Saturday 14 July, 2007

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”- Not worth the Hype?





As any other Harry Potter aficionado, the month of July 2007 is like a dream come true for me. This month, new movie in the Harry Potter series, ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’, released on 11th July and now, on 21st July, the last book in the HP series, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’, will be published. With two weeks advance booking even before its release, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was the most anticipated movie release in the history of the Hollywood. However, I was thoroughly disappointed when I actually got to see the movie.

Movie, a failed attempt
J. K. Rowling gets better at portraying Harry’s character and the events around him with each book in the HP series. The most impressive aspect of Rowling’s writing style is the way she gets into details of characters and events. While reading the book, she easily manages to create each and every character and scene in the reader’s mind. The fifth book in the series can be most easily summarized as a pre-cursor to a final showdown between lord Voldermot and the magical world. I think it would be more than asking for a movie to match the entertainment quotient of the book but I find that the movie lacks depth and tries to include too much without really including too muchfrom the book, causing a bit of confusion, especially to the first time HP audience, who’ve no idea about the HP world. The movie has also ignored a few important events like ‘Rita Skeeter’s article in the Quibbler’ and ‘Hagrid’s journey to the giants’ land’. It is clearly seen in the movie that director is short of time and has managed to create a mess with the same actors, same writer and better visual effects. I think the movie is not worth the hype created around it.

The last book
I am very certain that the forthcoming book will be the best in the series and fans can expect sheer excitement as Harry takes on lord Voldermot in the final battle. I am hoping that it would be a happy ending with Harry managing to destroy the Darklord without losing many of his friends. Can’t wait to get my hands on the book…