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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: 12 random thoughts

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 17:34:42 +0100

Karen and I went to see the last Harry Potter movie last night. Here's a few of my random thoughts on the film. Beware that spoiler lie ahead....

The Order of the Phoenix is the longest of the Harry Potter novels. This means that it is, at first, a little surprising that the movie is the shortest to date. However, Phoenix is probably the weakest novel and not a lot of substance actually happens. The film adaptation produces a plot which is more focused than the novel, concentrating on the attitude of the Ministry of Magic to the fact that Voldermort has returned (i.e. denial). As many have observed, the film does feel like a bridge between the stand alone earlier films and the battle against Voldermort in the final two. However, it does this in a manner that is entertaining and still manages to feel like a film in its own right.
Another reason for the novel being weaker than the others is the fact that Harry himself is such an annoying and unsympathetic character throughout its entire length. The movie fixed this by still including Harry's irritation with the world at the start, but then by having him realise that his attitude isn't helpful and making peace with everyone. Which means that its a far icer experience spending the next couple of hours or so in his company.
Order of the Phoenix features a subplot about Voldermort trying to get hold of a prophecy that is stored in the Ministry of Magic. This is all quite confused in the novel, but it does eventually tell us why Voldermort wanted to kill a baby Harry (it gives the birthdate of the person who will defeat him) and the fact that the prophecy could also have applied to Neville. The prophecy is truncated somewhat in the film and its not clear why Voldermort wants it. But it does mean we get a great action packed battle as the finale, which works far better on screen than in print.
The big battle at the end features lots of wand battles. So the Harry Potter franchise now has its own equivalent of the lightsabre duel!
We've always known that the Harry Potter books and films take place within the real world. But this film is probably the first in which this really feels like the case, with the suburban playground and underpass scenes at the start, and the exhilirating flights over London. Although in the latter, the wizards and witches don't seem to be hiding themselves from the Muggles!
The Dementors were an important part of The Prisoner of Azkaban and were very well realised in that film. But they were even more frightening here and their attack on Harry and Dudley makes for a very eerie opening to the film. Just shows what the modern pre-teen can take these days (yes, the film was certified as a 12A, but everyone tends to ignore that so it might as well be a PG).
Has a Hollywood movie ever had such a fantastic British cast? The previous four movies have built up quite a supporting cast of characters and Order of the Phoenix brings a large number of them together in the same place, since the usual Hogwarts teachers are joined by previous incumbents such as Lupin and Moody, plus of course Gary Oldman back as Sirius Black after a cameo in the last film.
Speaking of which... Gary Oldman brings fantastic warmth and charisma to Sirius, making his death quite affecting (even if the execution is quite confused). Given that Oldman built up quite a repetoire as Hollywood's British villain of choice during the 90s, it is nice to see him in different roles, what with his turn of Commissioner-to-be Gordon in Batman Begins, as well as Sirius.
The main new character in the film is, of course, Dolores Umbridge. I was first unsure about the casting of Imelda Staunton as Umbridge given that this year's Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher is described as a physically large woman. However, there is no doubt that Ms Staunton makes Umbridge a suitably loathsome character. In fact, it is a bit of shame that her downfall is not more satisfying - she is dragged off by Centaurs to an unknown fate, although she clearly survives since we see a Daily Prophet headline that mentions she is to be the subject of an enquiry.
We meet a new student in the form of Luna Lovegood who is played by Evanna Lynch, a Harry Potter fan who was discovered in an open casting. Luna is another charming character, very naive and seemingly living in a world of her own, but still supportive of Harry. Interestingly, an ITV special on the film last week seemed to suggest that Evanna's personality was very close to Luna!
There' some wonderfully subtle moments when we see that Ginny Weasly is not happy when Harry and Cho's budding romance is referred to, which is some nice foreshadowing for where things are going to go in the next film. Similarly, the chemistry betwene Ron and Hermione seems a lot more natural and made at least this viewer want them to get together.
We see Sirius Black's family tree within his home at 12 Grimmauld Place, but there is no mention of his brother, Regulus, who was a Deatheater who defected to the other side. Many fans have speculated that Regulus is the person with the initials "RAB" who stole a locket which was one of Voldermort's Horcruxes, as mentioned in The Half-Blood Prince, and therefore potentially important to the final book. Does the omission of Regulus from the movie suggest that this theory is incorrect? We'll find out very soon...

