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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
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Storyline
Harry is about to start his fifth year at Hogwarts. He's desperate to get back to school and find out why his friends Ron and Hermoine have been so secretive all summer. However, what Harry is about to discover in his new year at Hogwarts will turn his world upside down.... |
Backdrops
The Director
 David Yates
David Yates (born 30 November 1963) is an English director of film
and television, best known for directing the final four films in the
Harry Potter franchise. His first two Potter films (Order of the
Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince) became the highest-grossing entries in
the series after the first instalment, which was later surpassed by
Yates' Deathly Hallows, making him the most commercially successful
British director in recent years. He is the only director in the
series to be honoured with a Best Director accolade for his work on
Harry Potter.
He achieved international attention for his award-winning short
films early in his career, which led to him becoming a prolific
television director with credits including the BBC costume drama The
Way We Live Now, the acclaimed political thriller State of Play and
the BAFTA-la uded two-part drama Sex Traffic. Due to the success of
these dramas and subsequent projects, Yates is considered as one of
Britain's most celebrated directors of film and television.
Throughout his works, Yates uses hand-held cameras to visually
provoke the subject matter; the technique is noted as one of his
directorial trademarks.
Yates is married to Yvonne Walcott, who is the aunt of Arsenal
football player Theo Walcott.
Description above from the Wikipedia article David Yates, licensed
under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
News Stories
Harry Potter Wizard Collection Revealed
Im your host Tatiana carrier with the latest on the Harry potter Wizards Collection.
Warner Bros. Home Video has announced the release of the Harry Potter Wizards Collection on Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack in a nifty box set!!!! Not only does the set feature all the magical films, ...
User Reviews
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Do They Have Fans Writing the Harry Potter Screenplays?
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First off - I love the Harry Potter book series. I was one of those who dressed up in the wizard costume and stood in line at midnight to get the latest Harry Potter book. I then read the book as soon as I got it - then reread it in the morning when I could, being more awake, understand it better.
So perhaps it should come as little surprise that many of the Harry Potter movies have been disappointing to me. Not that they were bad technically or visually; the directors (usually) did a good job with the screenplay they had.
Indeed, it's the screenplay that killed the films. I know, I know, it's hard to make a perfect representation of J. K. Rowling's 300 or 500 or 800 page books - but really, they could've done better in most cases. It's the important, canonically, parts they cut out, that made the difference. And, in some cases, to replace said parts, the screenwriters added (sometimes subtly) other parts to the plot that weren't included in the book. Maybe it made for a better Hollywood experience, but what about the fans?
Okay, let me back this up a bit. Yes, of course, the movies are... movies, so they need to appeal to a certain kind of audience, one that doesn't necessarily care about the exact plot details and requires a lot of action. But I think the filmmakers could have stayed truer to the plot, that is, not diverge so radically sometimes (I'm talking about you, Prisoner of Azkaban!), while still satisfying the moviegoers' needs.
For the future movies, I'd like to see a better confluence of literary canon and movie action/intrigue/whatever they need. The Half-Blood Prince trailer certainly looks promising, but, of course, we'll only be able to say wh...
View full review
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reviewed by magicofpi (Filmaster.com) on the 28th of May 2009
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Yates excises almost all of the anti-Harry business from the book, which is likely for the best. I think it suits the novel well, but onscreen it would have been a timesink. Instead we get a mad dash through the major plot points; it makes for exciting viewing, but it sure does feel rushed. The actors are all good and the story carries the proper emotional heft. The prophecy ball feels extremely inconsequential by the end, though. You don't get any sense of its importance.