Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Film Review
My husband and I got out to see our first movie in god knows how long today. This guy has refused to read any of the books, yet loves the movies so much that the moment they come out he's like a kid, "Can we go? Can we go? Huh? Huh? Can we go now?" I've told him to just READ THE DAMN BOOKS if he wants to know what happens (he devours books, so it's not like he's not a reader) but he'd rather watch it unfold on the screen.

This is one of my favourite books of the series. The last film, I thought, had to cut out WAY too much to bring it down to anything less than 5 hours, and despite the awesome special effects, the movie didn't do much for me. This one, on the other hand, did. I thought the balance between what was left in, but truncated -- the Occlumency lessons, Harry's horrific detentions, the DA meetings -- and what was taken out -- scenes in the Ministry of Magic, the High Inquisitor's students trying to take out the DA, pretty much everything about Lupin, Luna Lovegood's father -- actually worked, and despite other films, where my husband comes out and says, "So... what was that stag on the shoreline supposed to be?" that wasn't explained because the filmmaker assumed the viewers had all read the books, director David Yates really seemed to cater to both audiences in this one.

The highlight in the film for me (as is often the case) was Alan Rickman as Snape. This guy is gold. The scene where he faces off against Harry and just sneers through a barely opened mouth was great, and I often find myself grinning stupidly whenever he's talking.

My friend Fionna held a Harry Potter party in 2003 and I had just read the book, and showed up dressed as Umbridge, complete with a pink sweater, purple robes, giant bow on my head, and a clipboard where I wrote out educational decrees and came up behind people, interrupting their conversations with a "hem hem" just to be super annoying. So I have a special place in my heart for her, and while I originally thought Patricia Routledge would have been PERFECT in the role, I thought Imelda Staunton pulled it off brilliantly. She was absolutely spot-on, from the hem-hem's, to her sweetly sipping tea while torturing children, to being just a slight bit off through the entire film (my husband at the beginning thought she was supposed to be insane). :)

It's over 2 hours long, but unlike some of the other Potter films (Chamber) doesn't feel like it.

I'm currently 200 pages into Book 7 -- I should be further, but I swear every time I find a second to open it up my toddler jumps on me and yells, "Mommy mommy, do the Chicken Little story!" before pointing to the cover of the book and saying, "Who's that?" "That's Harry Potter." "Who's that?" "Those are his friends, Hermione and Ron." "Why?" "Why what?" "Why are they his friends?" "Because they, um... clicked when they first met, and now they're all heroes." "Why?" "Because Harry has often saved the world." "Why?"

It pretty much goes on like that for 15 minutes. And then I have to go do laundry or get her a snack or something. So I'm hoping to read more tonight and I'll post a full review later this week (with spoiler warnings where applicable). So far: Loving it.

Update: I thought of this after I posted this, but there's a scene at the end of the film where the final battle takes place, and it's so amazing that I leaned over to my husband and said, "Wow... I hope Tim Kring sees this and realizes how Sylar and Peter's fight should have played out!"