Gen-Z Film Student Who Grew Up On Avengers Watches Harry Potter For The FIRST TIME | Part 2

[@archie171eihcra]

This film was not very popular when it first came out, mostly due to the frustrations caused by Umbridge. But over the years the fans have come to love this installment because it really contains the heart of the series. It doesn’t do much to advance the overall plot, but the emotional scenes really put the rest of the series into perspective, and it gives us Harry’s true motivations for fighting so hard against darkness. So much great writing and character development here. This is the heart of the whole series.

[@turntsnaco824]

As an avid fan of the books, my issue with this film (and most of Yates' films for that matter) was the pacing and feeling like the ending/climax was a bit rushed. They made the longest book into the shortest film, and it was hard not to feel a little betrayed over that. The best summary I've ever heard of the thoughts I share about it is that it's like a cliff notes version of the book - just a collection of "stuff that happened" in the book, in sequential order, without any distinctive dramatic weighting. The only Yates film I don't feel that way about is Deathly Hallows pt 1; because they split that book into two parts, it gave the film so much more room to breathe and take its time, resulting in a highly accurate adaptation of the first half of the book, I think only one chapter is missing. It's one of my favorite films in the series, because of both the faithfulness to the book, and the cinematography is probably the best in the series, it's very aesthetically pleasing film IMO.

[@turntsnaco824]

All of that said, while this was one of my least favorite films at first, it has grown on me over time and is now in the better half of the films for me. I respect Yates' overall "balanced" approach at the series; it's hard to imagine his films with any other tone/being helmed by anyone else at this point. Adapting these books, especially as they got longer, and maintaining a relative sense of consistency between the films over such a long span of production, was an almost impossible task and they actually pulled it off. At the end of the day these could have turned out so much worse than they did, so even though I felt like Yates was a bit of a mixed bag who played things a bit too safe, I'm ultimately just glad the rest of the films weren't like Goblet of Fire.

[@turntsnaco824]

Also also, I really didn't like the soundtrack to OotP early on, the theme over the montage of Umbridge interviewing everyone and taking over the school being the perfect example, that sort of descending, dancing strings theme just felt foreign or out of place to me, because it wasn't like the music in the other films, which FELT like Harry Potter music to me. But as I've grown to like the film, the music now feels extremely appropriate, and even iconic.

[@lokiandiahere6369]

I look forward to the series they are making. They can really tell the story. Hope it won't be like Game of Thrones though ​@@turntsnaco824

[@lokiandiahere6369]

Dolores Umbridge is such a horrible character. I agree with some of your comments. Thanks for reacting. Keep going