Review:

I have to qualify this review. You may be able to tell from some of my other reviews that I am a bit biased when it comes to Harry Potter. I’m a big fan. BUT, and that’s a big “but,” I can be somewhat objective when it comes to the film as a whole. I’ll use my usual breakdown to cover the highlights.

Plot: This is always a challenge when it comes to making a movie based on a book. It’s especially difficult in this case considering the printed version of The Order of The Phoenix is a whopping 870 pages. I have to admit that they did a decent job of distilling the plot so it could be told in under 2.5 hours. This is not one of my favorite books, and unfortunately the parts I liked about it had to be cut. Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) got a bit of the shaft this time around. Most of his subplots were cut. Personally, I think it was a necessary evil, but evil none the less. One relatively small weakness is that Harry’s and Cho’s (Katie Leung) relationship is left somewhat up in the air, whereas the book is far more definitive. I think this will impact what we know must happen in Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince.

Acting: What can I say, they are getting better. They were good in the first two films (too young to be bad). They were bad in the third film (they decided they were “actors”). Now, they’re on a slow but upward climb. There was an improvement in The Goblet of Fire and we see just a little bit more in The Order of the Phoenix. I’m becoming convinced that Rupert Grint is the best of the kid actors, but they are all pretty close.

Action/Effects: These movies get a little bit more impressive with each new chapter. I think this movie gave the effects team a bit more fun than before. Highlights are definitely the students’ battle with the Death Eaters and Dumbledore vs. Voldemort. Apparently all of the CG effects actually were a problem for the movie, so Harry Potter 6 will supposedly have fewer effects.

Overall: It’s Harry Potter. Of course you have to go see it. It should be seen on the big screen and I personally think this is worth a primetime ticket. It’s definitely a better movie than Harry Potter 3 and the plot is more interesting than Harry Potter 1 & 2. Good luck fighting the crowds. The Harry Potter schedule to keep your magical addiction in check:

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (book) :: July 21st, 2007
Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix (dvd) :: Winter 2007
Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince (theaters) :: November, 2008
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (theaters) :: June, 2010

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Two-Disc Special Edition) (Harry Potter 4)

Review

So this review is a little late since this movie was released in May, but as my new “editor” pointed out, I have to write this one to complete my review of Dead Man’s Chest. I gave that a conditional 4 stars so I need to review this movie and then make an addendum to that review. To keep it simple, I’m going to use my new format to cover reviews a little more quickly.

Plot: This plot is confusing as all heck, which highlights the poor planning and execution of the second film as well as this one. There are a lot of subplots which don’t necessarily come together very well. Though I liked this movie far more than I liked the second chapter, this one could have been better. Better planning on the screenwriters’ parts could have distributed the subplots more evenly between the films and made At World’s End a little more understandable. If you don’t catch everything when you see this movie, don’t worry, neither did most people. Even the director said it was confusing. And if anyone cares, the Callipso subplot served absolutely no purpose (except to create a giant whirlpool). I must admit that Keith Richard’s cameo was amusing. Oh, and any romantics in the audience may have a slightly bitter taste in their mouths when all is said and done.

Action/Effects: The action in this movie was pretty good. I was definitely entertained even if I didn’t fully get what was going on. The sword fights were pretty well choreographed and the CGI stuff looked pretty good. They definitely tried to top part 2, which I think they accomplished.

Overall: This was definitely an improvement over Dead Man’s Chest, but it still didn’t meet expectations. I go back to a previous comment that this plot/series is not an epic or great saga. Each film should have been completely self contained. Since it is a big CGI/action flick, it’s worth seeing in the theaters, but still not up to snuff. Grab a matinée show, it’s not worth the prime time ticket price.

Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest (Two-Disc Collector’s Edition)

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest @ IMDB

Synopsis:
Captain Jack (Johnny Depp) is back in this action-packed sequel to the Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Captain Jack Sparrow’s time is up. The dreaded Davey Jones (Bill Nighy) has called to collect on the deal that made Jack the captain of the Black Pearl. His only hope is to find the Dead Man’s Chest, an artifact of great power, that will bring Jones to his knees. But things get complicated when Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander), head of the East India Trading company makes a play for the Chest, dragging Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Kiera Knightley) in to the adventure.

Review:
This was one movie I was really anxious to see. I thought the first film was excellent, and I hoped the sequel would live up to standard it set. I have to say that I was a little dissappointed. I enjoyed the movie but I think it could have been a lot better. There are somethings that were as good as the last time, including Depp’s, Bloom’s, and Knightley’s performances. The effects were also as good as the last time. In fact, I think there was a slight improvement. The CG and creature effects seemed more refined than they did in the first one (fluid movements, etc.).

