The Yak Shack Forum

I can't believe I don't see a thread for this yet!  If we have one, someone please direct me.  Anyone go to the midnight showing?   I've got tickets for Monday at noon at the IMAX!!!!!!  Woo-hoo!!!

Saw it yesterday and thought it was fantastic! I'm glad the director is staying for the next one, and hopefully the last one. Everyone seemed to enjoy it so much, even non-Potter-fans laughed and clapped during the movie. It didn't feel rushed like GOF and the new characters were spot-on. Snape was fantastic in this one, Mrs.Figgs, Luna, Umbridge, Lucius & Bella were all perfect. I couldn't find anything wrong with it. I'm  definitely going to see it again soon 8)!

No thread as you got it first hurrumph ;)

Really? That's unusual. It's out here now though right? Or 12th?

I don't think I'll see it for a bit... maybe this weekend (fingers crossed).

Good idea to go to the IMAX - thanks Kelly I'd not have thought of that, but that's one of the perks of being London based now... actually - come to think of it - wonder about Tues and a certain other Yak?

I'm off to see it on the Friday morning matinee performance - should be good! ;) ;D
As far as I know the first performances are at 11am Thursday 12 July, well they are here in Derby!  :P

Going to see it at 8pm after work tommorow.  ;D ;D ;D

Im going hopefully tomorrow night at 8.15pm in the brand new cinema here in Newark, if I can fight off this cold, if not i'm going to go at the weekend  :P

Have seen it yesterday and it was fantastic i loved every minute of it and the kids never moved a muscle during the whole movie and even hubby( non harry potter fan ) loved it  so everyone should go see it

Just came back from seeing it and it was wonderful......I think the best one to date !!!!!!!!!!

Wow I saw it last night and LOVED IT!!!!

There were a couple of bits that were slightly changed that I would have preferred to remain the same but it was awesome. The stand outs were Luna Lovegood and Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter was PERFECT). They did cut alot out (as you would expect, its a huge book) but it didnt effect the flow of the story too much.

The special effects were awesome, especially at the end with the Dumbly vs Voldy fight!

...the best one yet!!

Cuaron's Azkaban is still my favorite, but I did enjoy this one a lot.

As someone who does not read the books, I always wondered why the HECK there has not been a wand battle yet (it's like Star Wars with no lightsabers) so I was happy to finally see that on the screen. Luna was marvelous, I am in love with her character, very funny, very charming. I hope she is in the future movies. I also like that Sirius was in the movie for a good amount of time and had some really decent scenes worked in.

I do have my complaints though, It was definetly a bit slow. I imagine if I saw it again I would have trouble staying awake thoughout the first hour and a half. Also, and since I do not read the books I do not know if this was actually some stuff that was cut or not...but...Harry trains this big group of students to fend for themselves and then you don't actually see one of them fight anything. Also, what the heck happened to all the other groups of students? I could not disquintish any house from the other. Malfoy is basicly non existant, and so is Hagrid. Maybe a reader of the books could explain some of that to me.

Just got back from it! Loved it, loved it, loved it!

Obviously not as good as the book *aaargh, stop throwing things at me! Someone had to say it!!!* >:D

I thought it was quite well done, I loved Luna and Voldemort (I have a soft spot for Ralph Fiennes, so that could explain this ;)) and Snape and Bellatrix were fantastic. Every time I read the books, I hear Alan Rickman's drawl :rofl: Umbridge was deliciously evil. The "hem hem" was even more annoying in real life than in the books. I think Daniel's acting has improved out of this world. I liked how they used Sirius as well.

I thought we could have seen more of Cho and Harry's relationship - it seemed a bit tacked on. Not sure about the change of character for the *sneak* either.  Or at least some info at the end. Also, more of Gred and Forge's great escape (my favourite scene in the books, I was hoping to see a cracker spell out "poo" :rofl:) and more in the Ministry fight.

More Lupin and Tonks. And more of the Marauders back story. Heck - they should have just whacked in another couple of hours of film. It worked for Lord of the Rings! :rofl:

Bryan, the kids in the story didn't really fight, they were mostly running away, although they did get a few good jinxes in. There were a few more rooms they went through - you'll have to read the books for this :)

I'd give it an 8/10

LOL! I'll stand right beside you here!!!  ;) The book was obviously better!!!
I loved the movie!!  ;D I think the new characters were perfect!!! Luna was excellent and
so was Umbridge!!! I wish there were more of Tonks!! I like her!  :D
I wish so many things were included...Quidditch, Dobby, The Howler with Aunt Petunia, prefects...I think I could go on and on! I also didn't like the switch of *sneak* ! (my 10 year old looked at me like to say...mom, what are they doing... ??? )
But for the most part, I believe the storyline got across! My husband doesn't read the books and he "got it".



