Saturday, July 14, 2007

Potter magic takes a tragic turn


If you have not seen the fifth film of Harry Potter yet, then do not further than this. This post contains spoilers.


There is obviously a lot of hype about the new fifth instalment of the Harry Potter films, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I like many other people awaited the films with much excitement (though of course not as much excitement as I have for the books). I have been let down by the previous four films, I just could never separate the book from the film. I used to take them way too seriously, and get annoyed when they messed bits of the plot line up.

The first time I got angry about this is when Harry’s eyes were not green in the film AND YES IT DOES MATTER. There is a huge emphasis on this in the books, quite important to the main character’s appearance. But whatever, with therapy, I got over it.

The 5th film was a huge surprise to me, when finally I could just enjoy the film for being what it was a film. I couldn’t even criticise much of it. Oh come-on, this post wouldn’t be any fun if I couldn’t criticise anything!

The first thing that annoyed me or two things were Emma Watson’s eyebrows. They look like they are having a seizure every time she speaks. My God girl, can you not control the furry little beasts? I don’t think Emma is a very good actress in the first place, she showed more promise in the 4th instalment, but went down hill from there. It’s like she puts all her efforts into the wiggling of those eyebrows to compensate for the fact she has no other expression at all. That said, she is still very pretty and that was almost enough to keep me pacified.

Rupert Grint was not given nearly enough lines; instead he seemed to look fundamentally depressed for most of it. When he did smile though, so did I. I think if he were given more to do, it would have been better for all of us.


I thought Voldemort was quite amazing, and as Kelly pointed out in a conversation, he was quite hot in the suit. This is wrong of me to think, as he resembles a cross between a snake and piece of white marble with eyes. He was quite menacing in the way he talked so softly, and was easily one of my favourite characters.

New faces emerged in this film such as Helena Bonham Carter as an immense Bellatrix and did the part justice. You gather from the books that this character is slightly unhinged and she really portrays just how crazy the woman really is. Evanna Lynch was a very amusing person to watch, because she was just so good as Luna Lovegood. It was obvious that she was a fan of the books, as the way she came across as Luna really allowed you to feel there was much more to this character, which Evanna knew too. Old faces such as Gary Oldman as Sirius Black and Alan Rickman as Severus Snape are as always fantastic to watch in their subtlety of acting.
The scene between Dumbledore and him fighting was incredible and was my favourite scene of the whole film. It’s easy to see why Dumbledore was the only wizard that Voldermort ever feared; they are very equal in their power. I think the reason that Harry can destroy him and Dumbledore can’t, is because as the film reveals, Voldermort chose Harry as his enemy. When he tried to kill him, he created his equal.

I am glad that they showed Ginny being sad when she saw that Harry was waiting behind with Cho, this is giving subtle clues to the audience, which is clever. Though the actual romance between Harry and Cho seems to distinguish almost immediately and the film does not pay it the attention that it should.

There were many things I loved about the film, and I am not going to make a huge list of them here. You will have to go and see it for yourself. I did and what’s more, I am going to see it again tonight.

1 comment:

Parmaynu said...

The funny thing was that when Bellatrix appeared we were reminded what real acting was like. It's just a shame that with all the great actors they have on board they are only afforded supporting roles, and that of the two kids in it that can actually act, one had about 4 lines in the whole film and the other wasn't featured until past the halfway point in the series.

Of particular note in the bad acting stakes, I think both Longbottom and Dursley should be pointed out. They're simply awful. They were excused for the earlier films - they were yound and naive - but now it's just blatently obvious that they don't care at all for acting and were probably just forced into it as a child by pushy parents. It's almost like they put extra effort in to be exceptionally terrible in the hope they might get sacked and be able to concentrate on their A Levels instead.

Re: Watson's eyebrows. Yes Sarah you're right. I had it in my head that she was quite attractive and that she would flourish into a great actress come the final installment. I think all hope of both of these becoming true are all bt gone with Brow-gate.

Can't wait until the weekend when we find out whether Rowling kills off Potter or Voldemort. I reckon it's all a big set up and the real hero is Ron. There's a chance she'll do Potter: The College Years, but I think that might be pushing it.

You started the Panini sticker album yet?