Year 5 Is A (Patronus) Charm!
I didn’t write anything until now because i simply had to go back right away and see this again! It’s so awesome to actually be able to love a Potter film. The odd-numbered Potters have become the even-numbered Treks.
There are two essential ingredients to a year at Hogwarts that make it work for me. It has to have all of the old faves not only in it, but to figure out a way to juggle them all around and give them something worthwhile to do to forward the story. That’s something that i felt Year 4 lacked. Here, everyone you love is just as good if not better. Imelda Staunton’s Dolores Umbridge is fantastically unsettling and Evanna Lynch’s Luna Lovegood is my new favorite student at Hogwarts. And while Helena Bonham Carter hams things up just a bit too much, it wasn’t anything i couldn’t live with.
The second ingredient to a successful year at Hogwarts is Magic. Too many of the films have had either too little or no magic to them at all. And i’m not talking about characters onscreen doing magic. I’m talking about me sitting in the seat feeling it. Like Harry looking into the Mirror of Erised during Year 1 and Buckbeak’s flight as well as Prof. Lupin teaching Harry to conjure the Patronus in Year 3. Without going into spoliery details, Year 5 has the magic.
While still not close to the all around perfection that was Year 3, David Yates has created a film that plays like a direct sequel to Cauron’s entry. I don’t know where he came from – but i know i’m excited as hell he’s signed on for Half-Blood Prince. Speaking of, I now have the challenge of listening to all 17 CD’s of the audiobook before midnight next Friday, when i will go home from the Barnes & Noble release party and not leave the house until i find out where all this is going…
Oh, and, of course, seek it out in IMAX. The climactic scenes rule in IMAX 3D…much improved upon since last year’s hard-to-tell-what-you-were-looking-at Supes 3D sequences.
Hey, let’s all rate the 5 films so far. Mine are…
3 – 5 – 1 – 4 – 2
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OpenCritic
who directed 4 and 5?
Mike Newell directed 4. David Yates did 5 and starts up Year 6 in September for a November 2008 release. I hope him or Alfonso come back for 7 to finish it off.
So, i’m 300 pages into Year 6..which is amazing so far..gotta pick up the pace though…gotta get through it before midnight this friday…gotta lock myself inside all weekend and get through the final year before the spoilers get me…
I also need to see Year 5 in Imax again – this is the best 3D upgrade of this type a film has ever received…technically, and also thematically…it lends itself very well to the sequence. I feel bad for those who don’t live near an IMAX.
I still think 4 is my favorite, because outside of magic and giving characters something to do, I just like seeing these characters trying to survive the hell that is high school. The whole ball plotline I really loved, and stupid Ron not going after Hermione when he should have, and Cho Chang’s awesome accent (that never is really heard in 5). But I really enjoyed 5.
I also enjoyed this witch, I think, but probably just cause she looks like a cuter Lili Taylor and her hair changes color.
http://media.movieweb.com/galleries/2456/2535/lo/HP5D-12142.jpg
You didn’t rate your years, Eros!
I’m gonna guess you are…
4-5-3-1-2?
Anyway, Nyphadora i think her name is? She kinda comes outta nowhere in this film..but she seems to have a greater role in 6…
Did anyone read Year 5? Was there more of her?
Yeah, I’d have to say those are probably my years. I’d like to see 1 and 2 again, but I remember not really liking them all that much. Year 5, the book, was still fresh in my head so some of the absent material made me a little nuts (I wanted to see Ron playing Quidditch, or any Quidditch at all!—and while the last scene is awesome, and thinking about it gives me frickin’ chills—in the book it felt even bigger). Year 4 wasn’t so fresh, I only remember the main plot points so I was more forgiving. Though I don’t remember how much Nymphadora is in it.
Still, want to see it again—and I *knew* you’d love Luna. Perv.
No, i don’t like her like that – she is just so much fun to watch and a valuable addition to the already probably-way-too-large cast. I think it’s very overlooked how a film like this, the shortest of any potter so far, successfully juggles SO many characters. I love spending time with them all so much and will be very sad come summer 2010 when the last year is on the screen.
I know Ginny likes him and is nice…but i really hope Harry winds up with Luna. She’s who i would hang with!
What about Cho Chang and her accent?
I love Neville, I love the arc he’s been on over the last few books. Interesting how Malfoy was kinda fifth-fiddle in Year 5.
Gonna rate em 4, 3, 5, 2, 1
Though I rate 3 & 5 pretty equal. Really had a great time, really. Loved it, loved how dark it’s getting. Hate dumbledore and what a dick he is to Harry. I know he says its for Harry’s own good but that’s a lame-ass cop out by a dumb old prick.
Loved all the kids, think that picture of Hermoine you posted is absolutely ridiculous. As for Hermoine, she’s the only kid whose acting is really not improving. She says almost every line the same way and with her eyebrows bobbing up and down. But it’s ok cuz she’s been consistent to her character and I do like her. But trust me you will not be seeing her in other movies.
