I know I said I was going to put this out sooner, but I wanted to see the film again before writing my impressions of it. I had read some things on other sites about how much people loved it and I thought maybe I had missed something. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate it and it didn't make me as mad as POA, but there were significant problems which were frankly more glaring the second time round.

OotP is above all the other books, the best example of teen angst. Reading the book you cannot help but think `why is Harry SO mad ALL the time?'. I didn't get any of that feeling from the movie. Even hubby (who hasn't read the book) said Harry just seemed depressed. I do not for a minute blame the actors, we have seen them do much better. The problem is with the directing and unfortunately David Yates is also directing HBP. This is the first large budget film Yates has done, doing mostly TV before, and I think he let the scale get away from him. He focused far too much on the IMAX aspect, sensationalism and scale for its own sake, and not nearly enough on the story and the characters. Cinematography seemed paramount throughout the film and while lovely, it cannot replace telling the story.

The scenes with the actors, especially the younger ones, were emotionally dampened and had a torturously slow pace. Many of the scenes looked like rehearsals and you are just waiting for the director to say `ok, lets pick up the pace a bit and tighten it up!'. But it appears more like the director was making them slow down and remove all emotion from the work. The rage we saw from Dan as Harry in POA (He was their FRIEND), is exactly what was needed here, so we know the actor himself has the range, the problem then lies with the director.

There was also a new screenwriter for this film, Michael Goldenberg. I noticed many of the lines came straight out of the book, but Yates direction did not support them. For example: Harry arrives at Grimmauld Place and is genuinely pissed off. In the book he is yelling loudly at Ron and Hermione, which prompts the twins to pop down and say `Harry, thought I heard your dulcet tones'. Which is supposed to be funny, since Harry was yelling. In the movie, the scene doesn't work at all because Dan is not allowed to get to that point. I would have liked to see Harry build on that snappy-ness and anger to get to where Hermione says (something like) `I would appreciate it if you would stop biting Ron's and my heads off.' It shows how tolerant Ron and Hermione are when it comes to Harry. And again I have to question some of the aspects that were left out, many could have been supported with words alone with no new scenes necessary. Example: Ron and Hermione being made Prefects which is important, especially for Ron's character.

There were also great opportunities missed. A wonderful comic (and IMAX worthy) moment would have been seeing through Hermione's (or Ron's or Ginny's) eyes as they flew on the Thestrals, since they couldn't see them. Also, why put Kreacher in the movie at all, if you are not going to use him for the pivotal plot point he's there for? It made no sense at all. Kreacher is the one that tells Harry Sirius is not in the house. As far as plot, Kreacher is there to save the locket, which we didn't see, and to lie to Harry, which we also didn't see. Soooo, why spend the time and money?

Umbridge, however, was perfect! Imelda Staunton played the character to perfection and was even more sinister. Helena Bonham Carter was also excellent. You could see she really `got' Bellatrix. I look forward to seeing more of her.

I watched the movie twice and both times found myself thinking `does anyone actually READ the books before they start filming?'. You wouldn't know it from the work. It really makes me fear for HBP and especially for DH when they are filmed. I am hoping against hope that Chris Columbus will come back to direct the last film. He loved the books and that came out in the work. The actors deserve to take the series out on a triumphant note, not a sad semblance of what might have been, which is how I feel about OotP. It was visually pretty, with a few moment, but I felt the meat of the book was absent.

Glinda