Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Updated)

We saw the new Harry Potter movie this evening with Sara, Todd and my coworker, Brooke. It is fun to go to the movies. (This stems from the fact that we rarely see movies on the big screen.) I was able to finish book 5 before we left, though Mary had to wait for me to finish the last three pages. My thoughts on the Order of the Phoenix:

• Of course the movie is different from the book, so get over it. A movie has a different set of constraints and possibilities than a book does. That's okay. Accept each as different artistic creations.
• The screen writers did a great job focusing on the key conflict. The movie revolves around the ministry/Umbridge versus Harry and I really liked how it was done. You cannot tell the whole story from the books, but they chose the right story line for the movie.
• The acting was pretty good, but it is a shame that there are so many great actors in the movie and you never get enough screen time of each one.
• Luna Lovegood is excellent.
• How Sirius died in the Department of Mysteries was brilliantly filmed.
• I enjoyed the score to this movie more than the others. The music added to the story without be obtrusive.
• The final fight scene was cool. Our friends told us they were going to see the movie tomorrow on an IMAX screen with the last half-hour in 3-D. That should make the end eye-popping.
• Many of the great lines from the book are in the movie but they are moved around or even said by different characters. I thought that was funny.
• It would have been fun to see the movie version of Willy Widdershins and his muggle-baiting, regurgitating toilets. It would not have added to the story, but it would have been interesting to watch the movie version of that scene.
• I wish they had developed the Order of the Phoenix story just a little bit more. They hit it quickly without real detail.
• My biggest complaint is that it was too episodic. They focused down on the story in the middle, but the beginning jumped around. Many of the transitions throughout the movie were too abrupt.

Final Recommendation: Go and see this movie in the theater. You will enjoy it unless you cannot imagine seeing a Harry Potter movie that is not absolutely true to the book.

Two more thoughts:

1. There were two things about Sirius Black that I noticed in the movie. The first is at a climatic point he spoke to Harry and called him James. It was a superb touch and in line with his character. But at a different point he spoke of Lord Voldemort as the Dark Lord. This did not fit since that is the name the Death Eaters use. I could not imagine Sirius calling him the Dark Lord.
2. In an interview for one of the earlier movies, JK Rowling said she had to make sure certain parts of the story were included in the movies so all the movies would make sense. Scenes that I thought could be in this category: the scene with the picture of the Order, Grawp's scene, the barman and the goat in the Hog's Head, and learning about Neville's parents. There may have been others, but these ones struck me as if they could not be left out.