Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Posted: September 9th, 2007 | Author: Joakim Andersson | Filed under: harry potter | 1 Comment »
We finally watched the movie last night, and I must say that I’m disappointed. The books don’t really work as movies any longer.
When the first movie came out it was fun and exciting to see how they had translated the Harry Potter universe to a movie screen. The somewhat lacking story didn’t matter all that much. However, the further we get in the series the longer and more complex the books get and that makes it harder if not impossible to turn them into good movies.
To fit the books into a movie they have to cut away all the character building parts so when you for example see the members of the Order of the Phoenix you have no idea of who is who. You also miss a lot of Harry’s problems growing up and his relationships with his friends and the rest of the students.
All of these are important ingredients in the story and they also play important roles later on in the series but they are missing completely, making the movie just a story about Harry feeling more alone that ever with a sense that he has to find something before Voldemort finds it.
The Order of the Phoenix was a very confusing movie to watch. Mind you, that I have read the book. I had to explain quite a few things to Camilla, who hasn’t read the book, for her to be able to follow along with the plot.
I will still watch the rest of the movies but my expectations will be lower. The latter books are even more complex and I doubt that will translate any better to the big screen.
I know, feel the same. I watched the movie with 2 of my friends and they didn´t understand all that happened in the movie, because they had not read the books. Many times during the movie I had to think back to the books just to understand what the movie was trying to project. I can only imagine the difficulties to try to make the last 2 books into movies.