So the big thing that bothered me was that this movie was not self contained. When the first film was done, things seemed to be wrapped up fairly well. I had hoped that the sequel would be an entertaining adventure that would be done in two and a half hours. This movie ends on a cliffhanger/twist. There are absolutely no conclusions in this film, it is all setup for part three. Now sometimes this can work when the story is an epic or a saga, Lord of the Rings for example. Here, it seemed like they were trying to be like Empire Strikes Back, but they fell short. I know it sounds like I hated this movie and that’s not true. It just wasn’t what I had hoped.

For my criticism, you might wonder why I gave this movie four out of five stars. Well, my four star rating is somewhat conditional. I don’t normally do this, but I think that if part three, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, is good then this movie was good. Since Dead Man’s Chest was preparing us for At World’s End, then we can only know how good of a job it did once we’ve seen the final chapter.

The final criticism I have for this film is that it seemed to unravel some of the tidy knots the first film tied up. I don’t want to get in to them for fear of revealing more of the plot, but I think you’ll agree once you’ve seen it. In the end, I recommend you see this movie, mainly because At World’s End may really be amazing. I don’t think its worth the primetime ticket, but seeing it on the big screen makes a difference.

Movie Review: The Goblet of Fire

This is the 411 on the DVD release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Being the fanactic that I am, I ran out and purchased the 2-Disc Special Edition dvd. To tell the truth, I don’t think there is much special about the 2-disc edition. Its a decent set, but its not all that a special edition should be.

The big thing that bugged me about this set is the menu system. Now, typical dvds will have sections like special features, behind-the-scenes, deleted scenes, games, etc. This set, and all of the other Harry Potter 2-disc sets for that matter, have sections called Hogwarts, The Maze, or The Black Lake. Though I appreciate the novelty of this layout, it makes it impossible to find what you’re looking for. I couldn’t tell if deleted scenes would be in Hogwarts or the Maze. I guessed and got lucky.

Now, if you get beyond the menus, the bonus disc has some cool features. The deleted scenes were interesting to see, though it was clear why they were cut from the film. I was hoping that the deleted scenes would be more significant, but unfortunately, they weren’t. They were still cool to see. The unfortunate thing is that if you buy the single-disc version of the movie, you get no special features. I think that’s being a bit cheap on Warner Brother’s part, but that’s just me.

Disc-2, the one with all of the special features, is full of games. There is a xbox demo, a pc demo, and several dvd games. There’s plenty to keep you entertained for hours! I personally don’t enjoy games played on a menu system like a dvd-player, but I can imagine that they would be fairly entertaining for a kid.

The burning question: is it worth the money? Now, the average difference between the sales price of the single-disc versus the 2-disc appears to be about five dollars. My dvds get enough use to make that five bucks worth it. If you have kids that get a kick out of dvd-games, then its worth it. If you’re a fanatic like me, its a must have. If you just liked the movie but you’re not crazy, then I would only spend the cash on the single-disc. In the end I think it makes a nice, albeit flawed, addition to my dvd collection.

Synopsis:
When four young children are sent away during the bombing of London, an eccentric professor takes them in at his countryside mansion. One rainy day, a simple game of hide and seak helps a young Lucy Pevensie (Georgie Henley) discover a mysterious wardrobe. Soon Lucy leads her siblings Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Susan (Anna Popplewell), and Peter (William Moseley) through the wardrobe and in to the magical land of Narnia. But all is not as it seems in the enchanting world. A never ending winter has fallen upon the land and the evil White Witch (Tilda Swinton) has driven everyone to live in fear. The children must struggle across Narnia to fulfill an ancient prophecy and learn what their destinies hold.

Review:
This movie was amazing! I read (or possibly listened to) this book when I was a kid. I honestly don’t remember any of it. I was thoroughly impressed by this movie. I will start this one off with my final recommendation: GO SEE THIS MOVIE! I highly recommend you go see this movie while its in the theatre. Its definitely a cinematic experience and I would go so far as to say that its worth a primetime ticket. I must impress upon you that, that is high praise (at least in my book).

Ok, now to the nitty-gritty. Unlike some recent movie series, Harry Potter & Lord of the Rings, I don’t remember the book so I had nothing invested when I went to the theater. The story was really interesting. Now, I can’t say this is all because of the writers. The author of the book, C.S. Lewis, is probably to blame for such an engaging plot and fun characters. The movie was about two and a half hours and I wasn’t bored for a single bit of it.