I totally agree!! LOL!!  :rofl:

Bryan, I have to ask... you thought the movie was SLOW?  Did you see the same movie I did yesterday?  I highly recommend you read the books or at least listen to the audiobooks.  The movies leave out a LOT (obviously).

I was very pleased - all the changes really did advance the plot though some of the changes were MAJOR differences from the book.  I'd just finished reading Book 5 again so all the scenes were pretty fresh in my mind...

I should not have to read the books. A movie should stand on its own as a part of the story. If I have to read the book to understand the movie, then the filmakers did not do a good job making the film. I don't have the time to listen to 18 hours of audiobook and I definelty do not have the time to read a big 600 page book.

The first hour and a half nothing really happens. Theres a trial, We are introduced to some new characters, some kids rebel and learn magic on their own, Harry kisses Cho, we meet some new creatures and that is pretty much it. The last hour was great, but the first hour and half was just slow to me, there wasn't anything really exciting going on. Nothing new at least. What happened to Draco and Hagrid and Lupin. What happened to the rivalry between houses and competing to win that cup at the end of the year? (something that has been missing from every film but the first) I liked the new character who I believe is named Nymphamora Tonks (Sp?) but I learned NOTHING about her. Where the heck was Quidditch? I'm pretty sure I heard my friend say they cut that out of the movie. The quidditch matches in the other films provided some great action and cinematography and really helped break up the films, this movie NEEDED something big and exciting at the half way point and it just didn't have it. I'll prob see it again though, I just don't rank it nearly as high as Azkaban or Goblet. I hope the director can take some of the great action from the end of Order and make sure to put something exciting in the MIDDLE of Half BLood Prince so I don't nearly fall asleep waiting for the big finale

Bryan, I see what you're saying, but the Harry Potter books are not action/adventure books.  There were Quidditch matches in the book, but they did nothing by themselves to advance the plot - everything that WAS in the film DID advance the plot.

That sounds like a lot to me. :)

Different strokes for different folks.  Things were left out, like Quidditch, because there wasn't enough time to include them and provide the info needed to follow the story through the seventh movie.  The director said that he didn't include Quidditch because it had already been done well in other movies.  Personally, I'd hate to see Quidditch in every single HP movie.  It would be just more of the same old thing, and that's something I would find boring.

There really wasn't all that much about Tonks in the OOTP book.  You'll learn a lot more about her in the sixth movie (if it follows the book).

Just home from seeing the movie...and to be honest i actually enjoyed it. while that might sound strange, the truth is that the book is far from being my favourite. However, as a movie it came across really well, though a little short and missing quite a bit of info that would have been helpful.

and boy was I ready to reach out and strangle Umbridge!  :rofl:

I thought the standard of acting was excellent. Mrs Figg was a little dicy I thought, but other than that Ralph Fiennes was outstanding, Dumbledore was brill, Ron's facial expressions were great... and I can't wait to see it at the IMAX theatre :D

In the credits I noticed that Peter Best was a Deatheater... you can add that to his CV alongside PoA Executioner ;)

Uh oh, now we'll get a Peter Best Death Eater auto to go with his lovely Excecutioner auto. :P  One of the local movie critics said she thought Imelda Staunton might get an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Umbridge.

My wife and I saw this one yesterday and overall we both loved it.  I too did think the movie was slow in several parts.  The big thing that surprised me was the large number of children that I saw in the theater who were very restless and non attentive throughtout most of the film.  I saw at least 50 young children ranging in age from 5 to 10 or 12 years old all with their parents who just did not get it.  I honestly do not think this movie is for a younger audience from what I witnessed.  I never saw this happen in any of the other Potter films.   ??? 

I loved Luna and Umbridge as well!   8)

I think that's just modern day kids in general - very short attention spans.  They're brought up on a diet of TV and video games from the earliest possible age as a method of keeping them quiet.  Something has to give further down the line...

That's why the British 'government' want to introduce 5 minute 'info burst' lessons to keep them interested.  Seems that 5 minutes is about as long as British kids can concentrate these days...

