Mark’s Thoughts on ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ Movie

As promised, I’d like to take a moment to elaborate on how I felt about the adaptation of the fifth Harry Potter book to the screen. And because it’s now universally accepted that my life is completely ruled by lists, enjoy the list below, which covers the GOOD and the BAD things about this particular movie.

THE GOOD

• How the opening scenes were condensed to still be just as depressing and frightening as they are in the books. Bravo.
• I was sad at first that there was no backstory to Sirius involved Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, but I was totally surprised by them putting that scene in right before they left after Christmas break was over. And it made Sirius’s line at the end a billion times more heartbreaking and also helped make the point that one CAN actually make their own destiny.
• Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge. 100% perfection. That light laugh/cough of hers. OH GOD, SENT CHILLS DOWN MY SPINE. There could not have been a better actress.
• MORE NEVILLE. I will always approve of more Neville.
• The acting all around. Much more believable and in-character than the last movie.
• The hair. THANK YOU FOR GETTING HAIRCUTS. JFC.
• The scenes where Harry teaches the Defense Against the Dark Arts. Filmed wonderfully and also used montages in a non-annoying way. And I hate montages. Actually, the Patronus scene was probably my favorite of the bunch.
• The Ministry of Magic, the room of Prophecies, and the Death room all looked fantastic.
• The battle scenes at the end were FANTASTIC!!!! Oh man, so suspenseful and violent.
• Because it cannot be said enough….Luna Lovegood. <33333333333333
• I liked that the movie departed from how many Education Decrees Umbridge gave and instead went the overkill route; I think it demonstrated how draconian Umbridge really was. It was also a nice effect to have them destroyed when the Weasley twins left.

THE BAD

• NOT ENOUGH SNAPE. Jesus, how many times do I have to BEG FOR MORE SNAPE TO BE GIVEN TO ME? He’s still the most intriguing character of the entire series to me and despite that we got a decent dose of him in the novel, the movie version gave us even less. NOT FAIR. ::stomps around::
• The centaurs. Where was Firenze? Also, why were they portrayed as stone-like robots? BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
• Ok, this might be hard to explain. When Harry first meets the Order of the Phoenix and they’re all sitting around the table, Sirius is updating him on what’s happened. Every time they cut to Harry, Kingsley is sitting behind him and he is CLEARLY NOT LOOKING AT ANYTHING HE SHOULD BE and in fact appears to be SPACING OUT ENTIRELY. All I could imagine in my head was HERP DERP DERP.
• Cho selling out Dumbledore’s Army. Really? Doesn’t that complicate things even more? Also, the lack of the Valentine’s Day scene was pretty dumb too.
• No St. Mungo’s, no Gilderoy Lockhart, and no Neville’s parents. 🙁
• The lack of the other weird rooms in the Department of Mysteries.

What did you guys think of the movie? Overall, I really, really enjoyed it and I think it’ll be my favorite of the series, unless Deathly Hallows blows it out of the water. And judging by the length, it probably will.