Order of the Phoenix Teaser

[tealin]

Some brief thoughts upon finally getting my sticky little hands on it ...

If they can make the whole movie as dramatic and focused as the teaser, I think I might possibly like it better than the bloated, meandering book. I might be overly optimistic (okay, I'm definitely over optimistic) but it looks ... it looks as though they've got my One True Gripe about the book sorted out. The fundamental flaw, I found, in the book's structure is this: The central conflict through nearly the entire tome is Dumbledore & Co vs. The Ministry. Sometimes this plays out as D'dore vs Fudge, sometimes it's Harry And Friends vs Umbridge (the representative of the Ministry at Hogwarts) but nearly every running conflict, besides a few extraneous romantic/SPEW hangers-on, is fundamentally D'dore vs Ministry. But the CLIMAX, which ought to be the high point in the central conflict, is D'dore vs Voldemort. The story completely changes track for its climax. There are little hints dropped in throughout the book that yes, Voldemort is the real threat here, but they're just in the background, kinda going 'Hey, remember? There's this evil dark wizard guy!'

Anyway, the teaser looks like it's all about the imminent threat of Voldemort raising his army, with the Ministry serving as an obstacle rather than antagoist, as it should be. This is a good sign. I hope it's an accurate representation of the real thing.

Here's the TEASER in case you're curious ... Right click/"save as" will make your life easier than waiting for it to load.

Comments

[fordanglia.livejournal.com]

IAWTC. I had a terrible time with OOTP. It was absolutely betraying as a Harry Potter book. It took ages and ages to get going, and it was such a pain in the ass to read that I thought I might lose my mind. Waiting and waiting for that book, then to finally have it and not want it?

Hopefully this will be one of those films that makes me like a book. I hated 'Of Mice And Men' until I saw Gary Sinise's version.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Wow, I hardly expected the first reply to be a favourable one! Thanks! But what does 'IAWTC' mean? I've never encountered that one before...

[fordanglia.livejournal.com]

Sorry! IAWTC = I Agree With This/That Comment

Order of the Phoenix nearly slayed me. I was fourteen and had really high expectations. On the plus side, I was able to go into HBP with less-high expectations, and enjoyed in immensely.

Still, OOTP had so much crap in it. It dragged on and on and on ... It wasn't enjoyable. It was a chore to understand, and I'm still not sure if I understand any of it.

Luna was awesome, though.

[fordanglia.livejournal.com]

Wait, no, I was fifteen. I have no excuse for being lame.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I was twenty-one; I have even less excuse. :)

[lurid-layercake.livejournal.com]

Hear hear.
There were many things in ootp that didn't really matter. Like the whole Grawp thing, which I thought was boring. When I read the Hagrid's Tale chapter I was just waiting for it to end so we could get on with it. But there were still a lot of things that I liked, and I think that the good neutralizes the bad... but, like you said, it is a bloated book, and they've probably destiled it for the movie :)
Anyway, I think the trailer looks good with the Voldemort and things.

[(Anonymous)]

I of course love OoTP because I will blindly follow JK off a cliff, but beside that, is it just me and my rabid fan-ity, or does Bellatrix look pretty awesome in the teaser (for the 1.5 seconds she appears)?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

She does look pretty cool, in a Bertha Mason kind of way.

[sweetmary.livejournal.com]

I watched this the other day..I watched this now..
I', unsure if I can get pumped up for it (yet or at all..) which is really sad. BUT, maybe it's a good thing I look at it and go "maybe.." since it's a bit of a while before it comes out anyways (I hate seeing a trailer, going "aw hell yeah!" and then it's..months and months and months before it comes out. gah).

I agree with what you've said here. Most definately.

[pippins-nose.livejournal.com]

Ahhh... I've heard you mention that OOTP wasn't your favorite before, and I always wondered why exactly... I never thought about it that way before, but you are right! Hmm. Very interesting. *ponders this new thought*

My only gripe with OOTP was always that the end revelation - that Harry had to kill Voldie, or vice versa - was so BLEEDINGLY OBVIOUS from a reader's perspective, that even though it would obviously be a big deal to Harry as a character, it just felt like... "Well...duh."

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Haha, yeah, there's that ... the first time I read it I thought I must have missed something because suddenly all the characters were going "OMG!" and I hadn't noticed anything spectacular.

And then there's the way none of the characters seem to be really there, to the extent that new ones, like Umbridge, seem to be so two-dimensional that they'll fall over in a stiff breeze ... and the thoroughly useless subplots ... and the stupid interactions ... and an incredibly cluttered drawer of secondary and tertiary characters ... but these are all cosmetic complaints that aren't nearly as important as the rickety plot scaffold on which they're hung.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Haha, love the icon...

Yeah, I hope the adaptation to a movie that will have to be less than four hours long will help the story a lot. It seems to have worked for GoF.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Oh, DISTILLED! Hahah! What a difference one L makes. Sorry, I can't believe it took me that long to figure that out. Doy.

[ari-enchanted.livejournal.com]

I actually liked OotP, but for me it's all the little (admittedly pointless) things that make the Harry Potter books good. I agree that the prophecy at the end fell flat, and I think that OotP was really the sign that the plot is breaking down, because in HBP, I felt like I was reading something a fourteen-year-old wrote. I can hardly even remember what HBP was about, except that somebody finally kills Dumbledore so now Harry's going to have to think for himself. Other than that twisted pleasure I can't think of one thing that I really liked. At least OotP has (for me) some points in which I actually have feelings other than irritation. I think Sirius' death scene and the consequent caps-lock Harry bit was well done. Although Sirius was my favorite character and she's killed him...

[fleur-de-liz.livejournal.com]

Did you see the HBO special as well? Mugglenet's got a link to a four-minute special that they've been running about the film, and that's got even more film footage.