Wow – you both not only enjoy Year 4 but have it as your Fave. That’s hard for me to wrap my head around. To me, the only scenes that were alive in that film were the Yule Ball sequences. The rest just fell flat. I’m not saying the story or book was bad because i didn’t read that one…but man…to me, even usually awesome characters like Neville and Snape came off forgettable. And many were just plain annoying – like EVERYONE involved in the tri-wizard tournament. That sequence is the biggest example of Dumbledore (and the rest of the staff, i might add) acting like a dick (not only to Harry but to all involved). I just didn’t buy that the professors and powers that be would have had such a seemingly indifferent attitude toward these kids LIVES in that stupid tournament. I know the whole sequence exists merely to get Cedric to die and Harry to witness and not be able to do anything about it…but c’mon…it could have been done so much cooler. There were no “Buckbeak’s Flight” type sequences…no awesome scenes of Harry learning his craft by someone interesting like Prof. Lupin…and i mean, certainly no Lupin as a Werewolf vs. transformed Sirius Black action like in the end of 3. And, although close, 3 HAS to edge out 5 on its amazing camerawork and photography alone. We have never seen that world that way anytime before or after. Although 5 is so so so good you almost don’t even miss it. But, to me, it was the icing on the cake. I also do not agree about Hermione… in both respects…. I think she’s good and will find work if people let her. If you remember, she and Snape were probably the two most colorful characters in the first film. Which i also don’t know why everyone is SO hard on…it could have and should have been better, but it was till such fun to enter that world for the first time through Harry’s eyes. Not to mention repeating “Wingardium Leviosa” with the original incarnation of Prof. Flitwick. I loved what he looked like back then. Yet i also enjoy his little mini-hitleresque look these days. I love his little moment in 5. I hope for more from both him, Luna..and yes, Malfoy in years 6 and 7….
She’ll find work, once she decides to go nude.
Seriously, I thought 4 had a lot of scenes that were amazing to watch. I thoroughly enjoyed the Tri-Wizard tournament sections, love that The Doctor is in it, and just love what it introduced. Voldemort is BACK—while 5, an enjoyable story, is really just proving to the world that Voldemort is BACK (hello, we already know this). So it’s a little less developed, but I do love the whole “The Boy Who Lies” angle, even if it’s not fully baked.
And Dumbledore is a dick in ALL of them. Always shouting at people, playing ignorant and I don’t know why people love him. Fuck Dumbledore.
I’ve been quiet, because I haven’t seen Phoenix yet. I’m on vacation in Philly and I’ll probaby see it Friday night.
That having been said, up until now:
3-4-1-2
I didn’t like the second book or the movie. The deus ex machina end is freaking ridiculous. The car showing up out of nowhere? For shame, Miss Rowling. Some of those checks are blood money.
I liked Hermione best of all the characters in the first film, and have steadily grown to not like her since. Her delivery in the fourth film was laughably bad– she stood out as a bad actor in a room full of terrible actors. Rooms full with just the kids, anyway. And it doesn’t help their appearances that they’re surrounded by some of the best actors of our generation, tho it may help them grow in the long-term. Nevertheless, she was a six-way train wreck in the last movie.
I don’t yet know her significance in Year 6, but I found it strange that Emma Thompson took a bit part in Year 5 (with one line or two of dialog), and even the part in the book wasn’t that meaty. Amazing cast that series keeps getting. When does Sir Ian McKellan show up?
Hey Junk, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that picture of Hermione. Last week I accompanied once in a blue moon EG commentator maobff to the newstand so she could pick up the new issue of Details with Harry all spread out in his man glory. If she’s allowed to rub one out of sexy pics of Harry (sorry maobff, you know you did) then what’s wrong with Hermione sexing it up ever so slightly for the boys? That picture’s not even bad, my friends and I took worse ones at all our Sweet 16’s. If little girls want to look up to Hermione, cool. But they should get it straight that they’re looking up to a fictional character, Emma’s an actress, and at 17 I don’t think she should have to be confined to little girl photo shoots….actually for most guys that’d be more of a turn on than this picture anyway.
Besides, in Thailand (where Harry and his mates are super popular) she’s considered over the hill anyway.
Yes, but what did you think of the film?!
While most of this is true of Dumbledick, he WAS cool at the end of three with the time turner help, was he not?
Yes, Dumbledore WAS cool at the end of three, and perhaps I should have listed that one as my fave, btw. It had buckbeak and the bus and all that, yes? Plus it was the first Harry Potter movie not to suck.
I think I have to rearrange to 3, 5, 4, 2, 1
As for the pic of Hermoine I didn’t think it was ridiculous meaning that it was sexist. She’s approaching age to do that kind of thing. It’s just how… uhm… awkward, terrible, unsexy and insecure she looks. It makes me feel bad for her.
oh snap then I agree with you, it is a weird uncomfortable looking shot. “my bad” (to use the cutting edge slang heard in both Transformers and Fantastic Four…)
Yeah, totally, why does she have the christmas balls, kind of looks like garlic boa thingy around her neck, was she supposed to look like Yule Ball Hermione gone to seed? It makes me think Emma got all English uppity with the cockney wardrobe lady on the photo shoot and to get her back she was like “ere luv, put this round yer neck, its all the rage in America, ‘aven’t you ‘eard?”
awkward & insecure = The two most important ingredients of true beauty!!
Insecurity ie lack of self worth is hot? Damn, and I just got an iphone to make me feel cooler and better about myself. Maybe I’ll return it so you’ll think I’m beautiful again.
Buying and Returning iPhones IS what the cool kids do!