Yesterday afternoon I took the family up to Moray Playhouse to watch Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix. I was certain that this time it would be semi-worthwhile viewing, given that the previous films were severely disappointing and tended to follow the same plot each time, ie: Harry has a run in with his relatives, Harry goes to Hogwarts, wanders around a bit, there are some new teachers, Hagrid takes the kids into the woods to show them something. Then, they break for Christmas, Harry gets fed up, then its back to Hogwarts again, Voldemort appears, Harry accidentally saves the day, and its back on the Hogwarts Express!
So, how did the new film compare. Well this is a quick rundown on the plot:
Harry has a run in with his relatives, Harry goes to Hogwarts, wanders around a bit, there are some new teachers, Hagrid takes the kids into the woods to show them something. Then, they break for Christmas, Harry gets fed up, then its back to Hogwarts again, Voldemort appears, Harry accidentally saves the day, and its back on the Hogwarts Express!
Does that seem slighly familiar? Don't get to excited if you're a fan, because at least with the previous films there was a vague sense of direction. With this one, there was a complete lack of structure, the whole film seem disjointed and it just left me empty. Promotional trailers led me to believe that there would be massive battles, but in reality there was only a rather brief skirmish in which it wasn't at all clear what was happening, only Sirius Black seemed to die, except I don't think he did!
Would I recommend this film? Absolutley not! It clearly demonstrates just how poor film-making is today. I really think the proper art of film-making died in the early 80's. I can't say exactly where they're going wrong, but I suspect that aiming to squash a 900 page book into just over 2 hours screentime, means cutting out crucial plot elements, which is clearly the case with this film. I noticed the same thing with "The Two Towers" when it came out. It just seemed hurried, like they were trying to fit in too much, which they were! Not like the days of films such as Lawrence Of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. The long drawn out dramatic scene would be a welcome relief nowadays. Even Spielberg with the Indiana Jones films, knew how to structure his films so the plotline was as clear as day. It's time Directors looked back at how it used to be done!
