Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (film)
I went to see the latest Harry Potter film today at the cinema... sad... I know! Having not read the books (hiss hiss) I have only ever watched the films so it would be great to have comments from others who have read the book and seen the film for comparison.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a fantasy adventure film, based on the novel by J. K. Rowling. Directed by David Yates, it is the fifth film in the popular Harry Potter film series. The story follows Harry Potter entering his fifth year at the magic school Hogwarts. The Ministry of Magic is denying the return of Lord Voldemort and also appoints a new teacher, Dolores Umbridge, a bureaucrat who slowly becomes an authoritarian figure in the school.
The screenplay was written by Michael Goldenberg, who replaced Steve Kloves, writer of the first four films. Live action filming started in February 2006 and finished in the end of November, and post-production on the film continued for several months afterwards.
I found the visual effects in this film the most stunning (from what I can remember) of all five films.
Tim Burke was the visual effects supervisor, John Richardson was the special effects supervisor, and Nick Dudman was the creatures special effects supervisor. The film required over 1,400 visual effects shots, and the London-based company Double Negative created more than 950 of them. Working for six months on previsualization starting in September 2005, Double Negative was largely responsible for sequences in the Room of Requirement, the Forbidden Forest, the Hall of Prophecies, and the Death Chamber.
A new character in the film, Grawp, Hagrid's giant half-brother, came to life by a new technology called Soul Capturing, developed by Image Metrics. Instead of building the character from scratch, the movements and facial expressions of actor Tony Maudsley were used to model Grawp's actions.
Double Negative have also produced special effects for The Bourne Ultimatum which I have also been to see recently... so I have included the website underneath.
Overall, the film was entertaining and I was biting my bottom lip in parts, but the storyline didn't seem as strong as the others... it was almost a little monotonous at times. I also felt like there was a bit of an anticlimax and the main part of the story seemed to be squashed into a relatively small amount of screen time. As always, the scenery and internal shots were fantastic. There was also some edgy film shots in parts of the film... to give a sense of being there.
http://www.dneg.com/
http://www.harrypotterorderofthephoenix.com/
1 comment:
I have read these books over the course of ten years now I think. Like most people who have done this I have always found that the films don't even come close to the novels. (but then again I love reading) Having said that I actually found this film the best of the ones so far in capturing the emotions and feel of the book.
I can see what you mean about the storyline being too squashed in though. my boyfriend who had neither read the books or seen any of the previous films thought the same and he said that the end for him was also an anticlimax as it never really finished. Because I know what is still to come in the end of the series I know that everything that they included had to be put to make future films follow on. To get an 800 page book down to a film of a suitable length meant that inevitably it was never going to make over much sense to some people and almost feel very gappy and unfinished.
What I guess I am trying to say is that whilst I enjoyed this movie, I think I will always be biased in favor of the books before I go in. It works as a film as part of a series but less well on its own as the plotline will always feel very unsatisfying this way.
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