Out of Order in the fifth film

I don't know enough about film making to know whom to blame: the director, the editor or the continuity person. But I've just watched the movie version of The Order of the Phoenix again and, let me tell you, that film is seriously flawed.

And I'm not just talking about the numerous poor decisions the screen writer made in revising J.K. Rowling's long novel into a relatively short film. I'm talking about easy to avoid flaws that suggest that the film makers were just plain sloppy when they made this one.

Take, for example, the opening scene in the play park in Little Whinging in which Harry confronts Dudley and his gang. The editing in this scene is amateurish at best and the continuity just doesn't work. Dudley makes a joke and we're treated to a quick shot of him looking left and right at members of his laughing gang. Harry is nowhere in the shot, still seated on the swings.

Then Dudley teases Harry about his nightmares and Harry gets up, pulls his wand and rushes at his cousin. Cut to that same footage of Dudley laughing, looking side to side, with no sign of Harry in the shot. Then cut back to a close up of Harry jabbing his wand into Dudley's neck and Dudley looking terrified. Sloppy sloppy work.

The storm-clouds set in and we get an aerial shot of the play park. The gang members are still ranged behind Dudley but he appears to be standing side by side with Harry, with some space between them. Cut back to the closeup of Harry with his wand at Dudley's throat. Awful.

Or how about the scenes in the Room of Requirement as the DA practices, just before Umbridge crashes the party. I won't try to describe it all but, suffice it to say, from shot to shot, characters dance all over the place. No continuity. Amateurish, jumpy editing.

While we're on the DA training, how is that so many characters are able to produce corporeal Patronuses on their first try? From what I saw, Ginny, Hermione and Luna all had bright white animals shoot out of their wands on their first attempt at this most difficult charm. How is that possible?

And was that Levicorpus I heard Harry teaching the gang in the DA? Levicorpus, a spell he doesn't learn until he reads it in the Half-Blood Prince's potions text book in the six novel? To compound the problem, the film makers then have James Potter use a different spell on Snape in the Potion Master's memory, rather than Levicorpus. And further, they have Luna use Levicorpus inside the Hall of Prophesy against a Death Eater.

Huh? Why? Why introduce it at this point at all? It's not necessary and people like me are just going to be upset by the change from the original.

And finally, back on the issue of continuity problems, think about the battle scene in the Ministry, where members of the Order of the Phoenix come to the rescue of our six favourite kids.

First, try to ignore the ridiculous fact that the filmmakers decided that witches and wizards should be able to fly without the aid of brooms, thestrals or other instruments of flight (which still bothers me greatly), and the fact that the filmic Sirius Black arrives and, with Lucius Malfoy at his utter mercy, chooses to punch him, rather than stunning or even killing him. This inexplicable choice permits Malfoy to continue in the battle.

Sorry, I can't. I simply can't ignore that stuff. It drives me absolutely nuts.

Anyway, back to continuity. After the punch, Harry and Sirius get involved in a serious wand battle with Malfoy and another Death Eater. Sirius manages to stun the DE and Harry, taking advantage of the distraction, hits Malfoy with a quick disarming spell and we see Malfoy's wand go spinning out of his hand.

"Nice one James," cries Sirius. But when Sirius fires another spell at Malfoy, Malfoy deflects it with the wand that a split second ago we saw flying away from him. Another battle ensues, which distracts Sirius enough to permit Bellatrix to kill him with the killing curse.

How did Malfoy get his wand back?

This film is so poorly made that I can't help but wonder if the filmmakers chose to cut as many corners as possible, knowing that Harry Potter fans around the world would flock to the film anyway.

Hagrid Flies? Really?

I've often wondered about this and it has struck me again as I read J.K.'s first book in French. When Harry asks Hagrid how he got to the rock in the middle of the sea to deliver Harry's Poudlard (Hogwarts) letter to him, Hagrid tells Harry he flew there.

J.K. never explains how Hagrid flew there.

He could not have come on a broom for two reasons: first, he doesn't bring a broom back to London and, second, it is explained in a later novel that Hagrid is too heavy for a broom.

He could not have come via Sirius' motorbike (upon which Hagrid had flown the infant Harry to Privet Drive in the first place) since he would have had to leave it on the rock when he takes Harry away with him on the boat.

He could not have apparated there, since Hagrid is never shown to have mastered Apparition, he was kicked out of Hogwarts in his third year before he could have taken lessons and earned his Apparition license, and, besides, Apparition requires a fully functioning wand. Hagrid's was broken in half when he was forced to leave school.

Since it is established in The Deathly Hallows that only Voldemort can fly on his own (several members of the Order tell the others with amazement that "Voldemort can fly" after the Death Eaters ambush the seven Harrys), it would seem to me that there are only three possible explanations as to Hagrid's claim that he had flown to the rock in the sea:

1) He flew in on a Hippogriff or Thestral, which delivered Hagrid and then flew away again. I wonder if either a Hippogriff or a Thestral would be strong enough to carry Hagrid, however;

2) He was taken there by someone else via Side-Along Apparition, though I don't understand why that person wouldn't have stayed to talk to Harry; or

3) Hagrid is not being truthful about how he got to the rock.

It's one of the few details in the entire Harry Potter series that doesn't make sense to me, that doesn't seem to follow Rowling's usually consistent rules for the wizarding world.

I know. I'm probably holding J.K. to too high a standard: this is the first book and it's likely she hadn't quite worked out all of the details of her magical world at this point.

More on flying tomorrow.

Luna's great thestral scene

With the final film now on the horizon (less than two months left to wait), I have been thinking lately of some of my favourite scenes from the movies. I don't always like what they do to J.K.'s novels when they write the scripts but they do manage to come up with some great stuff from time to time.

One scene that leaps to mind is the one in The Order of the Phoenix where Harry finds Luna Lovegood, barefoot in the forest, feeding the mysterious Thestrals. Luna tells Harry that she and her father believe him when he says that Voldemort has returned and, when he responds by saying that they might be the only ones who do believe him, Luna gives a lovely answer.

She says something like, "I guess that's how he wants you to feel. Because, if you're all alone, you're not as much of a threat". Evanna Lynch plays the scene beautifully (as she does all her scenes) and the message worms its way into Harry's brain.

It's a great scene. One of my favourites in the movies. More great scenes tomorrow.

Thestrals Eat Owls

I've read the Harry Potter novels a number of times, I've watched each of the movies too many times to count and I've even started to construct my own Harry Potter Concordance.

So why didn't I know that thestrals eat owls?

I found this out today while reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, a book I've read many times. I wonder why this fact didn't register?