Running Commentary: Harry Potter and the Order of the Screenplay

by: bamf 1 year, 2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 43 minutes ago 1

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Bamf here rematerializing from the void..

It is a pleasure to see another Harry Potter film in the theater again.  I very much enjoy the enchanting experience of watching characters whom live in words on the page, come to life on the screen interacting and growing towards their (as of writing this) unknown conclusion.  The three principle stars of the series have developed well over time into their roles and in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; at this point, they know their characters well to own.  Emma Watson seemed to go off track in the previous link in the saga (Goblet of Fire) but now I don’t see that as fault of her acting abilities, rather, a reflection of who her character is as that insufferable little know it all.  Rupert Grint delivered his best performance yet going a bit beyond his comic relief stature.  And Dan Radcliffe now brings presence to his role and has become a leading man in his own right.  David Yates, director, certainly has much to do with these young talents’ development.  Coming exclusively from a TV background, his attention to character performance with these three certainly added tools to their repertoire that will pay off greatly in the final two installments.  However, this is also where the film fails on a whole, as it never has the scope of a fantasy film like Cauron accomplished with Prisoner of Azkaban.  Yates’ inexperience in film limits his thinking, and Michael Goldenberg’s adaptation, as a screenplay certainly did not help this either.  I blame Yates for not using his characters to tell more stories through nuanced action, and Goldenberg for, in my estimation, making sloppy errors in basic story telling on a whole.

Im conflicted in many different aspects when it comes to this review.  I make no attempt in hiding how much I enjoy the Rowling crafted series.  I have great fun reading her writing and living in the magical world that she has created.  Order of the Phoenix is my favorite book thus far in the series. It really encapsulates the coming of age, teenage angst and the expression of childhood’s end.  This by far is the most difficult book to adapt in the series, and while I do not want to come off as complaining—like the recent fever of attack regarding flames on Optimus Prime—I will not make excuses for lazy story telling in pictures.

I have seen Order twice now, within 12 hours no less—midnight show then a nooner. A film will always suffer up against the theater of the mind, so the task at hand in the adaptation of a book lies in the abridgement of the most important of material and connecting it all with seamless progression.  Departures from the source material can be forgiven as you have to amalgamate plot points to tell a full story, but this does not mean you abandon fundamental techniques in cognitive story telling.  Granted, I find it difficult to divorce myself from the canon that I know very well which in turn mean I have fore knowledge on the events chronologically in the book and how plot points will play out in the 6th book.  What follow will explain what I mean when it comes to the error in Goldenberg’s ways.

First off, scenes at the beginning should tee up for a pay off at the end. And the script does the former, not the latter.  Rowling always has had the red herring plot devices in all of her tales to throw the reader off with non-clues and at the same time blatant reveals that only occur to be so afterwards.  And so far in the adaptation of the series, the films have stayed true to this aspect of her tales.  That was until Order; cue the major spoiler warning text here. 

Plot spoilers for Order of the Phoenix as well as hints of Half Blood Prince follows.  Do not continue if you do not want to know what happens.

Dolores Umbridge finds the implication by Dumbledore incredulous that the Ministry of Magic would send dangerous magical creatures to attack Harry.  Since Dementors remain under the Ministry of Magic’s control, and it would seem that no one would call such an order, Harry’s credibility as to why he uses a Patronus Charm to repeal them is corrupted, and further gives credence to the need to expel him from Hogwarts since he has gone against the “No magic in front of Muggles”(non-magical types).  So you are brought to the assumption that Voldemort is the cause for the Dementors to be sent to Little Winging, the town in which Harry resides in during the summer.  The result of these deadly beings being sent would either kill Harry, or make him unable to attend Hogwarts, thus removing him from Dumbledore’s protection.  Both situations are win/win for Voldemort.  But in fact, Voldemort has nothing to do with the Dementors assignment, and it is revealed at the end of book 5 that in fact Umbridge, first underling to the Minister Fudge, was the person who sent them on her own accord.  The set up is there in the film, but they never pay it off at the end.  In the series, this is an important point in Potter’s life because it cements his mistrust for the government, and pushes forward the already present ideal of not trusting anyone in the Ministry, and to some extent Hogwarts in the next book.  It makes no sense why they would cut what are essentially four revelatory lines from Umbridge’s last scene in the film.

