Second best of the series, but didn't feel the magic (A very long and somewhat of a ramblingly detailed review)

Rating: 8/10 (12 July 2007)

I, unlike some of you out there, came into Harry Potter rather late. The first movie I saw was the second one and after that I became obsessive and hurried up and read all four books before the fifth one came out that summer. Upon reading that book, I felt exactly how I did after reading Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers-aka that the book was a gigantic (800+ page) mark time. The book itself, although entertaining and enjoyable, really doesn't do much for the series. In all fairness you can Siriusly (pun incredibly intended) boil down the book to the following points:
1) Neither may live while the other survives (Which is almost cryptic enough to be skipped all together...not to mention the fact that according to Rowling, and I'm paraphrasing, Prophesies are both accurate and dangerous because they are almost always misinterpreted. So really it has no bearing at all except to confirm the fact that Voldy and Harry will have a showdown in Book 7.
2) Sirius dies...yea...enough said.
Really that is all I can think of that is WHOLLY necessary. Things that aren't so much VITAL to the main plot are:
1) Weasley's shop 2) Umbridge in all her tyrannical glory (Spectacular job by her in the film by the way) 3) The Neville/Harry connection (Left out of the movie...so sad) 4) Bellatrix Lestrange (Spectacular job by Helena) 5) Possible R.A.B. thinger...which since left out-and since Rowling knew it was-might mean that it's not who we believe to be the front-runner???
Anyway...on to the movie adaptation.
Book plot to film plot adaptation:
I thought it was quite good and defiantly better than the hacked up and rushed GoF (Save the Voldy stuff, which was exactly how I pictured it). I felt the cuts they made were adequate...even though they left out my favorite scene of Molly Weasley's Boggart turning into her dead family (very cinematically written IMO). I mean what they were working with was a rambling narrative (which I love...believe me...it's how I write too as you can plainly see) that simply had more side-stories than it knew what to do with. No movie will ever be exactly like the book. This is why individual reading and using your own imagination will always be superior to anyone else's vision set on screen. (Sorry English teacher back-to-school special rant)
Acting:
Lets see...I'm not good with numbers but I'm going to try. OoTP 1,000,000 X better than SS OoTP 100,000 X better than CoS OoTP = PoA OoTP 10,000,000 X better than GoF (Mostly for the lack of Brendan Gleason hamming up Moody and Crouch's...lip licking...::shudder::)
Stand out performances go to Umbridge, Bellatrix (Even only being in 3 scenes), Harry, Luna, Snape (per always) and Dumbledore (Never thought I'd say that considering I thought he was totally unfit for the role in the last two)
Also...holy crap there are other people at Hogwarts! The last movie I felt that only Harry and Moody existed to have lines. It was nice to see everyone again...even if it was only a few scene.
Music:
Much better than GoF (no excess drum beats and cliché Irish music in this one).
Special Effects:
BLAH! Sort of the only thing that took me out of the movie. Grawp was kinda childish looking and didn't look to good. Dementors were entirely better in PoA. Centaurs were entirely better in SS. Patronis charms were better in PoA too. Only saving grace were the Threstles (Not looking up the spelling) which were spectacular.
Overall:
OK, so if I liked to movie so much, save the FX, why only an 8 out of 10? Well...it wasn't as magical as the last few have been. Yes there was magic performed, but I just didn't feel it like I did in PoA. This could, however, be the fault of the source material. The book itself is doesn't hold nearly as many magical moments as the previous ones. I do think it is also the fault of a weaker director and a not so great cinematographer. I mean when I saw PoA, although it slashed the book a lot and cut some very important stuff, the movie is gorgeous and very entertaining to watch.
Although the film and book are both huge mark times to the next two installments and lack the magic of the last four, both mediums are still very enjoyable to watch and read.