Did I Mention...

...that we saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at the midnight show on Wednesday morning? I kind of don't think I did.

I'm getting pretty upset with these movies as they go on. The first two were cute and the third was excellent. But as the books get longer the movies get more and more compressed, with more and more left out--which causes more and more to have to be left out--which causes.....you get my drift.

For example, in CoS, the scene between Harry and Filch where Harry discovers Filch is a Squib never takes place. So Squibs are never explained. So when Arabella Figg shows up in OotP, it's like, "Who is this batty old woman and why is she appearing right now?" You don;t know she's a squib; she can't be a squib because in the world of the movies squibs don't exist.

And what about Bill Weasley? He never got introduced in Goblet of Fire. So the connection between him and Fleur hasn't happened. How are they going to handle that in movie six where a great deal is made of the fact that the two are engaged? And I can't know for sure, but it seems like the Weasley wedding is going to be a big scene in book seven--I'm actually imagining bad things happening. Are they just going to cut that or are they going to introduce Bill at the last minute or what?

Don;t get me wrong-these movies have some fine things about them, not the least in the casting. But I think all the script cuts really detract from the experience. And the inconsistency in direction with the constant change of directors is really starting to annoy me. It seems to me that would leave way too much burden on the actors--especially the ones who have been recurring characters--for making their characters consistent. You can see that in the change in Dumbledore from movie three to movie four to movie five--he's different every time and though I like Michael Gambon I can't say I like all the changes.

These movies are made for people who have already read the books, because if you haven't read the books you can't understand them, especially the later ones. But they do the books a great disservice by rushing through plot details and compressing scenes to the point of incoherence.

rant over and out