Cody it seems got the jump on me with his review of the newest Harry Potter film and of course has nothing good to say except that it looked pretty. I of course disagree with his assessment of this fifth installment, of course.
So you would think that we are in Police Academy 5: Mission to Miami territory here. Usually when you get to 4 or 5 in almost any film series they begin to either jump the shark in a silly and pointless way or become completely un-watchable. Just like Star Trek 5 where the crew supposedly meets God. Or Superman 4 with that dumb Nuclear Man. How about Jaws 4 where the shark gets revenge? Come on! You want to talk about literally jumping the shark. Rocky 5, I won't go into details here but trust me it was just bad! American Pie 5: The Naked Mile was so bad it couldn't even be released in theatres. AVP that Aliens and Predator spin-off, it doesn't get much worse than that. Thankfully this curse of 5 does not occur in the newest and 5th sequel of Harry Potter. Thank God.
Now I have read the books and out of all of them The Order of the Phoenix is the weakest and worst of the bunch. You have a dumb prophecy, Sirius Black is annoying and Harry himself is at his most, whiny. Luckily for us all Director David Yates has spared us almost all of the bad storytelling that Mrs. Rowling subjected us to in her book. The problem for those who have not read the books or this book in particular they don't fully explain some of the new characters in this film, as Cody so eloquently put in his post. They also don't give Ron or Hermoine enough to do either which I agree is unfortunate. Perhaps they should have made it longer but, then you would have more of that ignorant prophecy that honestly has no real pay off in the movies or in the books. So in the end I think it was for the best that they snipped it. I do want to mention to Cody that I did have other friends who have not read any of the books and really enjoyed this film, and were able to follow it without any problems. Anyway, the issues that Cody had with this film I could understand to some degree, as mentioned before there were some glaring writing errors in the source material. The most important of these is that after all of the crap that happens to him over five books Harry still punks out in the end of this book as he has in the previous books until someone like Dumbledore or Sirius saves his four eyed ass once again. The movie, thankfully, gave the kid a little more stride in his step, a little less whiney and a little more angry, allowing us to see a glimpse of that bad ass wizard we probably won't see until the 7th and final book.
I also enjoyed Harry training his fellow students in secret showing us and them just how much he has learned over the years and how truly good he has become. Harry gets a little tongue action just to remind us that he is not a little kid anymore and that he is, after all of this magic stuff, a horny friggin teenager that wants to get his snog on. The second best part to the film other than the stunning Wizard's duel at the end of the film was the development of Sirius Black. I always found it funny that Rowling would proclaim that one of her favorite creations was Sirius Black. I found it funny, because of all of the characters in the books; his was the most under utilized and 2 dimensional. This is credit to the wonderful talents of Gary Oldman, and what he has brought to the role. I don't want to give the ending away but, when what happens--um, happens I was truly affected by it, even when I knew the ending. Everything made much more sense and it raised the stakes much more than the book allowed.
I still have yet to see the IMAX version and I would like to see it soon. Maybe I can get Cody to see it with me again and after some explanations maybe then he would find he actually enjoyed it more than he originally thought.
Grade: 3 1/2 Buckets
So you would think that we are in Police Academy 5: 
I also enjoyed Harry training his fellow students in secret showing us and them just how much he has learned over the years and how truly good he has become. Harry gets a little tongue action just to remind us that he is not a little kid anymore and that he is, after all of this magic stuff, a horny friggin teenager that wants to get his snog on. The second best part to the film other than the stunning Wizard's duel at the end of the film was the development of Sirius Black. I always found it funny that Rowling would proclaim that one of her favorite creations was Sirius Black. I found it funny, because of all of the characters in the books; his was the most under utilized and 2 dimensional. This is credit to the wonderful talents of Gary Oldman, and what he has brought to the role. I don't want to give the ending away but, when what happens--um, happens I was truly affected by it, even when I knew the ending. Everything made much more sense and it raised the stakes much more than the book allowed.
I still have yet to see the IMAX version and I would like to see it soon. Maybe I can get Cody to see it with me again and after some explanations maybe then he would find he actually enjoyed it more than he originally thought.
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