I should totally have worn my Hogwarts crest shirt yesterday

[mimesere]

Saw OotP last night. I may have made inappropriate noises of glee when the following appeared on my screen: Remus Lupin, Every Flavor of Weasley Especially Ron and Arthur, Cho Chang (seriously you guys, how is Katie Leung SO ADORABLE?), Luna Lovegood (SO WONDERFUL), Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Nymphadora Tonks. Imelda Staunton was outstanding and Emma Thompson was -- I don't want to say she stole the scenes she was in, because she didn't, but she was *so perfect* in every scene she was in that I just sort of marveled at it. This, btw, is true for all of the adults, but I noticed it most with Emma Thompson and Maggie Smith.

Dumbledore's explanation at the end is still the lamest thing I've ever heard.

And part of me is always, always, always going to wonder what this movie would have been like with Cuaron at the helm. *sigh* Oh, Alfonso, you are so my platonic director boyfriend. Maybe I will go watch Children of Men today. I'm always up for an apocalypse.


I loved -- loved loved loved -- the scene where the twins were comforting the little kid. I loved that SO MUCH that I don't even have words. I love that they weren't actually very comforting but that they were trying and that it was the both of them and that it was kind of the last straw. Because dude, I have seen so many people in fandom call the twins out for being obnoxious boys who are meanspirited blah blah blah that it was just wonderful to see the movie show yes, okay, the twins are destructive and reckless and kind of thoughtless, but they're not actually bad kids and they care about people and they're empathetic. And just. I *love* all the Weasleys for how generous they are with their affections and how they are not the Best People Ever, but they try and they love each other and they have fun and they're protective of the people they consider theirs.

So, you know, yeah, I really loved that scene a lot, especially for how it totally encapsulated the whole shared pain/standing together thing the movie was going for without actually raining anvils down on your head like some of the other scenes.

*

Y'all, could Remus and Sirius have been coded as any more together? I do not think that they could. I'm not a fan of Sirius (or, truthfully, of Harry), but I love that Gary Oldman managed to get across how broken Sirius was without ever making it seem like *Sirius* knew how broken he was. He was reckless and stupid and so amazingly immature and just...he hadn't grown up at all and he was still the guy he was when he was put into Azkaban and he was bonding emotionally with Harry on the same emotional/maturity level and also using him as a replacement for James and it was wonderfully done.

*

I spent a lot of my time sighing in annoyance whenever Emma Watson or Dan Radcliffe had to carry a scene on their lonesome. Because um, dudes, Emma Watson's Hermione is wound so tight she's totally going to snap and like kill people and Dan Radcliffe has all the subtlety of a kick to the balls. I'm not saying Rupert Grint is like, a great actor or anything, but he managed to get Ron across in a way that felt like a teenage boy rather than An Actor Portraying a Teenage Boy. Also? I totally believed that Ron would fuck people up for talking smack about Harry. And I loved the scenes in the Room of Requirement and after -- the one with Ron and Hermione facing off and then where the trio is sitting around and talking about Harry and Cho's kiss and Ron is just giggling and being a boy and Hermione is like, OMG YOU ARE SUCH A BOY and Harry's like, OMG I TOUCHED A GIRL and Ron's all I totally love you guys the best. Because he does.

Hi, I love Ron just a little bit, can you tell?

*

The thing that I keep wanting from these movies, which I got in a big way in PoA and a bit in OotP, is the feeling that this is a world that's lived in where magic is totally commonplace and used for everything. So I *loved* seeing how big the Ministry was and seeing all the adults flinging magic around effortlessly.



Anyway. That's kind of it. It was a fun movie, especially with the ending in IMAX 3D, and there were winged raptors pulling the coaches. I might have gone "GRAR!" at the screen.

One day, I would like an explanation of where exactly wizarding children receive their primary school education and if there's anything after Hogwarts. Or where the other schools are. Or ANYTHING that would indicate that the kids in Hogwarts are not the entirety of British wizardry's gen-X.

Comments

[strangemuses.livejournal.com]

Find me one scene in the books where the Weasley Twins are shown being all cuddly and supportive of some tremulous little kid and maybe I'll relent a bit in how much that scene in the movie bothered me. It was so incredibly out of character for them, IMO.

OTOH, it did make me like them for the first time ever.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

Er. See, I don't think it's so much that there's a scene in the books where the twins comfort a crying kid, so much as it is a lack of a scene that says they wouldn't.

[strangemuses.livejournal.com]

That works!

[katemonkey.livejournal.com]

God, I can't cope with Katie Leung's adorableness! It makes me smile during inappropriate situations, when my mind wanders to cute girls with Glaswegian accents!

(Oh God, I never knew spells could be so "awww"-inspiring! Stop me now!)

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

She was SO adorable! I love her a lot.

[oh-mumble.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I read somewhere that wizarding kids are home-schooled, or communally home-schooled because it was too dangerous to let them mix with Muggles.

You'd hope that there were more schools than Hogwarts, wouldn't you? Cos there's forty kids in each school year which is not a lot. But then if there were more UK schools, why on earth would the Malfoys suggest sending Draco to Durmstrang and not one of them? Oh god, it's so confusing.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the whole Durmstrang + Malfoys thing is what made me blink a lot and do some calculating. Maybe the Malfoys wanted Durmstrang because of the whole Dark Arts thing.

[blankbadge.livejournal.com]

Very spot on on Sirius and Ron.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I am pretty sure it's all remnants from the discussion when OotP the book came out that just stuck in my head, but you know, reiteration is rarely a bad thing.

[rawumber.livejournal.com]

This is random based on a comment a student told me I just thought of now. In the movie, was it Cho that betrayed the DA to Umbridge? I thought it was Cho's friend Marietta that did the betraying, Cho defending her.

--confused.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

Yup. In the movie, Umbridge uses veritaserum on Cho and that's how she finds out about the DA. In the book, it's Cho's friend and no veritaserum.

[rawumber.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha, I was right.

Uhem. Yeah, these are what I talk about in session with some of my kids.

I rock, don't I?

[donella.livejournal.com]

I was always wondering why Hogwarts was the only coed wizarding school in the Triwizard Tournament.

[skywardprodigal.livejournal.com]

I totally believed that Ron would fuck people up for talking smack about Harry.

Yeah.

And I loved the scenes in the Room of Requirement and after -- the one with Ron and Hermione facing off and then where the trio is sitting around and talking about Harry and Cho's kiss and Ron is just giggling and being a boy and Hermione is like, OMG YOU ARE SUCH A BOY and Harry's like, OMG I TOUCHED A GIRL and Ron's all I totally love you guys the best. Because he does.

YES! That's like, my favorite scene. Not in the whole series though. My favorite scene in the whole series is when the boys are doing drugs up in their room. I mean, wheezes. Y'know.

Hi, I love Ron just a little bit, can you tell?

Yes. I'm love that I'm not sure if Grint's been taking classes or not. I hate that I know that Radcliffe and Watson have taken too many.