Saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I thought it was better than the fourth film, and up there with Prisoner of Azkaban, though Katie liked Goblet of Fire better. The main thing I would really have liked to see more of: Hogwarts in rebellion. “It unscrews the other way.”
We agreed that the preview of The Dark is Rising looks terrible. It looks like they’re turning it into an action movie. Will Stanton with magic powers?!?!? It’s sad, since Christopher Eccleston seemed like perfect casting for the Dark Rider.
Saw a second preview of The Golden Compass, though, and it looks even better than the first one we saw. They could still screw it up, but I at least have high hopes for this one. The visual look is dead-on (which was my first reaction to the very first Fellowship teaser), and it looks like they’ve stuck with the book’s concepts.
I went and looked at the trailer for The Dark is Rising because someone on another board was raving about it (with the caveat that she knew a bunch of us were not thrilled with the announced changes), and I have to agree with you that it looks terrible. Or at least, while it may be a perfectly good movie, it is not going to be The Dark is Rising. Such a shame!
Actually, when it came to accurately telling the story and giving us a good show, Prisoner Of Azkaban was by far the worst movie. At least they could have included the Quidditch subplot! I am so glad that they got rid of that director by the time they made Order Of The Phoenix, which I found to be the best one so far.
I still think Prisoner of Azkaban told the most cohesive story as a movie. The
otherlater films have (IMO) fallen more into the trap of bullet-point storytelling.Well, I admit that in Goblet Of Fire, Sirius Black had too little screen time, and they failed miserably when they did not show the Quidditch match–their clumsiest mistake since eliminating the potions challenge in the first movie (hopefully you know which part I mean). I recall hearing that it may have been because the first three movies all showed Quidditch games, each one under different conditions, more or less, but we never got to watch a PROFESSIONAL game.