Cliff's Notes adaptation of the book

I love Harry Potter, OK? So before you freak out, let me get that out of the way. The book version "Order of the Phoenix" was oustanding. I also think that previous directors have done pretty good to great jobs of translating the books to film (though I must say things went a little downhill once Chris Columbus left.)

All that being said, here's the kicker:

The movie "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" played like a Cliff's Notes adaptation of the book.

It lopped off a lot of the charm and romance and heartfelt pathos of the book--- as well as a lot of the pure creative touches--- in order to get the main arc of the story down. On top of that, it made "adaptations" to the book in order to get the story moving along--- yet all these "compromises" were actually worse than what JK Rowling originally wrote!

Don't believe me? Here is only SOME of what is wrong with this movie:

--Poor devlopment of the Harry/Cho Chang arc (The kiss is about all you get. No real feeling behind it at all. No devlopement of Harry's crush. No final break up argument on Valentine's Day.)
--Making Cho into an evil snitch (which is why she and Harry broke up in the movie.) In the movie SHE is the one who betrays Harry. Stupid.
--No hospital scenes. No meeting of Neville's parents.
--Perfunctory explanation of Grimmaud Place
--Perfunctory development of Occlumency
--Harry gets to hear the prophecy while standing in the Department of Mysteries rather than later with Dumbledore. On top of this, he gets to hear the prophecy just by holding it in his hand. That makes no logical sense at all!
--The Department of Mysteries itself is compressed down into one room (the room with the prophecies.) All the cool rooms (with the blue lights, the 12 doors, the clocks, the brains, and so on) are all just ignored. Those were such tremendous inventions by JK Rowling--perhaps some of the most creative stuff in all the books-- that I can't believe they just cut them!
--The room with the arch is made into a really boring place.
--The battle scene is really short and rather stupid.
--Snape's memory of being tortured by James Potter and his argument with Lily Potter is compressed into literally a total of 4 seconds of film. That scence is so PIVOTAL to the rest of the book series that I can't believe they got away with not fully developing the scene.

On top of all these plot issues, the WORST part about this movie is that there was really no FEELING in it. The whole range of emotional arcs that are so well-developed in the book are done absolutely terribly in the movie. Yeah, Sirius dies. In the book, it is a devatating moment. In the movie, it's like "Oh, well." Harry, Ron and Hermione don't have many moments together. There is no laughing in the movie. We don't get to feel pathos for Neville because his parents are insane. We don't get to feel the gratefulness of the Weasleys when Harry saves Mr Weasley. There are no lighthearted moments. Almost every scene except one or two that could have developed the emotional attachment we feel to the characters has been summarily excluded.

Like one other reviewer said: The movie is too short, yet it feels too long.

That is, sorry to say, a perfect description of a hack job.

I am quite disappointed.

Caution: "In-stock" is really estimated future in-stock date"

Caution:
Amazon's "in stock" and "Only 1 item left" marking for this item is misleading. In fact, they did not have any in stock (Dec 11) and after talking with their agent, they are estimating delivery AFTER Christmas. Most online businesses would consider this "out of stock" with an expected date.

Another questionable practice is that they immediately mark your order as "Shipping soon" which prevents you from canceling it even though they acknowledge that they will not be shipping it for weeks. Shipping soon is supposed to mean shipping within the next day or two, not weeks out.

This practice may be true for other items as well -- so be warned and read carefully before ordering!

Well done, even with the time costraint.

Watched it last night...actually had me on the edge of my seat, and I've read the book several times.

Now...reviewing this as just a movie (rather than a movie based on a book), it was excellent. The acting was well done, the movie kept moving and kept your attention, and the editing was well done. I look forward to watching it often!

Having said that, reviewing this as a movie based upon a book....sure, there's something lost in the translation. But that happens with every adaptation out there, and I can't imagine how difficult it is to cram 800 pages of SHTUFF into 2 hours of planned theatre time.

Staunton's portrayal of Umbridge is spot on, and our trio of heroes (Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint) dealt with those wonderful teenage emotions and hormones wonderfully well. I even saw some "I think s/he likes me..." looks between Ron and Hermione. Very nice ease in to the future.

Bonham-Carter's Bellatrix LeStrange is one for the history books. Part of me wonders if Rowling was thinking of HBC when she wrote the character, frankly.

My biggest quibble with the movie as a whole is the loss of certain details (yes, details will be lost in a transition such as this, but certain ones should be kept). It was hard to comprehend what was happening with Harry while he was lying on the floor after the battle, and the Department of Mysteries/Prophecy globe didn't carry much weight. I rather thought of the Maltese Falcon in this regard in the movie, actually.

Otherwise, as an HP lover...I'm well-pleased and am looking forward to the next installment.