Three and Three

A new feature. We'll see if it sticks.

Three Things I Liked about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

• The way the big battle at the end was choreographed and acted. The physicality inherent in casting spells, and the chaotic, scary way such a battle would naturally unfold was very well-portrayed.
• The views of the city of London, which reminded us that the Harry Potter stories takes place in the real-world
• The playing of depressed Harry, which in the books can come across as excessively dour and repetitive. As others have mentioned, Radcliffe has matured quite nicely as an actor.

Three Things I Disliked about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

• The hurried feel of the story - it's not as if I thought any one of the book's cut subplots should not have been lost, but the overall effect was to make the story feel a little like a collection of beats and plot turns, and not so much a living breathing story.
• The cursory treatment of why Dumbledore was treating Harry so coldly all year--that last scene between the two needed a page or two more.
• The sad irony that, as much as the film made clear that it's the love of his friends - Ron and Hermione especially - that keeps Harry from being like Voldemort, it also paid scant attention to that friendship throughout.

Until Whenever