thecrypt4 Reviews

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

New Director to watch

[8/10 · 11 July 2007]

I'm one of those people who fall in and out of th fandom. I write a little fic, I've read the books, I've a Slytherin Quidditch costume...so fan, not really fanatic.

I liked this movie better than the others.

The thing with adaption, especially with such a long novel, is that some things are going to get cut. I didn't miss the Quidditch ( a lot of people here are complaining about that) but I did miss the Swamp and Snape's History.

Overall, this is a darker, more adult film. We started down this path with Curon's treatment of POA. We went a little lighter again with Goblet - the worst film in the franchise for killing off plot and being a 'montage' type film.

Coming from Goblet, I had low expectations. Seriously, that film was terrible. The first few minutes of this one changed my mind completely.

Look, fanchilds, it is *hard* to decide what to cut and what to keep when adapting something so long. Things are going to be gone! Accept it, move on.

The film was well shot, and the lighting was superb. The acting was great from most of the cast, but I'm starting to get a little irritated with Emma Watson's stop-start dialogue delivery, and the hammy performance of Tom Felton, but fortunately he wasn't in it much.

The fight at the Ministry was wonderfully climatic, better than I thought it would be. Harry is one ball of angst and hormones - but then, he *is* a sixteen year old boy.

One problem was the lack of continuity between the films in regard to dress and wizard culture. I couldn't watch film one to six and feel they were the same story - too many details about the school keep changing! Also, Tonks hair annoyed me. What's wrong with short hair?

The Department of Nothing (2007)

Something Old, Something New

[8/10 · 8 May 2007]

This film is going to get a lot of attention, and rightly so. Done by predominately the same crew who did Magician, you can see that the whole crew has come along in leaps and bounds.

The sound, which could sometimes get overwhelming in Magician, has found it's place. Owen Hughes will be a man to watch if this is the kind of improvement he makes with every project. Same with Vigard Sorby ans his special effects - hard to believe this is a uni kid, not someone with a huge budget and the power of a major effects company behind them.

Ther's definitely a similarity of style between this and Majician, which points to the personal style of the Director as well as the inevitable similarity that comes with working with the same people.

It's not as melodramatic as the Magician, which makes me believe that Dean Isralite has matures somewhat as a director. Still, it's going to be interesting to see what kin of job he does with a different crew and with different material - will we see something new from Dean? All in all this is a pretty good short film, one of a number of that has come out of that same university. I wish it and it's creators luck.

They deserve it.