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ishtar79Most of the planet has already seen, reviewed, and probably already forgot about OotP by now, but Greek distributors means that I'm as usual late to the party.
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ariadneelda, mimine and I went to a late-ish screening to be spared most of the kids, though alas, not the obnoxious teens who kept talking over the movie, and some of which tried to steal our seats (Ariadne set them straight though).
-Speaking of obnoxious teens, I was surprised at how much movie!Trio was not. Obnoxious, that is-though bear in mind I always speak in relation to the previous movies. Daniel came dangerously close to producing genuine emotion at times-and the scenery chewing was down to a bare minimum. Of course, it helped that there was minimal CAPSLOCK!Harry, because though I might have a spot for him in the books, the idea of Dan screaming through most of the film...no. Just no. Rupert continues to the the best job out of the Trio (how is movie!Ron my favourite again? This is so bizarre), and this time without the buffoon comedy!faces, so yay! Emma's (over)acting seemed to be at only 65% force in this one, which granted, was often 40% more than was necessary at points (33.33% of all statistics are made up on the stop). In short, it was like someone pointed a remote on the kids and turned down the overall volume, which I suspect is Yates' doing (I can just picture it Take 087987: Yes Emma, that was better than last time, but couldn't you maybe emphasize your syllables a *bit* less. And watch that eyebrow...good girl! *stage whisper*: ok, I think it's as good as we'll get).
-The editing was SO MUCH BETTER than the previous movies! It almost felt like something a wider audience could keep up and be entertained with! Taking notes, Cuaron?
-Dudley is chavtastic. *snicker*
-OMG, Umbridge! I want to build an altar to Imelda Staunton and worship her mad acting skillz, because seriously? She was Umbridge. I don't care if she didn't look the part, the fact is every single scene she was in had me entranced, impressed as hell, and trying to suppress a full-body shudder.
-I also had to suppress full-body shudders in every single scene that Alan Rickman was in, for entirely different reasons. Look, I've just *given up* on movie!Snape, all right? I don't CARE if Snape's role in the films is reduced-in fact, I LIKE it reduced. If they can somehow write him out of HBP, that'd be SWELL! The man is an abomination. Let's just forget for a minute that it is so obviously an old overweight man in a wig trying to play someone 25 years younger/25 kgs lighter, shall we? The acting-at best, I'd call it 'extreme camp' and at worst...speech impediment? Jesus, get a sentence out sometime THIS YEAR, will ya? (Oh God, can you just imagine the tower scene in HBP? Felton doing his hilarious spazztastic dork!acting, Gabon hissing and cursing and looking generally deranged, and Rickman dragging out the words Avada Kedavra to the length of the original version of Soldier of Fortune ).
Oh, and nice girdle, Alan!
(Sorry if you're a Rickman fan. Luckily, the people I went to see this with are so not, which led to some commentary that made the sight more bearable.
*Harry standing before the mirror of Erised, looking an James*
ariadneelda: That's supposed to be a 21-year-old?
*Rickman shows up behind Harry in memory*
Me: Hey, if THAT is a 35-year-old, the other one can be 21!)
-Having said that, the audiovisual torture that was Alan Rickman somehow became a distant memory every time Jason Isaacs was onscreen. Mostly because all of us were too busy drooling/leaning towards the screen/making comments entirely too inappropriate for the screening of a kid's film. Oh, Lucius!
-THESTRALS!!! And cute baby Thestrals, whose cuteness is only comparable to the cuteness of Luna (but more on that later)! See, THIS is why I love the films. It's not the plot, it's not the scripts, and it sure as hell ain't the casting choices (bar a few), but I LOVE it when the special effects/scenery people manage to bring to life some aspect of Hogwarts/the WW. In my mind, I used the castle/animals/random locations, and magically remove the actors (except Jason. Jason can stay.)
-On a similar note, Kreacher was SPOT ON. Given that Harry didn't get a chance to use the Floo in Umbridge's office, he could have easily been written out, but I'm so glad he wasn't!
-Ok, Luna is definitely one of the major sources of my squee in this one. She was just perfect-I want one of my own!
-So weird watching this after DH. We all practically started sniffling over the sight of Hedwig, I even felt a *teensy bit* bad for Fred, and snickered twice as hard at Dumbledore's 'sincere' act than I did in the books. (Not that Gabon does a great job at showing the character's ambiguity. He is a VERY ANGRY MAN!).
-The Occlumency scenes were my favourite part of the book, though I wasn't sad to see them cut down (see my comments re: Rickman). I was annoyed at the bastardisation of the Pensieve scene, because I wanted to see more of cute-in-an-emo-way-young!Snape (or asmimine put is: FINALLY! A movie!Snape that isn't Rickman!). And though ariadneelda already mentioned this on her lj, I would like to repeat, for emphasis, that the Greek translation of Legimency is PENETRATION. I COULDN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP IF I TRIED!