A title, a title! My kingdom for a title!

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:59:28 +0100

I've been trying to think of a name for this site, since I didn't really want to stick with the default one - "Matt Newton's e-tribe site" - since I think that was missing something. My first attempt was "Newton's Laws", a rather obvious pun on my name. But it doesn't actually mean anything, and I also use it for my website. So back to the drawing board. Eventually I came up with the title that now sits at the top of this page - "Going Back to Jasper Street". Which might be meaningless to most people, but at least sounds better than what was there before. The title is taken from an episode of Press Gang, one of my all-time favourite shows, which is all about Lynda, the main character, thinking about events of her past. So I sort it was kind of appropriate given my interest in old tv shows. And I suppose it also fits a blog, although those tend to be about events which are a bit more recent than ten years ago like the Press Gang episode...

Amy vs Aimi

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 18:50:15 +0100

Radio 2 is currently playing a new single from an up and coming artist called Amy McDonald. Which is really disconcering when you know a bit about 60s television since you expect it to be by a squeaky voiced blonde sex symbol.


A new artist on the Radio 2 playlist	Squeaky voiced 60s actress

Tate Hate-Gate

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:24:59 +0100

The wonderful world of Doctor Who fandom almost spontaneously combusted this week. The cause of such great wailing and gnashing of teeth was the announcement that the new companion in Series 4 of the new show was to be none other than Catherine Tate, reprising her role as Donna Noble, the eponymous Runaway Bride from the 2005 Christmas. For many people, this represented stunt casting of the most heinous type, although accusations that she is "just a comedian" are somewhat unfair given that although she is best known as purveyor of irritating catchprases on a sketch show, she has worked with the RCS, in the West End, and is building an acting career in various British movies.

Now, I must admit that I am no fan of Ms Tate and I wasn't particularly overjoyed by the news. I thought that both she and the character were okay in the Christmas special, but was quite glad it was a one off appearance. I would also have preferred to have seen someone new in the companion role. However, the more I think about it, the more I see that there will be advantages. At the very least, the presence of Donna as a companion will almost certainly change the dynamics between the main characters since I can't see her falling in love with the Doctor in the same way as Rose and Martha. Indeed, will Donna have more in common with characters from the original show such as Tegan? The very fact that she is older should also change things; indeed, this is the first time that the companion will be older than the Doctor (well, in terms of the actors anyway given that the Doctor is over 900 years old). Some have suggested that this may alienate children. Who knows? The other thing to bear in mind is that Martha will be returning later in Series 4, so a younger character will be featuring as well. So at this stage, I'm going to wait and see. Certainly, I've found it difficult to fault the instincts of Russell T Davies in his first three years producing the show so I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt at this stage. At the very least, it's going to be a heck of a ride between now and next Spring as we learn more about the series. What with Catherine Tate and Kylie Minogue at Christmas, who knows what else lies in store?

Surely I won't have time to maintain a blog?

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 20:35:59 +0100

Everyone seems to have a blog these days, but I didn't think that was something that I was going to get drawn into - after all, I don't have enough time to do the things which I currently do, mainly due to the renovations of the house that Karen and I have recently bought (which is bound to feature in future blog entries!). So how come this one has started?

Well, it's mainly as a result of cashback sites. These are great sites that I have recently discovered which allow you to claim back cash when you do on-line shopping, as well as for signing up for various offers. And on one of these sites was an offer for e-tribes. So, I had a look around and decided to give this wonderful world of blogging a go. After all, I'm earning a few pence cashback as a result!

I've mentioned cashback sites in this first blog entry. If anyone out there fancies giving these try, here are a few sites which I recommend (and I get some bonuses if you sign up via these links!):

And that's probably enough for today - hopefully the first of many entries.