Thoughts on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Note: If you haven't read "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" or seen the movie of the same name, come out of your cave. This post contains movie spoilers, so don't read it if you don't want the movie spoiled.

Okay, that having been said, I went to go see HPOotP last night. I didn't think it was very good. After the movie, I looked over at Brent, kind of shrugged and went "Meh." The book was far more satisfying in every way, mostly because of the huge disappointments that were my favorite scenes in the book, which will follow in a list form:

1) The Escape of Fred and George Weasley

Okay, if you didn't completely LOVE this in the book, you are insane and crazy. Seriously. This was one of the greatest scenes in the entire series, culminating in a large swamp getting created in the hallways of Hogwarts. They threw fireworks, they made a swamp, they threw dungbombs, and finally, they told Peeves to give Umbridge hell! ...None of which actually happened in the movie. In fact, all that happened was that they flew in during the Charms O.W.L. and threw a lot of fireworks. That's it. It was boring, it wasn't inspiring, and moreover, it was completely different than the book - not slightly changed, completely different.

2) Umbridge gets carried off by centaurs.

We all hate Umbridge. I mean, come on. She's easily the most unlikable, annoying character, and they got casting spot on. However, her exit from this particular movie wasn't that great. It, like much of the rest of the movie, was rather mundane. The centaurs fired a few shots and then ran off with her, as opposed to where she's running away from them, and you just assume that she got carried off and Grawp is the one that saves Harry and Hermione from the centaurs. Although, I guess the centaurs didn't really have a beef with the kids in this movie since Firenze wasn't !@#$ing teaching Astronomy, now was he?

3) Snape's Memory

You cannot expect people to understand the relationship between Snape, James Potter, and Lily Evans with tiny, seizure-inducing snippets. That memory was one of the high character-building points for Snape and his motivation behind hating James so much, as well as the cause for an identity crisis for Harry. This kind of ruined that. It almost justified Snape for feeling the way he did toward James. Almost.

4) The Quibbler isn't in the movie??

Okay, how are people supposed to believe Harry if nobody is there to tell his story. The Quibbler makes one appearance: Upside-down in Luna Lovegood's arms. That is it. And that is annoying. No Hermione taking advantage of Rita Skeeter, no hushed "I believe you"s in the hallways, NOTHING! Even Seamus's little scene couldn't really compare to the entire student body getting behind Harry.

5) What happened to Kreacher?

Did he not betray the Order in this one? Just...no explanation as to why Voldemort (Vol-de-mort! Vol-de-mort!) was able to know Harry would come running for Sirius?

And now, just because I feel like I must, here are some things that I liked about the movie:

1) Casting

The actress who played Umbridge was very easy to despise, and the girl who played Luna was very easy to like. It's as a result of very good casting.

2) ...no, wait, that's probably about it.

It's not that it wasn't a fun movie, it was. My problem with it lies in the area of adaption - it was not a good adaption of the book, whereas the previous movies have been able to stay at least close to what the book describes. However, in defense of the movie, OotP is an incredibly large book, even larger than Goblet of Fire, and frankly, contains a lot of exposition. So, I can understand why it made sense to go the way that they did...I just don't like it in the slightest.