Rowling’s series has much to do with racism in the magical world.  Wizards feel that magic is theirs to use as they see fit, and this does not stop at a wand, it continues on to any creature deemed magical in nature.  The subjugation of the house elves, which are slaves to their families is a great example of this point.  They are kept with no clothes, have no rights other then the execution of their masters will.  This class system is in part, what is leading to the fall of the magical world.  Voldemort has great power because he promises the sentient magical creatures from Giants to Goblins that under his rule they would no longer be mere servants to the Wizarding world.  Kreacher, house elf to the House of Black, from which Sirius (Harry’s God-father) comes from is an example of reaping what the Wizards have sewn. Kreacher is a bitter servant to Sirius, only bound to do his bidding through magical decree.  Sirius has rejected the Dark arts of his lineage before him and Kreacher’s resentment for what he views as a betrayal to the family he is bound to leads to the cause of Sirius’s death.  This in part is Sirius’s fault too, because since Kreacher is the last relic of his family’s dutiful obligation to the Dark Arts, he resents him for what he represents and never tries to be nice or civil to the house elf who was made this way by Wizards.  Once again, this is laid out at the beginning as best they can in the film, with subtle hints towards Kreachers true allegiances but they never show why Harry gets the definitive answer to send him to the battle at the Ministry.  They come damn close of course.

In the film, as in the book, Hermione warns that Voldemort may have put this idea of his God-father’s capture in Potter’s head because he knows that Harry will always play the hero.  Because of this, Harry decides to try and contact Sirius through the floo network to find out if he is still at his home. So they arrive at the only un-monitored floo, Umbridge’s, but in the film they stop there and never show what happens when he does pass his head through to Number 12 Grimmauld place.  Since Harry cannot pass all the way through, he calls out for Sirius to come to him.  Kreacher appears and Harry asks if Sirius is still there.  Kreacher says no, that his master left hours ago.  This leads Harry to believe that the vision he had of Voldemort torturing Sirius was not a false plant, and puts him steadfastly on the path to the Ministry of Magic.  As it turns out, Kreacher was lying, and Black was upstairs out of earshot.  Now this moment is extremely important as set up for the 6th book.  Because everything in the House of Black is left to Harry in the will of Sirius, Kreacher is now bound to obey him.  But because the house elf is essentially responsible for Sirius’s demise, Harry resents and loathes him and in doing so begins to fall into the same trap that Sirius did.  Since this was not included, they have to play catch up.  And do not think I’m stretching here.  In an interview with Yates, the rumor was posed that a character had been removed from the script, then re-entered after Rowling made the comment that the mystery character would be very important to book 7, and they would have a lot of explaining to do.  When pushed on what character it was, Yates revealed it to be…Kreacher.  So we know he has a large part to play, possibly the Gollum role from LOTR, but I tend to think Peter Pettigrew has more to do with that role then Kreacher.

I pick at these two plot points because they have lasting ramifications in the saga as a whole, both known as well as un-known.  Both points were set up at the beginning of the film but were never paid off in the end.  And what of the absolutely ridiculous need to place the beginning of Snape’s Occlumency lessons before Christmas ?  Considering the trauma that Harry had just endured, the decision not only seems contrary to Dumbledores character but foolish to the extent that no child wants to learn something new hours before they are to leave for holiday break. Doing such a thing is a sign of someone losing touch with the development of the story, a lapse that…is unforgivable.

As said, this is the most difficult story of the series to adapt.  It deals with Harry’s own introspection, the anger and frustration that come with being young and dismissed, and the realization that he may very well have to face his end of days alone.  My favorite chapter, “Snapes worst memory” in Order was given about 30 seconds of presence, and I would rather it had not been shown at all.  But given that the chapter mentioned has everything to do with The Half-Blood Prince, they were forced to add it in but with little skill or grace.  I really could go on and on as I am sure you can tell, the locket, levi-corpus (a spell learned only after Snapes worst memory, yet shown in the film before), and the botched detention with Dolores, but I will leave the bitching for now.

I am indeed conflicted on the screen adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  The film has brilliant music composed by Nicholas Hooper and I am excited to hear what he has in store for the next installment.  There were moments of glee, like Alan Rickman stealing the second act by saying only two lines, and Ginny Weasley’s scathing look at Hermione when she mentioned how Cho Chang could not keep her eyes off Potter.  I loved those moments.  This cast is rich with talent both young and old; they just need their stage better handled by a director who can handle more then just their performances.  Steve Kloves is back on adaptation detail for Half-Blood Prince and I for one am happy for that, and I wish that Yates will become far more proficient at his craft so that this series is not dragged down at the neck by his lack of experience with such a detail rich production.  Just please, Warner Bros, cast, J.K. Rowling, bring Alfonso Cauron back for the 7th and complete the series right, since it will be another 20 years before it’s all remade again.

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