Welcome to the fourth day of my eight-day long Harry Potter marathon. This is purely because I have not seen any of the Harry Potter's and I promised a whole lot of people that I'd watch 'em all when the last DVD came out. That was just about a month ago, so I have to do it now. I will be blogging about my journey through Hogwarts...and such.
Due to immense tiredness from yesterday's festivities (more on that on Tuesday), I left watching Order of the Phoenix until early this morning. It was a good start to the day, especially as this movie brings David Yates on board to direct, which brings the seriousness I wanted from the series. From an outsider's perspective:
-It's weird how the movies keep throwing in characters, but not for long. Like, I forgot that Lupin and Sirius existed for a while. But then they came along. Sirius seems so underused, though.
-Otherwise, this is a really cool film. The best I've seen so far (even better than Half-Blood Prince, which I watched this afternoon). It's so cool watching the rebellion come together and the introduction of the Death Eaters.
-I was wondering when Luna Lovegood was going to come in. She is cool...but I expected her to be more loony. Then again, Evanna Lynch does the spaced out thing really well.
-Where is Dobby at? I miss him :(
-Whenever they go back to Hogwarts to have food, they always have nice looking pudding. It makes me so hungry.
-It was interesting to see why Snape is like he is. It was a bit sad, really. I actually think that Snape is one of the best characters in the series, and Alan Rickman definitely does deliver the best performance out of anyone. I just wish that there was more of him.
-Dolores Umbridge was extremely annoying. How dare she just come to Hogwarts and think that she owns the place. It was so sad when she tried to fire Sybill Trelawney, but then McGonagall saved her. Mirenva McGonagall, FTW!
-Mind you, Umbridge's office was pretty cool. I liked how there were a whole lot of cats in her plate display. Then again, I am a cat person.
-But Umbridge's methods of discipline are a bit far. If a teacher ever tried to carve a message into my hand I'd probably punch them or something.
-I really liked the direction of this. There was a lot more urgency, a lot more conviction, and everything is a lot darker. Plus, the editing is far better. The other films seemed to focus on just showing what is happening on screen, but this one decided to make it more exciting. Props to David Yates and his team, they really capture the darkness and maturity that I wanted to see from the series. I can't wait to see how his style progresses in the final films.
-I so didn't know that Hagrid has a giant half-brother. He just keeps getting awesomer!
-The relationship that Harry had with Cho was a bit weird. Cute, but weird.
-The final act is pretty intense. There isn't much fluffing about in this one. And we don't have the seriousness doused in 10 tonnes of family-friendly sugar.
-I have heard that this is the longest book, and yet this is one of the shortest movies. So I imagine that there is a lot missing. Still, the movie moves quite fast, which I liked.
-Helena Bonham Carter = love.
-The other films, to me, just felt a little like spin-offs to keep Harry Potter alive for as long as they could. This one stood up on it's own two feet. Something I've been waiting for.
So yeah, this one is my favourite of the series so far. I'm so glad things started to get darker. The darker, the better.
What I got:
