In Which Sophie Professes Her Mad, Crazy Love For David Yates

[sophieisgod]

So, I just saw Order of the Phoenix. At the IMAX. In 3D. Oh my.


Okay, this was absolutely my favourite Potter movie. By a long way. It was tonally spot on, the plot was coherent and all the cuts were understandable, the acting was *way* above the usual HP standard... Essentially, I want David Yates to just make Harry Potter for the rest of time. And Steve Kloves to lose the ability to type.

The film started at 2:30, but we weren't about to take any chances, so I got to Manchester for noon. We started queueing at 1:30, which meant that when the doors opened we got seats near the back, bang in the middle of the screen. We rule. Also, I gave templa_otmena half of her birthday present- a Harry Potter action figure, complete with Patronus!Prongs. She loves the Prongs, bless her. Anyway, we also got these AWESOME 3D glasses, which looked like really geeky aviators. Sweet. As soon as the lights went down I grabbed templa_otmena's hand and we didn't let go until the end credits rolled.

The only thing that *really* irked me about the adaptation was the exclusion of Lupin from the Order delegates picking up Harry, and the ensuing Remus/Tonks interaction. HOWEVER, I am willing to forgive the production this heinous oversight, because we were instead gifted with Remus and Sirius sitting very close together, and the Remus Lupin Doorway Lean Of Sex. You know the one I'm talking about. Oh yeah.

DanRad! Doing Proper Acting! Do mine eyes deceive me? Apparently not. The boy done good. I liked the fact that he was more restrained in this, a bit more muted. Quietly determined, I think is the phrase. And I don't want to be a perv, because I don't actually fancy him, but it looks like he's been working out.

RON! Ron, Ron, Ron. Ron was so very awesome in this film (BECAUSE STEVE KLOVES DIDN'T WRITE IT) because they actually allowed the character to be more than gurning comic relief. Not that I didn't love the gurning, because I absolutely did. It's just nice to see Rupert getting stuff to do that isn't gurning. And now I have the image of Mike Newell bellowing "MORE GURNING, RUPERT!" in my head. Thanks, brain. Anyway, I loved him a lot. He was properly Harry's best friend, there for him all the time, even when Harry was being an angsty little bastard and hurting the ones he loved. That scene when Seamus was being all snotty, and Ron was all protective! And actual, proper Ron/Hermione flirting! With exchange of look and attempts at chivalry! Steve Kloves, don't ever come back, I beg of you. Oh, and I love Ron's jumpers.

Hermione... Was more Hermione-like than in the past, which is something I suppose. And Yates obviously had the eyebrows on a tight leash, for which I am eternally grateful.

TWINS! I must admit, I've had Phelps issues in the past, mainly because I didn't think they were very good. I take it all back. I loves them. They were appropriately badass with the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes (giant W in the sky!), but then the scene where they were comforting the tiny child was really rather lovely. And they have very nice eyes. AND NOW I'M WORRIED THAT ONE OF THEM WILL DIE IN DEATHLY HALLOWS!

Ginny got to be rather badass in this, didn't she? Reducto! And all that jazz. And I loved all the slightly jealous glances she got in during practically every scene with Harry and Cho. I'm glad Bonnie gets more to do next time around. Eep! Speaking of, I didn't really think much of *the kiss*. Humph. Mind you, they were a bit meh, anyway.

Evanna Lynch was perfect as Luna. She was slightly spacey and odd and ethereal and a little bit heartbreaking. And I loved the Harry/Luna relationship, especially the last scene they had (Converse! Loves it). It was so sweet there was no need for any Nearly-Headless Nick type conversation. Also, Neville and Luna! With the grabbing of hands!

Okay, Sirius Death. Apart from the fact that it was completely devastating because the Sirius/Harry relationship had been so FREAKING BEAUTIFUL all through the film, what sold it for me was the loss of sound after he went through the veil. And then Lupin's look of complete loss and devastation after Harry had sprinted off after Bellatrix. Ohh, David Thewlis. Stop hurting my soul with your beautiful acting. And your cardigan of sex.

So, 20 minutes from the end we got to put on the 3D aviators of magnificence. And JUST, WOW. We had Thestral wings flying out of the screen, the Death Eaters' masks were phenomenally creepy, the prophecies were all glowy, we got shattered glass hurled at our faces and the wand battles were awe-inspiring. I was holding my breath the whole time.

One difference from the book that I think worked incredibly well was the nature of Voldemort's possession of Harry. In the novel, it was very much a battle of wills between Voldemort and Dumbledore; in the film, it was Vodemort vs Harry. And the whole series of Possession!Flashbacks made me cry the most I have ever cried in a cinema. Like, proper, wracking sobs. Luckily, I was sitting next to Louise, who was doing exactly the same thing.

So I basically love David Yates rather a lot. We had British music in the common room (Ordinary Boys, woop), proper British slang (TOSSPOT!) and a 1984 style scary government opression thing going on. And for a 12A, there was some pretty nasty stuff in there- the attack on Mr Weasley and Luna's bloody mouth in particular. And I cannot believe Umbridge slapped Harry! Imelda Staunton = awesome, BTW. And Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes, Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon.


So yeah, I'm seeing it again tomorrow night, then IMAX again on Monday!

EDIT:
Ohh, and the scene where Trewlawney got fired! I was on the verge of tears because it was such a horrible, humiliating moment. And THEN we had Harry chasing after Dumbledore and being ignored, which, y'know, has got to sting. And anything at all with Harry and Sirius... The family tree scene! And "You did beautifully"! And calling him James.... It hurts, it hurts.

Comments

[darkangsty42.livejournal.com]

- I always thought it was amusing that their names were James and Oliver and 2 characters in the book had that name. But that is funny. :)
- Snape! I loved the scene where Umbridge was observing his class. And how he barely moved his lips to answer her. Aw, he's Dumbledore's man too.
- The whole movie I kept thinking "There's not very much Lupin... Sophie is not going to be happy."
- In the book, does it specify what color the spell was that hit Sirius as he fell through the veil? Because that confused me in the movie. I guess it's more for the movie audience. (Also, I'm mad jealous that you got to see the Department of Mysteries scene in 3D. I would have shit with excitement. Okay, maybe something not the gross.)
- With Gambon, it was so weird, because I loved him in the 3rd, hated him in the 4th, and loved him again in this one. He really did just seem like an old defeated man with his "old man's mistake."
- Did you have a lot of audience participation/reaction in your theater? We had lots of applause with the opening credits, cat-calls when Harry and Cho were snogging, gasps with the Umbridge-slap moment, etc. Also, the group of 14 year-old girls next to us were hilarious. They kept hissing every time Cho showed up. And one, I could swear muttered "poor Ginny."

[sophieisgod.livejournal.com]

Aww man, the stupid internet just deleted my uber-comment. Pfft.

Snape! I do so love the Rickman voice. "Ob-viously..." And I don't care what the haters say, him hitting Ron will never not be funny. Dumbledore's man, you say... Well, we only have to wait a week to find out! *insert obligatory OMG DEATHLY HALLOWS REALLY REALLY SOON squee here*

I had been bracing myself for the Lack O' Lupin, so I didn't suffer too much. we still got him being badass in a cardigan and leaning on a doorframe and a moment of wonderful soul-destroying angst. And he got to be in a shot all by himself! With no-one else in the frame or anything! Although they did completely avoid any Tonks/Remus interaction... Mustn't grumble, I suppose. *grumbles*

He gets hit with a jet of red light... A stunner? I suppose the difference is he's dead before he hits the veil or it's the veil that kills him. They probably just wanted to calrify for the people who don't read the books (WHO ARE THEY?!) that he is definitively dead... No mirror, folks.

Seriously, if you can get to the IMAX, DO IT. It is intense. And slightly blurry and... mysterious. And thestrals! And shelves sticking out at funny angles and everything looking streaky and awesome, like Lucius' mask. Wow. Ooh, did you wear your tshirts?

The 4th film, Gambon was like a different character. It didn't really bother me that much, but I can see how it might, with the violence and volume and so forth. Seriously, my friend's main gripe with Gambon is that she doesn't like the way his beard is tied up.

We didn't have that much. There were laughs and stuff, and the whole screen flinched when Umbridge hit Harry, but no whooping. You could sense everyone holding their breath, though. I was gripping my friend's hand, and everytime something good happenned, with Ron or Lupin or fLASHBACKS or the twins or anything, we'd just squeeze and squeak a little bit. And we clapped when the end credits rolled. I loved all the Ginny looks, though! poor Ginny.

Also, Cho's supposed to be the year above Harry!

[darkangsty42.livejournal.com]

*shakes fist at the interweb*

I know! The study hall in the 4th movie was probably my favorite scene out of the whole film. HOLY SHIT 8 DAYS. I cannot even believe that we were able to wait longer than this! A month seems shorter than a week! Inconceivable!

I knew you'd love the bits he was in though. And Tonks, for her lack of screentime was so perfectly Tonks.

The veil thing I guess will have to wait 8 days. *wrings hands in frustration*

T-shirts were worn. I have a couple of pictures from the car, but not anything else. As soon as we got to the theater, we went straight into the movie and management was already freaking out, and I don't think they would have taken kindly to pictures being taken.

It didn't bother me as much initially because I was just intent on defending him against the Harris people, but now I can step back and say that it sucked. But his awesomeness in the 3rd and 5th outweighs the suckiness of the 4th and the sheer not-Dumbledore-ness of the first 2. Seriously, I really HATED Richard Harris as Dumbledore.

My friends and I failed at various bits, but mostly contained ourselves. While the audience was making noise, it was at the right time. They felt like they were invested in the movie. And it really was sort of an edge-of-your seat experience, wasn't it?

[sophieisgod.livejournal.com]

Woop, study hall! I hearts Fred asking Angelina to the ball (TWINS!) and Snape pulling back his sleeves. This week is going to last FOREVER. Inconceivable (I do not think it means what you think it means)!

Well, the bits he was in were very good bits! And we got Tonks doing noses. I'm just hoping that somewhere on the deleted scenes there's some sort of Lupin Mega Mix. That's not unreasonable, is it?

Richard Harris was too old and creaky, really. I mean, if he wasn't already dead there's no way he'd be able to do all the physical stuff.

Absolutely edge-of-your-seat. Yeah, there was a real feeling of everyone being in it together, there wasn't any laughing at moments of high emotinal drama or anything. Was it better 2nd time around?

[darkangsty42.livejournal.com]

And then Ron imitating Fred to ask Hermione. Aww.

The wait feels like forever. I think once I start reading a book-a-day, it shouldn't be too bad, but these 2 days where I'm not reading... I need something to keep me occupied or I'll go mental.

And Tonks being clumsy! And Tonks rolling her eyes at Moody!

Not unreasonable, no.

Richard Harris was just a bad choice all around. I mean, it's not even until OotP that Harry realizes that Dumbledore is old. And with Harris, one was constantly under the impression that he's going to keel over on set. And he did. (Well, maybe not literally.)

I think the first time around it was better, but only because your were constantly like "HOLYSHITTHISISAWESOME." The second time it was still a lot of fun, knowing that characters were actually characters, and enjoying the fact that you knew it was a good film. And grinning stupidly at all the same parts.

[sophieisgod.livejournal.com]

Bless them, the fools. PLOT RESOLUTION IN ROUGHLY A WEEK!

Hmm, activities to prevent the onset of mentalness. I'm thinking some sort of HP picspam. Any suggestions?

See, I don't know whether or not to get my hopes up about that. Was all that stuff just to say "This is Tonks, and we know you know who she is, but we don't have time for that", like a token or something, or was it more "This is Tonks in crude strokes, pay attention because she'll be imprtant later"? I did like the clumsy, though.

I didn't think so. :)

I'm going again in a few hours. So excited! An I've been told to look out for a packet of 'Cheery Owls'.

[darkangsty42.livejournal.com]

That's what the cereal boxes said? I spent the whole movie squinting trying to figure out what they were.

[sophieisgod.livejournal.com]

Saw it again! Love it lots!

Right, since you're imposing radio silence during Book Week, I just wanted to say have fun and SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE!

It is going to be so very, very righteous.

[darkangsty42.livejournal.com]

I'm going to see it for a 3rd time. Lordy, last time I saw a Potter film 3 times in theaters was PoA. My poor camp council friend has been detached from the rest of the world for a month and feels very out of the HP loop so I offered to rectify that.

A couple Gred and Forge points I thought of yesterday:
1. They've hit Voldemort in the face. Not on purpose, but remember those enchanted snowballs that hit Quirrell in the back of the head? Even Mr. Potter hasn't clocked the Dark Lord in the face.
2. They are F&G. There's another F&G, except they more commonly are referred to as G&F... Gideon & Fabian Prewett. Who are dead. *howls*

And this will probably be one of my last comments before tomorrow, so see you on the other side as well. And a quote that I felt was appropriate (and also extremely nerdy): "I have taken my worst wound at this parting, having looked my last upon that which is fairest. Ah, henceforth I will call nothing fair unless it be her gift to me."

[sophieisgod.livejournal.com]

I'm seeing it for the third time on Monday.

Gred and Forge as Gideon and Fabian? NOOOOOO! Ohh, when I was reading OotP as film preparation there was that bit with the photo, with Caradoc and the twins and all that... It made me sad! Damn you, Shoebox! *howls*

Awwww. I'm too excited to think of nerdy quotations, so *waves and flails*

THIS TIME NEXT WEEK! GAAAAAH!

[rose-greenthumb.livejournal.com]

I love Gambon, but god did I want to snip those sodding beads off!

[sophieisgod.livejournal.com]

I like the beads! They make me feel Christmassy.