[Sailor Abbey]

I saw it.

.. meh. It was alright. The end sequence kinda fell short, but, whatever.

[Bond]

Did you like the other four films?

[barend]

helena b carter said they cut it down quite a bit.


they should put out extended versions of these films.


after watching the second one's deleted scenes, i think it would be a superior film with them re-introduced.

[Bond]

Yes, that's true.

And let's no forget: half of the plot was cut from the Prisoner of Azkaban adaptation. About 1/4 of the plot cut was actually filmed, and that's a darned shame.

[barend]

the biggest tragedy was the loss of rik mayal's part as the poltergeist.

[Bond]

Oh, yeah, he would have been great as Peeves!

But, you know, to tie everything together, Stephen Fry should have been cast as Sir Cadogan. The book character is practically a medieval General Melchett! It would've been awesome!

[Sailor Abbey]

Did you like the other four films?

I enjoyed the first three. The fourth movie makes me cringe at the thought alone.

[Bond]

Well, then, perhaps they should have split it into two movies like they'd planned it. And David Tennant as Barty Crouch, Jr. did not help matters.

[Lord Aquaman]

I find it odd that the films are getting shorter even though the post-3 books are now longer, but I guess the WB was stung by critics bashing the first two films for being so long and allegedly "slow", but I think the pacing was more just because Columbus didn't have the knack for fantasy. And when you think about it, the first two books really don't have enough story material to justify those running times. The longer running times should have been saved for the later entries.

[Bond]

Well, I guess it's just the Attack of the Cazy Editors, then, is it?

And how did you like Nicholas Hooper's score, this being his first major film project?

[Commodore]

I loved it. After shuddering through the fourth installment, I had just about given up hope for the series; what a breath of fresh air to see this film. I applaud the director and screenwriter for having the guts to deviate from the book and make the story his own. All the acting was spot on, and the young actors were especially impressive; they've really matured since the last film. Unlike the rest of the bloated CGI blockbusters this summer, OotP managed to keep the special effects contained and relevant. The final 45 minutes were breathlessly exciting without being overblown. The wizard dueling was amazing. The score was perfect. I haven't really got a serious complaint about this movie. It's the first in the series to really be its own movie, not just another so-so adaptation of the books.

[civilian_number_two]

I watched it the other night at the Odeon Marble Arch (after coming back from "Spamalot"). I think the screenwriter deserves and Academy Award. The fifth Potter book had no forward momentum, and after I'd finished reading it, I said "That's unfilmable." That a halfway-decent movie was made from it is remarkable. I'm not saying it's especially good, but you can't make a great show from a lousy book.

[Lord Aquaman]

My thoughts on this film in a nutshell -

Daniel Radcliffe did fine, as usual. Course, I always thought he got dumped on too much.

Rupert Grint, for once, didn't annoy me as much as he did in previous installments. About time he stopped with the "I'm so scared I'm gonna s*** myself" exp​ressions. Although, as usual, he had nothing significant to do or even any genuinely funny dialogue.

Emma Watson turned in a crappy performance, as usual. Regardless of whether she's growing up to be easy on the eyes or not, she still can't act worth a damn.

Imelda Stanton was spot on as Umbridge, one of the most obnoxious, annoying sadists in the history of literature.

Evanna Lynch was also spot on, for the few scenes she appeared in. Loved the skipping away bit she did in certain scenes.

SFX, music and action oriented set pieces were fine. Could have used more scenes between Harry and Sirius though, to help drive home the loss, and they should have included Dumbledore telling Harry about the prophecy, even though the prophecy annoyed the Hell out of me.

For the record, this was my 2nd least favorite of the books, (COS holds the distinction of my absolute least favorite, and I still regard the COS filma s the worst of the lot, despite some unfortunate mistakes made with the film handlings of POA and GOF).

[Bond]

Really? I rather liked COS, mainly because it was so true to the book.

[Lord Aquaman]

Really? I rather liked COS, mainly because it was so true to the book.

COS was a crappy book, easily the worst of the series, and by extension a crappy film, not helped by the fact that Chris Columbus can't direct fantasy to save his life, nor can Steve Kloves write a half-way screenplay.