Enjoyed it. Not as much as I'd hoped but still had a good time. I was looking forward to the adaptation of this book more than any of the others and perhaps knowing what to expect and knowing they must cut at least half the book or more for time and wondering if they were still going to get it right was on my mind. Going in I was also concerned that the big battle would lose impact if it was just a bunch of people shaking wands with effects coming out.
Not wanting to accept Voldemort's return the powers that be insist he hasn't and are starting to deal harshly with anyone that disagrees. This makes life suck even more for Harry Potter who spends the movie pissed off and confused like a normal 15 year old. The sickly sweet facade of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher appointed by the Ministry of Magic is the only humor in this film and it's dark like the rest of the movie. Imelda Staunton does a perfect job capturing her character as does the set designer with her quarters (yikes!)
Harry must of course attempt to foil Lord Voldemort once again which leads to a climactic battle. If you see this in IMAX this sequence will likely be in 3D or you picked the wrong IMAX theater to see it. The 3D is as good as 3D gets these days so if this is your option be sure to sit at least half way back and stay in the center. The finale doesn't disappoint.
Some scenes could and should have stood out more but the director seems to have a bit of a monotone. Harry's detention while the same is far more gut wrenching in the book. I'd slack them if it was PG but it's PG-13. The monotone of the movie may also have to do with presenting only the main events from the book. But some changes remain a mystery. In the 3rd film (Prisoner of Azkhaban) it's never explained in the film (it's a key point in the point) why a stag appears when Harry casts the Patronus charm to banish the dementors. In this film it sort of is explained but Harry can no longer produce the stag but all the other students are able to produce their own animal forms.
Still, 3.5 toes up. Well worth the price of admission in this disappointing summer.
Not wanting to accept Voldemort's return the powers that be insist he hasn't and are starting to deal harshly with anyone that disagrees. This makes life suck even more for Harry Potter who spends the movie pissed off and confused like a normal 15 year old. The sickly sweet facade of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher appointed by the Ministry of Magic is the only humor in this film and it's dark like the rest of the movie. Imelda Staunton does a perfect job capturing her character as does the set designer with her quarters (yikes!)
Harry must of course attempt to foil Lord Voldemort once again which leads to a climactic battle. If you see this in IMAX this sequence will likely be in 3D or you picked the wrong IMAX theater to see it. The 3D is as good as 3D gets these days so if this is your option be sure to sit at least half way back and stay in the center. The finale doesn't disappoint.
Some scenes could and should have stood out more but the director seems to have a bit of a monotone. Harry's detention while the same is far more gut wrenching in the book. I'd slack them if it was PG but it's PG-13. The monotone of the movie may also have to do with presenting only the main events from the book. But some changes remain a mystery. In the 3rd film (Prisoner of Azkhaban) it's never explained in the film (it's a key point in the point) why a stag appears when Harry casts the Patronus charm to banish the dementors. In this film it sort of is explained but Harry can no longer produce the stag but all the other students are able to produce their own animal forms.
Still, 3.5 toes up. Well worth the price of admission in this disappointing summer.
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Los Angeles
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Re: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (3D)
Mon, July 30, 2007 - 11:46 PMI wouldn't recommend seeing it in imax - worse movie experience I've ever had. Don't get me wrong, the 3D effects are amazing but they were at the expense of the entire film.
After speaking to Metreon Guest Services, I wasn't the only one to complain. The problem is that, as it was explained to me, is that with this 3D process, in order to make it happen they run the entire film with sync'd double layers of film - for the whole film. The inevitable result is that it significantly cuts down the available light projected on the screen and it results in a very very dark film. Anything white, or near white, comes to the screen as a mid-greyish and slightly blue. Other than the few highlights in the frame and the subject of the camera focus, all surrounding details are completely washed out - and that's just in general shots. In dark shots, and there are many dark shots in this film, about all you can see is faces, reflections and a bunch of muddy everything else that you can't quite make out.
One would think they could just up the light output but apparently, as it was explained to me, that would risk damaging the actual film. But maybe they'll find a fix for it at some point. But unless they can, I'd imagine this affects all theatres, not just the one I went to. What amazed me most is that I think most no one else even noticed. That's a little sad, but I got my money back so I'm cool with it. -
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Re: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (3D)
Tue, July 31, 2007 - 4:18 PMYikes. Sounds like a terrible theater. It takes 4X the light from the projector to show polarized 3D properly. One of the reasons 3D did not catch on when it first came out decades ago was that you couldn't show it at drive-ins and drive-ins were the rage back then. The light required would burn the film every time.
Increasing the output from the lamp also seriously decreases its lifetime so it sounds like the theater was just being amazingly cheap or clueless. What amazes me is that so many IMAX films are completely 3D that you'd think they'd know what they were doing and I have never seen a 3D IMAX film that looked dark, ever.
I've seen this film twice, the first regular and the second time in IMAX. The film has a dark look through most of it but nothing that should have made you squint as to what was going on.
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