Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Book-Movie Comparison: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix


The Order of the Phoenix is a tricky adaptation for me.  While it gets some stuff gloriously right, the book it’s based on is so long that it feels like the story needs to be cut to ribbons to even get the basics in.  As a result, it sometimes feels like a CliffNotes version of itself, and some of the richer aspects of the book get lost (spoilers.)

We’ll start with the film’s new casting, which the franchise pretty much always knocks out of the park.  Imelda Staunton is hands-down fantastic as Umbridge; I love her in this role so much.  She captures everything the character is about and is so effective at communicating Umbridge’s particular brand of sinister.  Top marks on that one, with a bonus shoutout for the terrific casting of the delightfully-kooky Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood.

When it comes to the plot, there are tons of edits, some of which aren’t terribly missed, some of which are.  I don’t mind trimming down a lot of the teen romance drama (not least of which because Harry doesn’t exactly endear himself to anyone in his handling of the whole Cho situation,) along with Hagrid and Grawp.  To be honest, I’d completely forgotten that Ron’s Quidditch career starts in this book, as well as Ron and Hermione becoming prefects and the emphasis on the heavy workload for fifth-year students.  While I wouldn’t say these things are crucial, the latter two details contribute to Harry’s overall sense of frustration with Hogwarts (and Dumbledore) in this book, making him feel like Hogwarts is becoming a less happy place for him and Dumbledore is shutting him out.  The Quidditch plot contributes to this as well, in how Harry reacts to being banned by Umbridge and how the team copes with losing him and the twins.  The movie hints at Harry feeling angry and isolated, but it doesn’t come through nearly as strongly as it does in the book.

Other cuts that I miss:  Mr. Weasley’s stay in St. Mungo’s, where the trio runs into Neville visiting his parents.  Sirius feeling restless and depressed at 12 Grimmauld Place (some of his behavior here would probably feel pretty immature on someone Gary Oldman’s age – the parent-generation casting issue strikes again! – but I still would’ve liked to see it included in some form.)  The more complete version of Snape’s worst memory and the fallout from that.  Harry learning that the prophecy could have originally referred to either him or Neville.  Again, these scenes aren’t absolutely essential, but I personally miss them.

The more major plots – Umbridge and the DA, Harry’s dreams about the prophecy – hit all the most salient points, but both, especially the former, feel noticeably abbreviated at times.  This is most definitely a length issue, so the movie isn’t entirely at fault; however, this is both the longest book in the franchise and one of the shorter movies, so they could’ve added another 10-15 minutes of run time without breaking the bank.  As it is, the film makes extensive use of montages in establishing the situation at Hogwarts as Umbridge seizes greater and greater control, as well as the DA’s attempts to train in secret, and although they technically get the job done, they flatten out the storyline and make it feel a little perfunctory.  That’s disappointing to me because, while my feelings on The Order of the Phoenix are mixed on the whole, I do love that storyline and would’ve liked for the film to have let it breathe more.

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