[QUOTE=RickJay]
I opened the thread to say exactly that.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a terrible book. It’s twice as long as it needs to be, spends too much time on secondary and tertiary characters, and horribly overdoes the “Harry left in the dark” angle. It’s a two-hundred-page story squeezed into eight hundred pages. The final battle is awfully, confusingly written and reduces magical combat into what, to be honest, reads just like a paintball gun fight.
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One of the many things that endears me to these books is the lovely, intricate world that Rowling has crafted. I love that the book is 800 pages long and we get the kind of detail that we do. I know it’s not strictly necessary to the plot, but I enjoy the journey more so than an efficient point-A-to-B adventure story. I missed a lot of the stuff that was cut out and felt like the movie was a “just the facts, ma’am” interpretation.
That being said, I wasn’t nearly so bothered by the stuff they omitted as by the stuff they changed for no apparent reason. Like this random Nigel kid, why? Why couldn’t they just have used Colin or Dennis?
In reference to both points, I’m mad that they changed as much of the dialogue as they did. Lines that should heavily foreshadow major events have been changed to render them nearly meaningless, or non sequiturs as someone else mentioned.
I was very disappointed in the Dementor/Dursley scene. An extra five minutes would have made this packed with tension and drama. As shown, it’s a complete yawner. In the book he wrestles with self-restraint over baiting the crowd of bullies, in the movie he does the complete opposite. When the dementors attack he allows himself to be pinned to the wall by the throat for an immensely long period of time with his wand just hanging at his side, ho-hum. Oh yeah, maybe I’ll use it to poke the goddamned thing. Patronus? Complete afterthought. WTF? Also, he watches it begin sucking out Dudley’s soul for several seconds before it occurs to him to send Patronus Prongs to the rescue. In the book, Dudley decks him, which is perfectly in character. In the movie, they run off together, acting at least somewhat cooperatively. Again, why? The punch serves the purpose of stunning Harry and knocking his wand out of his hand, nearly causing the Dementors to win through no fault of Harry’s. In the movie it appears as complete ineptitude.
Furthermore, Arabella Figg just stroooolllls around the corner, appearing mildly concerned. Did the director even read the book? Her part of the scene could have played out exactly as in the book with no added time, and would have helped convey what a horrifying thing this was to happen and all the OotP involvement about which Harry has been kept in the dark. As it happens on film, it’s nearly a complete ho-hum to everyone involved and the tail is an aftertought which doesn’t appear to have been taken terribly seriously by Mrs. Figg. Even the Dursleys are way off. Again, they could have pulled Vernon and Petunia’s dialogue straight from the book and ended up with a completely different and vastly more effective scene. Where was Vernon’s fury? His kicking Harry out and subsequent howler to Petunia, setting us up for all that exposition in the next film? Was anyone else bothered by how the whole opening played out? And seriously… Mad-Eye Moody flies the whole squad directly through a highly visible Muggle thoroughfare past a major monument? Again… did the director even read the book? It was as though he had zero familiarity with that character, whatsoever.
I was so looking forward to the big Weasely exit speech. Why… of all brilliant, exciting, cheer-out-loud scenes to cut, why would you get rid of that? The mayhem builds to this point and they just… fly off with a not-terribly-showy finale, a big sparkly W. I didn’t think it was terrible, but just… disappointing. I was looking forward to the swamp, and even the fireworks as described in the books were much more spectacular. But more than anything else ommited, leaving out the twins getting busted, “Accio Brooms!” and the big announcement / “give 'er hell, Peaves!” speech bummed me out.
I was blown away, and actually blurted out “wait… what?!” when Harry hands the prophecy to Lucius Malfoy. He hands the prophecy to Lucius Malfoy. This seems to me maybe most egregious change. They could have reached the same point with the kids battling the Death Eaters and showing off their wide range of DA developed skills, Harry tossing the prophecy to Neville, it breaks and we hear a snippet, keeping the film true to the book’s plot. I simply cannot believe that Harry would ever willingly hand the prophecy over to Lucius and thus Voldemort, and I’m really angry at the director for panting him into a corner where he was forced to do so.
In the movie version, the rest of the wizarding world will now know the prophecy entire, because the whole posse heard it as he took it off the shelf. This completely eliminates the whole story line of Dumbledore and Harry being the only two in the world who know the totality of the prophecy and so on. I don’t know how much that particular detail matters, and I get changes made for the sake of brevity, like Cho for Marietta, but it seems like this is another place where the movie varies from the book for no apparent reason, and in that sense it just pisses me off.
Finally, and this is the biggie for me, I really, really dislike the second Dumbledore. There’s a mile-long list of other things I’m sad were changed or missing, but I just can’t forgive the director, the actor, or Rowling for allowing him to play Dumbledore as he does. In the books, Dumbledore is supposed to be the greatest living wizard, a wizard of immense, quiet power. He flicks his wand and worlds move. He stands up and the great hall falls silent. He is calm and sure in his actions, the very few times he is really angry we certainly see it, and Rowling is careful to point out that the visible display of anger is rare. The movie Dumbledore shouts and hollers all the time, has to scream “SIIIIIIIIIILEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNCE!!!” to get people to shop chattering at the feast in book four, grabs and shakes Harry, wild-eyed and shouting–something that Dumbledore just. Would. Not. Do. In fact, in book five he leaps to his feet, wand drawn and actually does look angry (again, a highlighted rare occurrence), when Umberage manhandles Marietta. He was much more toned-down in the newest movie, but I have to admit I was really disappointed in the grand battle scene.
Remember in book six where Harry, watching Dumbledore work in the cave, thinks something about having learned that shouts and bangs are more often signs of ineptitude than power? We should have seen a battle in the ministry of magic with Dumbledore calmly addressing Tom, not wide-eyed with fear, delivering his awesome “there are things much worse than death, and indeed your failure to realize this has been one of your greatest weaknesses” speech. Flicks of the wand cause massive forces. In contrast, Voldemort has to work awfully hard, and nothing he does surprises Dumbledore. Again, we get a feeling of immense wisdom and power behind Dumbledore. Instead, what we get is Dumbledore waving his arms like a maniac, a look of near panic on his face, leaping around and shouting, skinny ankles and calves showing like some kind of nutcase in a housedress. He actually reminded me of Arabella Figg’s appearance in the ministry where you see her in her robe and slippers.
All that bitching aside, I thought it was (otherwise) beautifully cast, and while I’d like to have seen a whole lot more of everything, I thought what was there was generally beautifully visually portrayed. The costuming and sets and props were gorgeous. The thestrals were amazing, and Luna was immaculately cast and played. Really, really a great choice and a great performance. Although Grawp was nothing like I pictured him, like others had concerns going in but was really happy with what they did.