Harry Potter and the Oder of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, a movie review.

My daughters and I went to the midnight movie premiere of the Harry Potter
movie. I have been a fan of the books, and have read them all to date,
(more than once). However my review of this movie is less than
enthusiastic. In one word, the movie is 'incomplete.'

Yes it was a very long book, and there are a lot of details that the movie
script writers would have to gloss over, but the film version of this book
simply cuts out way too much!

To start with are the characters which should be on screen and are not; such
as Mundungus Fletcher, Rita Skeeter, Dobby the house elf, Freinze the
Centaur, and a very noisy portrait.

Then there are the scenes that have been left out: far too numerous to
mention; but for example…

*Harry receiving a series of letters in short succession… only gets one
letter instead.

* House cleaning in the house of Black, and how the twins pocket some of the
stuff.

* Mrs. Weasley with the bogart.

* The sorting hats new song of warning.

* The visit to Mungo's Hospital, the spectar of Neviels parents and the man
who would be killed by Devils Snare.

* Harmiony's clever use of coins.

* The romantic date with Choe

* Quiddich. All of it! Nothing about Weasley twins and Potter getting
kicked off the team, Or Ron making the team. No "Weasley is our king" being
sung.. nothing!

In fact if the book had been written in the manner in which the movie
portrays it, I'd have lost interest in it altogether. These movie makers
are working at boiling down the story to it's essential plot elements, but
they miss out on the two things the J.K. Rowling has going for her in her
writing style. They miss the humor. These bits where circumstance and
personality play out in unexpected ways… are humorous! And they miss out on
the mystery. There is an element of mystery in every book, and all the
clues are in place in the details of the events. By cutting out so much
detail you loose the clues and foil the mystery element.

All that was retained was action and drama. As if, with films like Bourne
and Die Hard, the audience is staving for some action and drama.

Over all the film isn't bad, but in comparison… considering what they had to
work with… it is very very disappointing. See it if you must, but forget
what you think it should look like vis-à-vis the book version. It did not
happen.