Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix (12A.)
Directed by David Yates.
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Imelda Staunton, Michael Gambon. 138 mins.
The dumbest thing I’ve heard recently was the suggestion that JK Rowling fashioned the Potter novels so that they could easily be made into films. In fact these increasingly lengthy tomes do filmmakers few favours, leaving them with a talky summer blockbuster where the few action sequences are people pointing sticks at each other.
The only thing they have going for them is a ready made world wide audience. In general the fan base seem content with these film adaptation and this latest instalment, well handled by English TV director Yates (he made State of Play), is up to the standard of the previous two.
But if you’ve never read a Potter book the Pied Piper appeal of this mythology is an absolute mystery. There must be something enthralling about it as it unfolds over the better part of a thousand pages but crammed into two and a bit hours you get little more than a skeleton service. The production values and star names cast suggest something momentous is going on, but there’s precious little evidence of it.
On the plus side Imelda Staunton provides a storming turn as Doloroes Umbridge, a chintzy iron lady clad all in pink, while Radcliffe has really grown into the role. Credit to the production team: considering they’ve been exhaustively cranking these out at a rate of almost one a year they’ve managed keep it all relatively fresh.
The problem is that most of their look and style was set by the cold dead mind of Chris Columbus in the first two films so every film is trapped in his dull literal vision of Hogwarts, a place peopled by the British theatrical great and good doing their one or two lines in each film. (The Potter cameo is the modern equivalent of the Eric ‘n’ Ernie Christmas show appearance.)
When the movie eventually escapes Hogwarts for the finale it briefly soars, pulling off a couple of really dazzling and imaginative sequences. In three weeks an Imax version of the film will be released in which these last twenty minutes will be shown in 3D; ironic as they are only part of the film that really doesn’t need any enhancement.
Directed by David Yates.
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Imelda Staunton, Michael Gambon. 138 mins.
The dumbest thing I’ve heard recently was the suggestion that JK Rowling fashioned the Potter novels so that they could easily be made into films. In fact these increasingly lengthy tomes do filmmakers few favours, leaving them with a talky summer blockbuster where the few action sequences are people pointing sticks at each other.
The only thing they have going for them is a ready made world wide audience. In general the fan base seem content with these film adaptation and this latest instalment, well handled by English TV director Yates (he made State of Play), is up to the standard of the previous two.
But if you’ve never read a Potter book the Pied Piper appeal of this mythology is an absolute mystery. There must be something enthralling about it as it unfolds over the better part of a thousand pages but crammed into two and a bit hours you get little more than a skeleton service. The production values and star names cast suggest something momentous is going on, but there’s precious little evidence of it.
On the plus side Imelda Staunton provides a storming turn as Doloroes Umbridge, a chintzy iron lady clad all in pink, while Radcliffe has really grown into the role. Credit to the production team: considering they’ve been exhaustively cranking these out at a rate of almost one a year they’ve managed keep it all relatively fresh.
The problem is that most of their look and style was set by the cold dead mind of Chris Columbus in the first two films so every film is trapped in his dull literal vision of Hogwarts, a place peopled by the British theatrical great and good doing their one or two lines in each film. (The Potter cameo is the modern equivalent of the Eric ‘n’ Ernie Christmas show appearance.)
When the movie eventually escapes Hogwarts for the finale it briefly soars, pulling off a couple of really dazzling and imaginative sequences. In three weeks an Imax version of the film will be released in which these last twenty minutes will be shown in 3D; ironic as they are only part of the film that really doesn’t need any enhancement.