I'm going to see the film tomorrow afternoon and I cannot wait.  Over 18's theatre so no kids  ;D

I saw it at the Imax today.  WOW!  It's great on such a big sceen!  I wish I had seen more of Tonks and the rest of the Order, but other than that I thought they did a good job of making cuts for time.  Luna and Umbridge were terrific!  Even though it was shorter than I would have liked, I think this one tops POA as my favorite so far.  I didn't think it was as scary as POA with the werewolf and all that.  I may take my 8 year old soon since she was very upset at not being able to go with me.

Brilliant.  Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!  Quite sad in overall tone, you really did feel for some of the characters, very moving at times.  And although I've championed Prunella Scales from the start, Imelda Staunton was superb as Umbridge.  Fluffy on the outside, evil on the inside!  Very surprised they left the detention torture sequences in.  Writing that gets etched in to the back of the hand is the stuff of horror movies not a 12A.  Doesn't really drive the plot either, just gives an insight into the psycopathic & pathologic nature of Umbridge and there's plenty of that on show throughout the movie anyway.  I also thought the scenes between Harry and Sirius were a little over sentimental and again, didn't really do anything to drive the story so perhaps it could have been trimmed a little.  But overall I think they've done an excellent job of translating a heavy book into an exciting and fast paced movie.  Can't wait for the hi-def DVD's!

I think the opening sequence could have done with a bit of change (is that really Harry Melling?  He's changed a lot).  Maybe if they'd had a brief recap of events from Goblet and then gone on with the Ministry trying to discredit Harry and have him excluded from Hogwarts, it may have served things a little better for people not familiar with the books or the films.  It's been quite a gap since Goblet and I daresay we won't see HBP until Xmas 2008.  In fact, I'm sure they may well be thinking about filming the last two back to back seeing as the younger cast members are ageing so quickly.

And was it just me or did Moody's broom sound like Sebulba's pod racer from Star Wars Episode 1?

I'm going to watch it tonight at 7.30 with my dad really looking forward to it.

SPOILERS (sort of)


Oh dear I think I am out on a limb here  :-\.  I thought it was a fantastic film but a poor adaptation of the book.  Too many bits were left out ie the real danger Voldemort poses (Mrs Weasley/Boggart, kids getting hurt in Dept of Mystery's etc) and other bits were squeezed in because it seems they are essential to book 7 (Kreacher, giants, centaurs).  Grawp and the centaurs could easily have been skipped and more time given to developing Sirius' depression or the young Marauders.

I am basing a lot of this on Boggys reaction to the film (which he loved by the way) as he has never read a book.  He had no idea why it was tragic that Sirius dies, to him he was just a bit player.  He had no idea whatsoever that Harry felt guilty over the death and I think that is very important in shaping how he is in HBP. 

I did love the film I just wish some of the real peril which you feel in the book had been translated onto the screen.  This was 12a and could easily have been a bit darker - although saying that I wish the bit in the prophecy room had had a few more candles  ;)


Unfortunately this won't stop the idiot parents in the UK taking their 2 year olds to see it just because they can  >:()

But on a happier note if Imelda does get an Oscar nomination it will be well deserved  ;D

I saw it today and thought it was great. Although would like more Tonks. Think they did great with the casting Luna was perfect as were Umbridge and Bellatrix. I wanted to see it before DH comes out and whoever snuffs it snuffs it. I'm hopefully going to see it again next week though :D

Spoiler don't read it you haven't seen the film


Am I right in thinking that in the book sirius falls through the arch as he is fighting and as in the film he gets  killed by belltrix and then fall through as he is dieing. As i thought that was critical to the point that sirius is lost and no one knows where the archway/vail leads, so to kill him was so wrong. and luna saying tha lost things have a way of finding their way back to us was suposed to be about sirius but how can he be bellatrix used the killing curse on him


my head hurts after watching the film it was good but i was disappointed

JK has worked with the screenwriters and directors for all of the movies, changing things they either got wrong or left out.  She has said that when someone in the HP world is dead, they are truly dead and can't come back.  Maybe it doesn't matter that the movie shows Sirius being killed by Avada Kedavra, since in the book, he died by falling through the Veil.  Either way, he's dead.

Well, I think this is the most depressing post I've ever written! ::)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

say it isn't so i am really hoping to see him again so if harry lives he can live happily ever after (fairy tail ending of course)

I quite agree. I do love Prunella Scales, does she have an edgy evil side? I can't remember seeing it before.


Yeah, it really surprised me that she extended the torture to lots of school kids, not just Harry!


I'll always remember that I was abroad when OOTP came out and Mark called me and said "oh, you won't believe it - Dudley's a THUG" - and he really was in this! I'm normally very good at picking up characteristics in people and recognising them but I really didn't recognise Melling!