Now the money and effort poured in to this movie is pretty impressive. They pulled out the stops like they did for LOTR. Unfortunately, some scenes looked a just a little sloppy. Now nothing is ever perfect and I don’t think the few scenes that could have been better really hurt this movie. I liked the costumes and different creatures that populated the land of Narnia. But I do agree with a friend of mine who said that the White Witch’s minotaur general seemed a bit corny.

The actors were pretty good. I liked the kids, they were solid. Lucy and Edmund were by far the best. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Liam Neeson’s voice behind Aslan. The White Witch wasn’t bad, but here character didn’t really require that much. Acting cold and uncare is probably not the most difficult character to pull off. The Beavers (Ray Winstone & Dawn French) were great. Mr. Beaver was hilarious truly added the comedic relief for this movie.

All in all, awesome movie. Go out and see it.

Synopsis:
In his fourth year, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) finds himself as an unwilling participant of an ancient competition between three rival schools of magic. But something else is amiss. Unexplainable events at the Quidditch World Cup herald the return of the Dark Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), but what does he want with Harry and what will he do to get him? Can Harry survive the three dangerous tasks of the Triwizard Tournement? Will he get a date to the Yule Ball?! Things will change in year four at Hogwarts.

Review:
I’m going to start by truncating the titles to make writing this review a little easier. I’ll drop the Harry Potter and the from the titles. I’m not trying to make a big fuss over what the “true” title of the movie is here. I’m just being technical I guess. Plus I’m trying to save myself some typing. Also, most people who are considering this movie already know what happens. I’ll assume for the most part that you do to, but I’ll try my best not to ruin it for those who don’t. At any rate lets get in to it, shall we?

It is important to note that I have read all of the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. I’m a serious fan and I love the details. Its all in the details. I have to give credit to Rowling here for a rather engaging and complex plot she’s put together and I eagerly await the seventh and final installment. Having said all I that, I did not like Prisoner of Azkaban, but I did Goblet of Fire. These were my two favorite novels in the series so far, so I’m pretty critical of these movies.

I really think Goblet of Fire won me over visually more than anything else. Though the movie was darker than any of its predecessors, the screen wasn’t literally darker. This was one of my complaints with Prisoner of Azkaban, all the imagery was to dull/dark. The colors and effects in Goblet of Fire really brought things alive on the screen. There is a lot of action in this movie and that’s something that helps it along. The three tasks keep the audience’s attention for a big part of the movie.

One thing that I didn’t like is that the movie really does not bring across the mystery that exists in the fourth book. Rowling put together a fairly interesting plot, but we get a really watered down version in the film. They chose to show the culprit in the first scene (a difference from the novel). The audience doesn’t have much to do to solve the mystery and it isn’t much of a WOW when the culprit is revealed. Another thing the movie failed to convey is that the fourth novel ends with a lot of apprehension about what the future holds. Harry and his friends are afraid of what Voldemort will do and what it means for their lives. We also are supposed to get a hint of the politics that rule the fifth novel. The movie didn’t hit any of those points. In fact the movie ended on an overly cheery note for me.

I do have to give the writers some credit. They adapted a long and detailed novel in to a two and a half hour movie. The unfortunately cut some of my favorite scenes from the novel including Dobby the house elf, the Dursleys, and the Quidditch World Cup (kinda). They did get the important stuff in. But as was expected, I missed the little things. I also feel like they skewed things a bit. The Ron-Hermoine relationship really didn’t get the time it deserved, nor did the meddlings of Rita Skeeter. From the way they played certain scenes, it looks like Hermoine has a thing for Harry, which isn’t quite right.

The special effects in this movie surpass the previous three installments. The dragons were amazing as was lake task. I was a little dissappointed with Lord Voldemort. He didn’t look quite right. His eyes should have been visibly red (a fact they mention multiple times in the book). Fiennes also made Voldemort seem more like a floating fairy than a dark lord. I didn’t quite get the rage and evil I wanted from Voldemort (mainly because he seemed to be “dancing” around the screen).

I could go on and on about what I thought about this movie. Obviously my opinions on Harry Potter are limitless. You might be wondering why I gave this movie four out of five stars but have some many criticisms. To be honest, I am being overly critical. I did like the movie and I thought it was better than the third film. And of course, its a Harry Potter movie. How could it be bad? This movie is definitely worth watching, even at primetime ticket prices. If you haven’t seen them already, rent the first three and then head to the theater. You won’t be sorry you did.