Reviewed by thepunktheory on
First of all I have to state that the book is thrilling. Impossible to put down, I read almost in one go. J. K. Rowling gets under your skin, deeper than you would imagine.
As always, the characters are described magnificently. By now they feel almost real, like true friends. The story is very intricate and you have a hard time guessing what comes next.
Moving on the book. I had my difficulties with some of the other adaptations, but this one is pretty good. Let me begin with my negative points on the list. While I loved the new cast members that joined for The Order of the Phoenix, I ended up rather disappointed this time. I was not to impress with the young version of Voldemort, played by Frank Dillane, nor with Helen McCrory. The both couldn't capture the essence that was depicted in the book. But the cast new cast member I liked the least was Jim Broadbent. The movie version has almost nothing in common with the Horace Slughorn in the novels.
As I mention in my Book vs. Movie posts on the other adaptations, they never get Dumbledore right. However, in this movie I liked him the least of all films. While he is gentle, warm yet funny and witty in the books, the movies just don't get that across. Especially in this adaptation Dumbledore feels harsher, not as empathic.
My last negative point concerns the ending of the film. One of the last scenes was extremely intense. I don't want to spoil anything so let me just say, it sent shivers down my spine and brought tears to my eyes. This would have the perfect final scene for the film. However, there is another one after that. Of course something important was mentioned there (although that could have been postponed to the beginning of the next film) but all in all the real final scene felt very wishy-washy and not strong enough.
Now let's move on to the positive points: I loved the way the friendship between Harry, Ron and Hermione was depicted. Many of those scenes were even funnier than in book! Sadly many of the other great characters got hardly any screen time but our three heroes made up for that. Many great scenes with powerful visual language are incorporated in this adaptation so I can almost forgive that a bunch of scenes I would have loved to see were left out.
Summing up I can recommend both the book and the adaptation. Although there are some flaws, it is definitely one of the better movies in the series. The story itself is dark and capturing. A must read (and see)!
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 18 August, 2015: Finished reading
- 18 August, 2015: Reviewed