Today marked the UK opening of the fifth Harry Potter movie, which I managed to see this evening after hearing a glowing review this afternoon. All in all, it's not a bad flick, and certainly one of the better ones of the franchise. Perhaps not the best - nothing quite beats the charm of the first, really - but HP5 had a number of selling points:
-Harry is actually learning to act. He also PMSes much less in the film than he did in the book.
-Umbridge is amazing, and I will never look at pink suits the same way again.
-Snape manages to steal scenes with two words. There needed to be quite a bit more of him, but I assume he'll get ample face time in the next movie.
-Luna is also quite good. Apparently, she doesn't have to act...
On the down side, the whole thing does feel a bit rushed, but then again, the novel was thick and they had a lot of ground to cover. What you get, in essence, is a skimming of the plot and a whole lot of amazingly shiny CGI. Glass explodes. Fireballs appear. People vaporize and start rushing after each other around the room. Voldemort still lacks a substantial nose. There's a great scene with a paper bird early in the school year...
Tonight was only the beginning. Tomorrow, I'm off to reserve my copy for next Saturday...
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