-Gary Oldman was fine to watch, because well, Gary Oldman, but he came across as too mature and balanced for OotP!Sirius.
-...'sane' and 'balanced' is not words I'd use to describe movie!Bellatrix. Still, the crazy was there, the outfit rawked but...not my Bella. Cowering before Harry? Please. And Voldie stole her line too!
-Ralphdemort continues to be disturbingly hot. Let's not dwell too much on that? Er. Oh, right, the Voldie/Dumbledore fight? Awesomecakes.
-Movie!Ginny continues to not annoy me, not even a little bit, and that's almost as disturbing as lusting after the Him Who Lacks A Nose."
ariadneelda, mimine and I went to a late-ish screening to be spared most of the kids, though alas, not the obnoxious teens who kept talking over the movie, and some of which tried to steal our seats (Ariadne set them straight though).-Speaking of obnoxious teens, I was surprised at how much movie!Trio was not. Obnoxious, that is-though bear in mind I always speak in relation to the previous movies. Daniel came dangerously close to producing genuine emotion at times-and the scenery chewing was down to a bare minimum. Of course, it helped that there was minimal CAPSLOCK!Harry, because though I might have a spot for him in the books, the idea of Dan screaming through most of the film...no. Just no. Rupert continues to the the best job out of the Trio (how is movie!Ron my favourite again? This is so bizarre), and this time without the buffoon comedy!faces, so yay! Emma's (over)acting seemed to be at only 65% force in this one, which granted, was often 40% more than was necessary at points (33.33% of all statistics are made up on the stop). In short, it was like someone pointed a remote on the kids and turned down the overall volume, which I suspect is Yates' doing (I can just picture it Take 087987: Yes Emma, that was better than last time, but couldn't you maybe emphasize your syllables a *bit* less. And watch that eyebrow...good girl! *stage whisper*: ok, I think it's as good as we'll get).
-The editing was SO MUCH BETTER than the previous movies! It almost felt like something a wider audience could keep up and be entertained with! Taking notes, Cuaron?
-Dudley is chavtastic. *snicker*
-OMG, Umbridge! I want to build an altar to Imelda Staunton and worship her mad acting skillz, because seriously? She was Umbridge. I don't care if she didn't look the part, the fact is every single scene she was in had me entranced, impressed as hell, and trying to suppress a full-body shudder.
-I also had to suppress full-body shudders in every single scene that Alan Rickman was in, for entirely different reasons. Look, I've just *given up* on movie!Snape, all right? I don't CARE if Snape's role in the films is reduced-in fact, I LIKE it reduced. If they can somehow write him out of HBP, that'd be SWELL! The man is an abomination. Let's just forget for a minute that it is so obviously an old overweight man in a wig trying to play someone 25 years younger/25 kgs lighter, shall we? The acting-at best, I'd call it 'extreme camp' and at worst...speech impediment? Jesus, get a sentence out sometime THIS YEAR, will ya? (Oh God, can you just imagine the tower scene in HBP? Felton doing his hilarious spazztastic dork!acting, Gabon hissing and cursing and looking generally deranged, and Rickman dragging out the words Avada Kedavra to the length of the original version of Soldier of Fortune ).
Oh, and nice girdle, Alan!
(Sorry if you're a Rickman fan. Luckily, the people I went to see this with are so not, which led to some commentary that made the sight more bearable.
*Harry standing before the mirror of Erised, looking an James*
ariadneelda: That's supposed to be a 21-year-old?*Rickman shows up behind Harry in memory*
Me: Hey, if THAT is a 35-year-old, the other one can be 21!)
-Having said that, the audiovisual torture that was Alan Rickman somehow became a distant memory every time Jason Isaacs was onscreen. Mostly because all of us were too busy drooling/leaning towards the screen/making comments entirely too inappropriate for the screening of a kid's film. Oh, Lucius!
-THESTRALS!!! And cute baby Thestrals, whose cuteness is only comparable to the cuteness of Luna (but more on that later)! See, THIS is why I love the films. It's not the plot, it's not the scripts, and it sure as hell ain't the casting choices (bar a few), but I LOVE it when the special effects/scenery people manage to bring to life some aspect of Hogwarts/the WW. In my mind, I used the castle/animals/random locations, and magically remove the actors (except Jason. Jason can stay.)
-On a similar note, Kreacher was SPOT ON. Given that Harry didn't get a chance to use the Floo in Umbridge's office, he could have easily been written out, but I'm so glad he wasn't!
