Sack the screenwriter!

Rating: 5/10 (20 November 2005)

I have just back from seeing this. Right now, I should be doing something more important, but I had to put this down before my head explodes! I really, honestly do not know what to say about this film. It's beautifully made, yes. The acting is much improved, yes. But the unbelievable liberties that were taken - what are you meant to say about that? From the off, Harry's dream about Voldemort etc is horribly altered by adding an unrelated character - it may not seem that important, but it is. And Dumbledore - I think Michael Gambon is an exemplary actor, but to see Dumbledore lose it with Harry in such an uncharacteristic way was dumbfounding.
See, I can understand why things have to be left out - it's a long book, and there are extraneous elements. For one, there's Rita Skeeter - so why keep part of her storyline in, and ignore the rest? What really annoys me, though, were the ridiculous plot and character revisions that occurred. It's such a pointless exercise that I can't even see why it was done.
I don't blame Mike Newell, as I think he did a great job. In terms of the complete destruction of Dumbledore's character, you really can't blame Gambon. The only person to blame is the utter idiot that adapted it - the lack of grasp of what was important and what was not astounded me. You would think that they would have read the books and I feel sorry for the director of OOTP as they really have their work cut out - many of their main characters, that we should already be familiar with, have barely been introduced if at all. Sirius 30 second CG appearance was ridiculous. Again, I wish these people would really read the book - at one point, the expelliarmus charm managed to knock someone off their feet whilst they were still holding their wand - getting small details like that wrong is rather ridiculous too.
I saw the film with my fiancé who has not read the books, and he was rather confused by it - you didn't even see the seasons change, and the film felt so rushed and the plot was so unexplained that it might as well have been 6 weeks rather than an academic year.
Oh well - it's a great looking film, and I was most pleased to see the split-second appearance of Jarvis Cocker, Jonny Greenwood et al, but it's relationship to the book is somewhat distance - second cousin twice removed perhaps?