Cramming A Fat Book Into a Slim Film

ANGST, REBELLION, ACTION!

I wonder why some movie reviews have the need to re-tell the plot of the movie when they can go straight to whether they liked the film or not?



Anyway, cutting to the chase, I liked the fifth Harry movie. Maybe because after the film Prisoner of Azkaban, I realized that I wasn't enjoying the films much because I kept comparing it to the book.



Now that I have tried to watch Harry films and expected drastic cuts from the book narrative, I find watching the films delightful.



Why I liked this fifth one? I think it remained faithful to the essential messages of the book: Harry needs to accept support (because he has the tendency to do the hero thing all by himself), and that love is his strength, not a weakness.



The wand combat was a flurry of lights and whirling of bodies It is exciting to watch because it was well-paced. It was good to see that the enemy is very daunting (creepy masks of Death Eaters) but i wonder why I wasn't scared to see Voldemort... he didn't have a chill factor for some reason compared to the dementors or Lucious Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange.

The Dumbledore VS Voldemort duel paled in comparison with a few gangly teenagers (Harry and friends) valiantly shooting spells at the band of Death Eaters. The thing is, movie Voldemort isn't menacing enough and movie Dumbledore isn't beleivably the most powerful wizard Voldemort feared.

And I admire actors who are soo good at making you hate their characters

Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge) didn't have the slack, toad face, nor the simpering poisoning gait described in the book, but she did an excellent job in making you hate her with just a calculated frozen smile. I loved her performance.

And in all, I applaud the makers of the film for weeding out the essence of the book and weaving it tightly into a two hour dark drama action film. Oh, Fred and George's fireworks had more sparks than the Harry-Cho kiss. So don't expect much.