-Ok, Luna is definitely one of the major sources of my squee in this one. She was just perfect-I want one of my own!
-So weird watching this after DH. We all practically started sniffling over the sight of Hedwig, I even felt a *teensy bit* bad for Fred, and snickered twice as hard at Dumbledore's 'sincere' act than I did in the books. (Not that Gabon does a great job at showing the character's ambiguity. He is a VERY ANGRY MAN!).
-The Occlumency scenes were my favourite part of the book, though I wasn't sad to see them cut down (see my comments re: Rickman). I was annoyed at the bastardisation of the Pensieve scene, because I wanted to see more of cute-in-an-emo-way-young!Snape (or as
mimine put is: FINALLY! A movie!Snape that isn't Rickman!). And though ariadneelda already mentioned this on her lj, I would like to repeat, for emphasis, that the Greek translation of Legimency is PENETRATION. I COULDN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP IF I TRIED!-Gary Oldman was fine to watch, because well, Gary Oldman, but he came across as too mature and balanced for OotP!Sirius.
-...'sane' and 'balanced' is not words I'd use to describe movie!Bellatrix. Still, the crazy was there, the outfit rawked but...not my Bella. Cowering before Harry? Please. And Voldie stole her line too!
-Ralphdemort continues to be disturbingly hot. Let's not dwell too much on that? Er. Oh, right, the Voldie/Dumbledore fight? Awesomecakes.
-Movie!Ginny continues to not annoy me, not even a little bit, and that's almost as disturbing as lusting after the Him Who Lacks A Nose."
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-23 11:18 pm (UTC)I really was not a fan of movie Bellatrix, I thought that Helena B C was way over doing the camp and trying to steal scenes from
luscious...Lucius. Luckily that was impossible, Jason Isaacs owned the screen!And I thought they might as well have cut Tonks completely, because she was boring to the point of being invisible.
But Umbridge kicked ass....
I felt that the set designers have gotten lazy, the last couple of films have not had the magical intensity that the first three did, I particularly thought that Grimwald Place should have been much creepier and weirder.
The thestrals were great, but Hagrid's brother and the centaurs were really badly done. They had unlimited funds, there is no excuse for half-assed work (IMO).
Definitely this director prevented Emma Watson more obnoxious excesses....
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 10:07 pm (UTC)Bellatrix is one of my favourites in the books, so I was twice as critical of Helena (she doesn't *look* the part imo anyway. My version of Bellatrix looks a bit like this icon).
They could have cut Tonks from the books too, but that's another story! :P
Grawp was a joke! I would have preferred for them to cut him out alltogether, but if you're going to include him, don't make him look almost *cuddly*. That's just wrong.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 10:38 pm (UTC)And I should have mentioned how much I enjoyed Emma Thompson, because getting thrown out was Trelawney's only big moment, which was also a good Maggie Smith moment.
I had given the movie a poor review, although I liked it way more than Goblet of Fire (which was a half-assed job IMO, and the worst acting by Emma Watson ever).
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 08:22 am (UTC)I haven't seen this yet. I can't wait to drool over Lucius. I must get a gang of
pervesgirls to watch it with.no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 10:11 pm (UTC)And yes, oggling Jason Isaacs with fellow pervs is always better.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 08:34 am (UTC)And Kreacher was adorable!
I liked Luna too, she really was cute. Maybe not like I had imagined her in the book, but she really was sweet.
Umbridge was definitely awesome! She didn’t look the part but I don’t think it mattered at all, she definitely nailed it! Actually I liked almost all of the adult actors, most of them are really talented and fit their roles well.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 10:13 pm (UTC)Luna was different from how I imagined her too, but it didn't matter, the performance was just a lovely surprise.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 01:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 10:14 pm (UTC)I don't even dare to *imagine* what the HBP film may include. *is scared*
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 01:54 pm (UTC)But OMG Jason Isaacs and "Horndog" Fiennes! That initial, blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of Lucius and Fudge at the Ministry got some serious fucking cheers from the crowd at my cinema. As did Voldie at the station in the suit. Woo-hoo!
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 10:21 pm (UTC)Your review is hilarious though-I don't disagree with your dislike of it actually. I just happened to expect the HP movies to be atrocious by default, so I can focus more and enjoy the very, very few things I *do* like. And watching it with fellow critics definitely helps-yes, the Fat Bastard (ha!) was cringeworthy, but we spent most of his scene giggling, nudging each other and mock-gagging (in other words, probably annoying the audience), so it was good fun.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find me some Isaacs icons!
OotP review
Date: 2007-08-25 07:26 am (UTC)Jc.