With their warning about Lord Voldemort's (Ralph Fiennes') return scoffed at, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Dumbledore (Sir Michael Gambon) are targeted by the Wizard authorities as an authoritarian bureaucrat slowly seizes power at Hogwarts.
After a lonely summer on Privet Drive, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) returns to a Hogwarts full of ill-fortune. Few of students and parents believe him or Dumbledore (Sir Michael Gambon) that Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is really back. The ministry had decided to step in by appointing a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), who proves to be the nastiest person Harry has ever encountered. Harry also can't help stealing glances with the beautiful Cho Chang (Katie Leung). To top it off are dreams that Harry can't explain, and a mystery behind something for which Voldemort is searching. With these many things, Harry begins one of his toughest years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.Written by
HPfan
The character of Grawp was done by using a recent breakthrough in filming technology, developed by Image Metrics, which allows a computer to map an actor's performance onto any character virtual or human, living or dead. The result is said to be far superior to standard hand-drawn computer graphics which are very costly and time-consuming. See more »
Goofs
(at around 1h 45 mins) When Harry and his friends fly on the thestrals to London, they are coming from Hogwarts, which according to the novels is somewhere in Scotland. So if they are flying from the North of the UK towards Westminster in London, where the Ministry of Magic is located, there is no reason why they would fly over the Canary Wharf district, which is 5 miles east of Westminster, especially if they are in a hurry to save Sirius Black. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Radio announcer:
I don't know about you, it's just too hot today, isn't it? And it's going to get even worse. Temperatures up in the mid 30's Celsius, that's the mid 90's Fahrenheit, tomorrow maybe even hitting 100. So please, remember to cover up and stay cool with the hottest hits on your FM dial.
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Crazy Credits
The ending credits are presented in the same typeface as Professor Umbridge's numerous educational decrees. See more »
Alternate Versions
Some of the dubbed versions change the names of a few characters, to match their translated novel counterparts in each respective language. One good example is Hermione, who in the German version (of all the Potter films/books) is named Hermine. See more »
Boys Will Be Boys
Written by William J. Brown (as William Brown), James Gregory, Matthew Murphy & Preston (as Samuel Preston)
Performed by The Ordinary Boys
Courtesy of Warner Music U.K. Ltd./B-Unique Records
By Arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing See more »
So many great parts were skipped over, rushed with ridiculous cliché transition scenes, or simply changed because, apparently, it's impossible to include everything. But what can anyone reasonably expect?
I went into this expecting exactly what I saw, it's still just a tad annoying hearing people talk about how impossible it would be to follow the book. It's not impossible at all. Look at the matrix 2&3, look at pirates of the caribbean 2&3, look at LOTR (it's all one continuous story). Lots of "stories" have had to be split up into multiple films and they all worked great. It's just a tad short-sighted to say it wouldn't work with a harry potter film. I think a lot of what people enjoy is looking at the wizard world, seeing cool looking spells, and generally learning more about everything to do with the harry potter universe. You don't get much of that when a 26 hour read is condensed into a 2.5 hour film. I personally would love to see more of the "boring" parts of the book simply because it's interesting seeing a high-budget Hollywood interpretation of what was in the book. Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't be the least bit disappointed if the film-makers simply came out and said "this book is too long to put into a single film with out leaving out a lot of the book and changing a lot of other parts, so we're releasing it in two films." It's completely understandable. It's an 800 page book! LOTR books were only 400-600 pages and the films were considerably longer than any of the harry potter films.
Overall, it was a decent enough movie though. Great special effects, good enough acting (I wouldn't go so far as to say it was amazing). I'd say it's basically a standard high-budget film. Entertaining to watch, well worth my $10 so I could come and complain how it was nothing like the book :)
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So many great parts were skipped over, rushed with ridiculous cliché transition scenes, or simply changed because, apparently, it's impossible to include everything. But what can anyone reasonably expect?
I went into this expecting exactly what I saw, it's still just a tad annoying hearing people talk about how impossible it would be to follow the book. It's not impossible at all. Look at the matrix 2&3, look at pirates of the caribbean 2&3, look at LOTR (it's all one continuous story). Lots of "stories" have had to be split up into multiple films and they all worked great. It's just a tad short-sighted to say it wouldn't work with a harry potter film. I think a lot of what people enjoy is looking at the wizard world, seeing cool looking spells, and generally learning more about everything to do with the harry potter universe. You don't get much of that when a 26 hour read is condensed into a 2.5 hour film. I personally would love to see more of the "boring" parts of the book simply because it's interesting seeing a high-budget Hollywood interpretation of what was in the book. Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't be the least bit disappointed if the film-makers simply came out and said "this book is too long to put into a single film with out leaving out a lot of the book and changing a lot of other parts, so we're releasing it in two films." It's completely understandable. It's an 800 page book! LOTR books were only 400-600 pages and the films were considerably longer than any of the harry potter films.
Overall, it was a decent enough movie though. Great special effects, good enough acting (I wouldn't go so far as to say it was amazing). I'd say it's basically a standard high-budget film. Entertaining to watch, well worth my $10 so I could come and complain how it was nothing like the book :)