Right then, I'll try my best (spoilers, of course):
It was good, it was quite bloody brilliant, in fact. The things I thought would bother me didn't - Lupin and the moustache, the Quidditch goggles... but the things I was so excited about didn't work out that well. But since, of course, I am biased, let's talk about the good things first. ^_^
Don't know if I've got the order right, but I'm trying.
- Pam Ferris as Aunt Marge!
- the playground. It was exactly as I imagined it from book 5.
- Stan Shunpike! ^_^
- the Dementors were bloody scary. Well, not when I watched it, but that's probably because I watched too many trailers and clips and stuff... but when I watched all the little previews, they really scared me. That hand in the train...
- the toad on the extreme right of the choir; it was bopping it's head cutely. XD
- Dawn French as the Fat Lady! *yodles*
- the boys' dorm scene. So warm and happy; such a lovely "it's so good to be back" mood.
- Emma Thompson as Trelawney! "BEYOND!" ^____^
- Snape as Neville's grandmother! XD
- the whole Boggart scene in general; I think it was more funny than in the book, really.
- Lupin in general. Pretty Harry/Lupin scene on the bridge. Does anyone think this might be what Jo said seemed like a clue to books 6 and 7? About Lily and how she was there for Lupin...
- Hagrid's first day as a professor. Such a well done scene. One of the best pieces on the soundtrack too, which was the one that best worked out in the movie. Buckbeak's Flight... beautiful. Wonderfully uplifting... just pure euphoria. And Buckbeak has got character, dude! He's so real.
- Snape's cool "turn to page three hundred and ninety four" scene. I mean, he scared even me. I wanted to turn to 394 immediately.
- the Twins! Dragging invisible Harry too. ^_^ In fact, I like the Invisibility Cloak more now.
- the snow pelting scene! And how Hermione Knows Everything. *g*
- "He was their friend... and he betrayed them. He was their friend! I hope he finds me. Because when he does, I'm going to be ready. And I'll kill him." Oh, the emotion!
- Harry wandering the corridors at night: "I was sleepwalking." XD
- Lupin scolding Harry. I thought it was very well done.
- Harry, Lupin and the dementor boggart. How he chose the "memory" of his mum and dad. How he longs for them so, so much.
- Hagrid skimming stones. That was a pretty little scene.
- "You Foul, Loathsome, Evil Little Cockroach!" and Malfoy's stupid face. Wham! XD Malfoy's such a bully, it's great.
- Gary Oldman as Sirius Black! I think he did a fantastic job, I really do.
- Timothy Spall as Pettigrew! Ratty little fellow.
- Ron's affection for dear Scabbers.
- "I think Madam Pomfrey will fix [your leg] in no time." "No... it's got to be chopped off." Hahahaha.
- the dementors scene. This had me in tears, it did. It's the scariest shit ever to have your soul sucked out, and the thing about this was it wasn't held back. It's like "they're gonna die... they're gonna die." So many of them... they're disgusting, dementors. They're such horrible creatures. This was a very good scene.
- the Time scene. This was one the soundtrack worked very well for, too. I love the way Alfonso did this one. Through the clock and out...
- how everything that happened clicked. It was great that there were little surprises for the people who have read the book; the stones, Hermione thinking she saw something, the howl...
- feeding Buckbeak dead ferrets. Malfoy the Great Bouncing One, anybody? ^_^ Again I must say Buckbeak was very well done, and I'm not just talking about how he looks and moves.
- Dumbledore: "I think I should sign too." "It's a very long name." "Look at the strawberries!" Hahahahaa.
- "Does my hair really look like that from the back?" Heh, I was spoiled on this one.
- Buckbeak to the rescue! I love Buckbeak. ^_^
- "We did it!" "Did what?" XD
- "How the hell did you get there? I was talking to you right here!"
- the speed of the Firebolt. I liked it that Harry was a bit out of control at first because hey, 120 mph is really really really fast and it's not realistic if he just takes to it with ease.
- the lovely, lovely credits. I heard that at the cast and crew premiere, there were loud cheers for all the production units/sections or something like that. That is way cool.
- the acting.They all gave brilliant performances. Dan, especially, has improved so much.
- the direction, the pace and the flow. It was spectacularly shot, and I liked it that the camera kept moving, because I think that made the movie keep going, and gave it this flow which kept the pace. The pace was quite fast, actually.
Which is why it was such a pity that there was an awful lack of explanation going on. Given the pace, I wouldn't have minded at all if more explanation was given to certain things to fill up those loopholes. It never felt like 2 hours.
- you see, I didn't watch this as a literal adaptation, and I think Alfonso (yes I like calling people by their first names, got problem issit? ^_^) did a great job of keeping to the spirit of the book - there was anger, there was fear, there was love, there was lonliness. So, little things like there were no exams and there was no house/Quidditch cup didn't bother me. What did, though, were the huge gaps that weren't filled, like how did Lupin know it was a map? How did Sirius know it was a map? Who are Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs? For a person who hasn't read the books, it's a bit hard to infer or keep up with things.
- also, how come Harry can practice spells under his blanket when he's not allowed to do magic?
- I didn't think much about this, but someone who didn't like the movie brought this up: there should have been more explaining in the Shrieking Shack. I guess, yeah, about switching Secret Keepers and all...
- oh, and how did Harry, Ron and Hermione watch Buckbeak get executed? Because it seemed like they did.
Pity about those loopholes, the movie could have been better. I wouldn't have been bothered about the time because it never felt long or draggy at all, it just kept moving. Other little things that disappointed me a bit:
- Ron turned out to be a character who was just there for comic relief or something. Bit sad.
- Crookshanks didn't have that big a role. Bit sad too, but it worked okay.
- The soundtrack didn't work out as amazingly as I hoped it would. It's great to listen to as a standalone, but it didn't go that well with the movie. The atmosphere from just listening to it was lost for most of the pieces, like from the piece The Quidditch Match in the first movie. There were some pretty good ones though, like the end of blowing up Aunt Marge, and the Knight Bus scene fitted pretty well too. My favourite track, though, was sadly not used to its full potential (it's the one after Harry couldn't get Mcgonagall to sign his form and continued to the scene with Lupin on the bridge). But Buckbeak's Flight and Past To Time Present were used very well. The Patronus Light is a beautiful piece, which didn't work too well either. Oh well.
- the editing wasn't so smooth, in that it didn't flow at some parts. Also the "one-moment-now-next-moment-then" type scenes didn't work out very right. And sometimes the actors react to/read something before the thing happens/appears.
- thinking back it actually looked like a low budget film done beautifully. The CGI wasn't as good as the first two. Oh well.
Others:
- Lupin's open-eyes-sit-up-shoot-stuff-at-dementors thing. It was so dramatic it was funny. I was worried for a while that Lupin was going to turn out rubbish, but that never happened.
- the rather, er, lame ending. >.<
But hey, all the not so good stuff aside, it's still a great movie to catch. Worth your money. Hell, I'd pay 10 bucks for it.
Go watch it if you haven't! It's good stuff!
**
After the show I bought a water lily to float down the Singapore River on the 19th of September. I picked a blue one, which symbolises "a bright future ahead". I wrote "excellence" on the back of the water lily leaf except I couldn't spell it at first, and they'll float it down the river for me. =)
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