OotP

[rm]

This was remarkably Descensus-compliant, what with the vibe between Lucius and Bella, a Harry I finally really liked (despite hating him in this book), the look of Grimaud place, and the fact that the director entirely understood that this thing is a fucking tragedy!

I loved Luna, who I've never much cared about in the books. I loved seeing Neville's parents (which really helped ot underscore the great losses of the Marauders/Snape-era generation). I loved cedric's picture nodding approvingly when Cho and Harry kissed. Umbridge was so perfect I could barely stand to be in the theater. I like everyone being freaked out at Ginny's power and there was some interesting and I think accidental things about women throughout -- a woman dstroying a room entirely full of prophecies fascinated me, as did Luna trying to feed apples to the thestrals.

As for Snape -- the new wig is good. And I like that he seemed pretty fucking stressed out and tired and frustrated. The movies are, however, doing a crap job highlighting his ambiguity and I don't know what that's going to do to movie 6. I also though the Snape's worst memory thing lacked the emotional punch it needed, although Kali said that young Snape looked and moved so much like me it creeped her out, and that was pretty cool.

I actualy liked Sirius in this one.

And OMG, so Sirius/Remus. In fact, Remus, dealing with his own grief while having to deal with harry's grief in the department of mysteries was awesome.

Lucius is pretty bad ass. Also, did we notice the cane being used like rapier and dagger -- when the wand pulls out of the top the rest of the can is not just a sheath for it, no, it works as a wand too. Question: do we have any idea what the core of Lucius' wand is? I'd have to say dragon hearstring, just fo the length, as it's probably a single core running through both sections of the cane, right?

I'm feel eh about Kingsley Shacklebolt. I wanted him to be hotter, and I certainly didn't want the movie to encourage fandom's "mystical negro" problem, but there we are.

I thought the ministry stuff and the Orwellian stuff with the minister was incredible, but that they fell down on the stuff with the students on the inquisitorial squad. How hard would it have been, really, to give us another ten seconds or so to make them seem menacing as opposed to just snoops?

The costuming has become so random, it's hard to even get pissed abut it anymore, but WTF. The Death Eaters need to put down the fucking Armani.

Also: preview for The Golden Compass, which despite petty changes that irked me (Asriel's short hair, Mr.s Coulter becoming blonde) really, really seems to understand the material, have a smart, cogent design and be as interested in the story of the adults as in the story of the children.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yup and stylistically they learned a critical lesson from Gandalf's fall in LotR. Quiet, slow.