Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (SPOILERS)

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by wendybeth

they changed the curse from a vague, red-light stunner to an Avada Kedavra curse, and had him die before he even fell through, thereby effectively removing any hope that he may have somehow survived. No need to explain the veil now- he's dead.

Yes, much more definitely dead in the movie.

But then why does Luna, immediately after consoling Harry about Sirius' death, go on to say that things have a way of coming back to you in completely unexpected ways?? She was purportedly talking about her shoes and stuff ... but in film language, that was clear foreshadowing about a potential return of Sirius Black in some form.

Was that bit in the book??


* * * * *

With no offense meant to those who are miffed about the things left out from the 870-page book, I find one of the strengths of this movie is that it doesn't slavishly transpose the novel. Like the other great Potter film (Prisoner of Azkaban), it is a very cinematic adaptation.

Speakling as someone who only vaguely remembers the book, there were no unclear motivations. Hagrid's line about the Ministry restricting the Centaurs' range was quite sufficient to make sense of their hostility toward Umbridge. This or that other thing may have been omitted, even some stuff that would have taken merely seconds of screen time to include .... but I can't fault the filmmakers for a tightly-paced piece of work where everything made complete sense on its own terms.

They managed to put lots of stuff from the book in the background (so familiar readers could spot it and smile, while not bogging down the proceedings with unnecessary detail.)


In fact, I just advised a friend who's planning on reading Order of the Phoenix before seeing Movie 5 NOT TO. It seems all the people I've known who are most familiar with the book are most displeased with the movie. (Instead, I advised him to, if anything, read the prior book as a lead in the current movie ... and, as I am doing, to read OotP after seeing the film.


At 870-pages, I likely won't finish it before I have to start in on Deathly Hollows in less than a week. But re-familiarizing myself with the novel after having seen the film is a way for me to thoroughly enjoy both.