watching the films, has read the books multiple times, so it doesn't matter?
no subject
Date: 2007-07-15 05:31 pm (UTC)I understand why this long, long book had to be altered and abridged for the film. But my overall impression of the film? It seemed like a long preview rather than a film in and of itself. *shrugs* Maybe not a bad thing, in the long run. It did make me want to see the next one to find out more.
I'll be in England when the 7th book comes out. Am still debating whether to buy it over there or not. Much cheaper if I wait 'til I get home.