the Dalaverse

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"

--my god, the actor playing Dudley looks different. I forgot we skipped the Dursleys in GoF, so we hadn't seen him in awhile. His crossed eyes were really distracting.

--The young actors were all quite good, particularly Daniel Radcliffe and Matthew Lewis. My one issue is Emma Watson's heavy breathing acting - tone it down, girlfriend, you look and sound like you've just run a flight of stairs when you get all intense.

--So let's talk about how the casting of these films continues to be unbelievably awesome. I swear, these movies have got to have one of the most talented casts ever assembled. Imelda Staunton was utterly perfect as Umbridge, in the larger sense and in all the little details - her clothing, the foul kittens, her little "hem hem" cough. Likewise, Helena Bonham Carter's natural strangeness was a great match for Bellatrix. And while the dottiness didn't come through in still photographs, Evanna Lynch turned out a very nice Luna Lovegood. And all the usual players were superb, even if there wasn't enough McGonagall, Lupin, or Snape (more on that later)

--That being said, the one casting decision I've never liked is Michael Gambon. I still think he lacks Dumbledore's twinkle in the eye and whimsy, and his voice is all wrong, but the possession scene was the first time I was okay with his Dumbledore (and the office scene wasn't bad either). Not overjoyed, true - I still miss Richard Harris - but I think I've stopped worrying about him in HBP. I'll be able to deal, if he plays it like he did those two scenes.

--Although they left out the joint Christmas present and the explanation-of-the-Pensieve-memory scene, the Sirius/Lupin was still readily apparent. In their first scene in Grimmauld Place, they're sitting very close together (one might even say right on top of one another), and when Sirius and Harry hug (loved the affection between the two) Lupin is standing right behind, smiling warmly. And they kept Lupin grabbing Harry after Sirius dies, with a brief but lovely shot of him staring at the veil. Thewlis wasn't at all my mental picture of Lupin, but I really like what he's done with the character.

--Regarding Sirius, that is my only major beef with the plot. The emotionally stunted, frustrated, rash Sirius of the book was replaced by a much more fatherly, noble figure. It works okay in context, particularly considering they didn't go into the Kreacher subplot, but...I really believed in the character as written, and Gary Oldman could've done him so well.

--OotP is a much easier book to condense than GoF, and they did it pretty satisfactorily. While I was reading it again, I guessed at parts they could cut or condense - the St. Mungo's bit, Quidditch, all the creepy stuff in addition to the prophecy room in the Department of Mysteries - and I was basically right. St. Mungo's wasn't necessary, although I was glad they kept the Weasleys in Dumbledore's office, and "Daddy's home!" was sweet. While I understand that Quidditch is very tedious and expensive to film and I didn't miss it that much, it was a shame to have to sacrifice Ron's one real individual storyline. And I lovelovelove the entire Dept. of Mysteries sequence, it's some of Rowling's strongest writing in the whole series, but it wouldve been extremely difficult to film, and they managed to catch most of the salient bits anyhow. Were the Death Eaters (dis)Apparating everywhere? It was cool-looking. And the possession scene was very well done, with Dan Radcliffe managing to sell the cheesy faith-in-your-friends stuff (in no small part because the Trio really does have great chemistry; I love that post-kiss scene where they all cracked up). I do miss all the injuries done to the characters, though - that was shocking to read and really gave you a sense of the high stakes.

--Moving on to the Harry/Cho stuff, they managed to switch it up with her (unintended) betrayal fairly well, I thought. Although she wasn't as much of an emotional wreck as she should've been. And the kiss itself was pretty - uh - am I going to the special hell if I dare to call it 'hot'? ::hides:: Although what. the. hell. with Cedric's picture winking at them?! I guess he likes to watch...and he does break into a grin when Harry approaches Neville later (bringing back the Mirror of Erised was a great plot device, actually).

--Goddamn Daniel Radcliffe. It's all his own fault that I cannot help seeing him as a sexual being now. When Mrs. Figg described him as skinny, I was all, uh no? But to my credit, my brain only flashed PUBES a couple of times - mostly during the nightmare scenes where there was a weird, sort of porny focus on his neck...::scrubs out brain::

--Actually I really liked the visual style - lots of high camera angles and swooping around. The DA scenes were particularly well done.

--I just remembered my most lamented missing thing - the Pensieve scene. That was unreasonably shortened - what was it, twenty seconds? Lily didn't even appear! I didn't even get a good look at the Marauders or young Snape! And we didn't get that seething rage from Snape, which is sort of super-important to the plot of this and subsequent books. Alan Rickman has always gone with a slow burn of loathing instead, but in that scene, the seething rage is what he needs. The opening stuff could've been shortened for this, or they might have added another ten minutes. It wasn't as crucual as some of the stuff they left out of GoF, but it was one thing I really wanted to see and didn't count on being left out.

--The departure of Fred and George was as awesome as I'd hoped. We didn't get "Give her hell for us, Peeves" because there IS no Peeves in movieverse, but Flitwick's little fist-pump was cute. Also, the Trelawney-sacking scene was as good as in the book, probably because Emma Thompson and Maggie Smith are so astoundingly awesome.

--Most of the visuals were incredible. The Ministry, Grimmauld Place, the DA version of the Room of Requirement - the usual glee of seeing this stuff brought to life. I didn't like the non-actual-curtain veil, though.

--I thought they'd slip in a little hint at the upcoming Remus/Tonks (the way they were making Harry/Ginny painfully obvious), but nada. Sigh. That continues to be stupid. The actress playing Tonks didn't look like such a bad match as the Tonks in my head did, though.

--Lastly? I almost fell out of my seat laughing at Harry's line to Snape during the Occlumency lessons: "We've been at it all night! I need a rest!"

The Internet appears to have died in the storm, so I'll save this and post it in the morning. Overall, I really liked it - deft plot-trimming and solid pacing. Probably the best after PoA (though this is, again, the best the young actors have done so far, and that's a big mark in its favor as well).

ETA: Internet back up, clicky-posty!