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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, a review by Dragonfire

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

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I had some concerns before seeing this movie originally because I had issues with the book.  It is my least favorite of the books because of Harry's attitude.  While it is understandable that he's upset about certain things, I just didn't like the way it came across in the book.  It was like he was having a temper tantrum all the time.  Thankfully that was handled better in the movie. 

This one is based on the longest book and it ends up the shortest movie.  I have an article about this movie that had a quote from David Yates in it about how he set out from the beginning to make this movie shorter than others.  As a result of him wanting to make this the shortest of the movies, the story is chopped up entirely too much.  Important explanations are missing and some of the set up for the final movies is left out.  The story really is a bit of a mess with how it is hacked up.  This movie has the worst adaptation and it is my least favorite movie. 

Delores Umbridge is twisted and evil, though I'm not sure she comes across as evil as she did in the book.  Snape is horribly underused again, and his memory is so short when shown it might as well have been left out altogether.  The most important bit of it wasn't included.   Luna is wonderful and absolutely perfect.  Neville is starting to show he's more than a clumsy kid who struggles to get spells right.  I didn't care much for the whole Harry Cho relationship in the book and I think it was handled better in the movie.  It just flowed a little better I guess.  I was disappointed that the more impressive spells that Hermione did in connection with starting Dumbledore's Army were left out.  Those are small things, but they help reinforce just how powerful a witch she already is.  I'm most irritated about the explanations being left out.  It would have just taken a few minutes to cover that stuff.  The way the story was mishandled for this movie, all because Yates insisted on a shorter running time, convinced me that he was not a good pick as director.  While I became a bit less irritated with him in the last 2 movies, I still don't think he was right for Potter.  I did like the way that some information was shared by showing articles in the Daily Prophet.  I also liked Fred and George's escape from the school, though I really wanted to see their swamp.

The main extra in the Ultimate Edition is focused on the changes that the movie series have gone through.  I haven't taken the time to watch this one yet but I will.  The original extras are also included, along with a book that has a lot of pictures from the making of the movies.



I posted a review on Epinions after seeing the movie in the theater.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

(From Marie's Random Movie Viewing on August 8th, 2011)

Knowing, a review by Rich

Knowing



In 1958, as part of the dedication ceremony for a new elementary school, a group of students is asked to draw pictures to be stored in a time capsule but one mysterious girl fills her sheet of paper with rows of apparently random numbers instead. Fifty years later, Professor John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) makes the startling discovery that the encoded message predicts every major disaster of the past 50 years. As John further unravels the document's chilling secrets, he realizes the document foretells three additional events - the last of which hints at destruction on a global scale and seems to somehow involve John and his son.

Excellent idea for a film, and the first hour or so was enough to convince me I should exchange this for blu-ray. Unfortunately the Hollywood disease hit it at this point, and it disappeared down the toilet with too typical mushiness and far-fetched ending to spoil the whole movie.
The action scenes are spectacular, great attention to detail, dramatic realistic crashes (subway and plane), the fast paced action is fairly breathless once it gets into it's stride, and the production excellent.
However what will totally deflate the viewer is the out of context ghost story that develops, and the bullshit ending that was way too out there, bunnies and all!
Fell into the rail just before cleaning up the pins!
 

(From Riches Random Reviews on July 6th, 2009)

My PILOT Marathon, a review by Rich

TRU CALLING - SEASON ONE - PILOT





Thanks again guys, a good recommendation. Why did Fox can this?
An old idea revamped in an entertaining way. This pilot gives good background on why Tru can hear the dead, and the links between her brother, sister and boyfriend. Nicely entwined storyline making good viewing, and overall acting better than standard for a new pilot show.
On the negative, I would have liked to have seen more emotion from the lead, dead people speaking to you, dealing with potential murder/suicide, groundhogging back to the previous day etc etc were taken a little too much in her stride.
Overall, this was a very good pilot, I'll complete this series soon.



(From My PILOT Marathon on May 19th, 2008)