I liked OotP, but there were definitely parts that I was like, "oh hell, please get back to Sirius and Lupin, they're more interesting." And then JK Rowling threw Sirius through evil drapery and ruined my cruise to Bermuda.

Crying

[needtoflyaway.livejournal.com]

I'm now crying! I can’t wait till it comes out and we all have to wait till summer...it’s just not fair... :( If they have all ready made the film why can’t they just release it...summer blockbuster I suppose...

[(Anonymous)]

Can't say I really like their Sirius, though. I mean, to me he looks like one of the three musketeers...Curly hair and that weird little mustache. Here's a thought, maybe it's the small furry creature on Lupin's upper lip from the third one, and they have it on a time share...or maybe not.
Yeah, I thought the HBO special was good. They've finally got good DE masks, too. Those spiky hoods in the fourth one were starting to get on my nerves...

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they're still working on the effects and the sound and all that stuff which has to be done after filming ... they probably just finished what they knew was going in the trailer and haven't finished the rest. That tends to be how it works in animation, anyway, and considering how 'animated' the HP movies are, it wouldn't surprise me if that's how they did things too.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

maybe it's the small furry creature on Lupin's upper lip from the third one

[sudden insight]

I know! I KNOW! They're taking cues from Baldrick and pursuing stage careers as slug-balancers – or in this case, caterpillar-balancers. Heehee. Man, I wish I had a screen cap of that.

[(Anonymous)]

I actually liked OOTP a lot better than GOF, probably because I felt the characters in OOTP were much better fleshed out and beleivable (I'm a character person rather than a plot person). And I felt HBP would have been a GREAT book if it hadn't been weighted down with, what was, IMHO, a really lousy and pointless attempt at romance. It almost seemed like JKR was trying to shut all the shippers up with HBP, it kind of ruined it for me. And to be honest, I've been pretty much dissapointed with all the HP movies except #3, and even that had some pretty lousy parts in it. HOPEFULLY OOTP will be better, but I won't bet on it. And Harry's hair...oh noes.

[jessikita17.livejournal.com]

I'm feeling kind of nervous about the fifth movie. The fourth one was dissapointing in the content and plot department, so I'm beginning to wonder if The Order of the Phoenix will be the same. I mean, there is an obvious lenth issue, but no matter how fantastic the special effects are, plot holes are very frustrating!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Funny, I enjoyed the fourth movie more than any of the others ... There may have been plot holes (as there were with the previous ones) but the director actually remembered that actors were there to act rather than serve as context for special effects, which made the whole thing much more entertaining.

[lurid-layercake.livejournal.com]

Haha, sorry about the bad spelling :P English is not my first language and I didn't have my dictionary at hand xD

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Wow, it isn't? I would never have guessed! That's amazing! I am in utter awe of your language-learning skills.

[lurid-layercake.livejournal.com]

Really? :D Wow that makes me so happy to hear!! I'm smiling all over my face now. Thank you so much.

Actually I'm thinking about studying English at University when I finish Gymnasium (the Danish equivalent to high school).

[pippins-nose.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, I absolutely love it when books have cluttered drawers of secondary characters, so. To each their own ;)

I think that in some odd way the 5th book got better when the 6th one came out. Looking at both of them now, I almost feel like they shouldn't be split into two books, because the 6th one sort of balances OOTP out... ish. *muses out loud*

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

If they're well-managed, that's OK – goodness knows I liked the Redwall books and they've got more characters than you can list on a sheet of lined paper, but most of them just seemed to be clattering around in OotP and not really serving any purpose. At least in Redwall half of them die in swashbuckling battles or serve individually or in small groups as plot points.

[lizetm.livejournal.com]

I love OotP the book, its my favorite, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion and interpretation. But, funny enough, I agree with you on what you said about the climax being all wrong, or more like the plot ending up in another direction.

I LOVE the trailer and I have a gut feeling this will be the best movie yet. :D

Bella looks amazing, you can tell Helena is ganna do justice to the character, Luna is just like I pictured her to be like, and Umbridge, though I didn't picture her that way, is hilarious and evil, and hopefully she'll be close to canon. :D

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

Please find a more obscure reference.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Oh come on, lots of people study Jane Eyre in school!

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

You're right, I'm wrong. Please remember that to Eyre is human.

[fairy-gany.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's so great because David Thewlis is coming back for this film ! Wouhou !
I liked "L'Ordre du Phoenix", but it's my less favorite because of Siriuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus !!!!
The film will be out on July 13th, that's right ?... oh, I don't know how much time we'll have to wait in France. For GOF, it was A MONTH ! How cruel is that ?
And it was Thanksgiving for you all yesterday, so happy Thanksgiving everybody, even if I can't remember the meaning of this big-chicken-hollyday.

Disneyboy, I miss you !

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I have no gripes at all about Harry's hair, the plot, or how they do the conflicts in it, as long as they GET THE GORRAM THESTRALS RIGHT.

Am I the only one who often finds the trailers more exciting than the films themselves?

[bananabasket.livejournal.com]

Why is Harry's hair doing that.... thing?



And Helena looks amazinnng!

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

:) I'm gonna call it the "Big Chicken Hollyday" from now on!

[fairy-gany.livejournal.com]

Such an honour it is for me.
I'm glad you're back.

[disneyboy.livejournal.com]

Well, judging from the trailer, it looks like the thestrals are probably out entirely - that Harry and Co. ride around on their broomsticks instead. But I could be jumping to conclusions.
It's not that I don't have feelings or opinions about the rest of the posts here, but this was an easy one to tackle with a minimum of time and fuss. :)
Hey, it's the publicity department's job to make the trailer look more exciting than the actual film!

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

...In which case, I am going to be so pissed off.