order of the phoenix
Since it's three in the morning and I just got home, I'm sure this is going to be mostly incoherant. Nevertheless.
So overall: good. Not great.
I was really okay with how fast it was moving (the entire movie was just over two hours). I was madly excited with the fact that they didn't add in any extra bits (can we say Jamaican talking shrunken heads?) that weren't necessary, with the exception of Umbridge's interrogation of every single student using Veritaserum. Oh, and Cho giving the DA away instead of Marietta. But I could deal with that.
The whole movie was going along swimmingly. The scene where Sirius and Harry reunite -- oh my god when they hugged I thought I was going to cry. All the little Harry and Sirius moments throughout were utterly heartbreakingly wonderful, I thought, and I was bracing myself for The Big Moment when I was going to drown in my own tears.
It didn't come. Which was depressing in itself, sort of. But when Sirius fell behind the veil, it felt so rushed and rather pointless, really. I was waiting for a big...well I don't know exactly, but I wanted to at least feel something, and I ended up with a big nothing. It seemed at that point, that the film's pace -- which I had been fine with up until that point -- sort of caught up to me and I got a bit irritated with it all. I'm sure I'm going to cry enough next week with DH to make up for it, but the whole movie just had me going so much and I felt really let down when Sirius's death was more of a footnote rather than the horrible highlight of the story's climax.
On a slightly lesser note, I expected much more out of the scene for one of my favorite chapters of the whole series, "Snape's Worst Memory." It was so brief (which, I suppose, was typical of the way the movie was going) and I was really unsatisfied by it. It was more a sequence of too-short images floating around inside Snape's head (there was no penseive, which I was mildly depressed by). And no Lily! I know that her sacrifice is the point upon which the entire HP series is based, but I still feel like she is rather shafted in the books and now in the movies as well. But what was worse was that Harry had no reaction to seeing his father bullying Snape. That's such a huge moment for Harry, seeing his father as far from the perfection he'd imagined him to be. And then they didn't even show Snape throwing Harry across the room. Depressing!
I hated how Sirius said, "Nice one, James," to Harry as his last words.
Other than those two scenes, though, I was overall pleased. I think I would have even loved the movie if it wasn't for the way Sirius's death was butchered. The problem was that I was waiting for a big moment that never came. The battle at the Ministry was pretty kickass, but it all went so bloody fast. I understand that a lot needed to be pruned, but I felt that they could have expanded a bit more to flesh out the movie. The hour was two hours and ten minutes, why not make it two and a half hours and make some strong scenes really powerful? And add in Draco singing "Weasley Is Our King" while you're at it. (And speaking of the devil, there was not nearly enough Draco for my liking.
On a more positive note: I adored Luna and hated Bellatrix (in a good way). Tonks won me over, surprisingly. Everyone's acting gets better each movie and the special effects were stunning. Also, I sort of wanted to molest Ron the entire time.
As always, though, I love watching out for the little references that only those who've read the books would pick up on. And Ginny's glances at Harry made me kind of squee. I've always shipped Ron/Hermione, but upon re-reading HBP I find myself...liking the Harry/Ginny. I have always hoped I wouldn't fall into the OBHWF trap, but alas, I have. (Of course, Draco/Ginny will always hold a specialy place in my heart, right next to Harry/Draco and all of the other slashiness that JKR will never write. Is it wrong when I got excited at Remus and Sirius being next to each other at many intervals throughout the movie? Possibly.)
But going back to Sirius's death (again): when we got out of the movie, Cassie said that the scene made her think more that he's going to come back in the next book. I felt the opposite. The light that hit him was green, like that of the Killing Curse, and Bellatrix actually said "Avada Kedavra," unless I heard her wrong. Neither of which happened in the book. Hmm. Of course, the movies mean nothing. But still. Obviously I have no life and like to ponder such things.
I have to remind myself to stop getting overly excited for the HP movies, because they never live up to my (admittedly high) expectations. But seeing OotP just reminded me of how much of a basketcase I'm going be come July 21. I really never thought July would come. God, I'm pathetic. My life really does revolve around fictional characters.