We're Umbraged, We're Potty, We're All A Little Loony

28 Weeks Later Shrek The Third Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End Mon Petit Doigt M'a Dit Hors de Prix Fauteuils d'Orchestre Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Transformers The Simpsons Movie Evan Almighty

Seems like we'd missed out on Hors de Prix after all. And we might just forgo Evan Almighty after all. So it leaves The Simpsons Movie to complete our summer list.

Now, our thoughts on the Order of the Pheonix. First, our rankings for the books are:
Prisoner Of Azkaban > Goblet Of Fire > Philosopher's Stone > Chamber Of Secrets > Half-Blood Prince > Order Of The Phoenix (will be updated once we get our hands on Deathly Hallows).

We considered the Order Of The Phoenix to be a bit slow story-wise, and Umbridge really rankled (however, in our opinion, even if you really, really loathe a character in a book, we think the author's done a good job because you feel something for that character other than indifference). Half-Blood Prince we rated slightly better as there's quite a fair bit of backstory going on.

We still remember how much expectation we had for the Quidditch Finals in the Goblet Of Fire - the trailers made it very impressive. It was a good thing that there wasn't anything in this time's trailer to make us expect too much. So what to do while counting down till showtime? Have a look at the production notes, of course. After all, having read the book you're not going to expect any sort of spoilers. We were more interested in how they bring the culture and flavour to screen. The choreographied wand-to-wand engagement was much appreciated - although, nothing, nothing will beat 300 for quite a long while - as it allows us to watch all aspects of fights without it being messy.

Okay, down to the nitty gritty: the character's this time were much more spot-on: Luna's all a dreamy, Umbridge's unlikeable (Imelda Staunton plays her so well), Dumbledore doesn't look like that mad junkie he did in Goblet Of Fire, Tonks was good (the hair's so natural), Bellatrix mad enough but still reminds us of Fight Club. Oh, and Duddley really looks very piggy now!

The graphics have improved over the series - Dementors now don't make us think of Nazguls, Patronuses look very good, the Black Family Tree was very nice, wasn't as expected (although Wikipedia's slightly more complete). The show maintained the overall dark look, as it has since the Prisoner Of Azkaban movie, so much so that whenever any brightly-lit scene showed up it blinded us.

While the Potter series never stood out for their music save Hedwig's Theme and Double Trouble (from Prisoner Of Azkaban), this time it's more noticable and fitting.

OK. Show problems. We don't think anyone who hasn't followed either the books or the movies will be able to fully grasp what's going on. Also, the show just moves on, telling bit by bit, but there are really no outstanding highlights that grabs your attention (ie Quidditch Finals)...we're not too sure if we're saying this properly.

And for the expected bits, well...it's just natural for those of us who enjoy the book to nitpick differences. "There could have been more. Why didn't they put this bit in?" et cetera. Accepting this we'll just say that they've gotten the gist of it into the movie. And you know you're a bit of a fan when you find yourself going, "Eh, how come they learn that spell one? Thought he only learned it in Half-Blood Prince?" Oh dear.

Anyways, still be doing it one more time, just for the sake of watching it in 3D (yay Imax!).