Potter’s Wheeling

Well last Thursday I went to the theater with my brother to see “Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix.” I reviewed the previous movie a year and a half ago. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long, until you see how the actors have aged. Anyway, on with the show.

I said in the previous review that I thought the movie was rushed. It was based on a long book and there were scenes that felt like the last minute of dialog were cut. Well this movie is based on an even longer book, but there didn’t seem to be as many scene fragments lying around. It seems that they spent more time figuring out what they could prune and making the rest mesh together better. The editing was better. However, it was pretty obvious that there was a lot missing. Characters that received only fleeting air time in the previous movies were there a lot more, but didn’t develop much. New characters hit the ground running without much back story. It makes the watcher beg for more information about characters. A friend said he thought it should have been about 30 minutes longer. Well I haven’t read the books, so I don’t know all the stuff that was left out. However, listening to others talk about it indicates to me that the additional elements might have been difficult to mesh in 30 minutes, and may have already been left out of previous movies. In any event, the missing explanations and character development makes me want to read the books even more. And that should be considered a success for any author.

This one was better than the last movie. I will read the books at some point, probably when I can by all of them in one boxed set. At that point I may have some more words to say about the films, but for now it’s a good movie and worthy successor to the rest. Go see it.