...Some wounds run too deep for the healing.

I had a blast seeing OotP in IMAX 3D last Friday, and I'd say it was certainly worth the 3 hour wait in line (I brought my DS- the time just flew!) As the books keep getting longer I think my posts do too! Below are my thoughts on Year Five, book and film.

This book is easily my second favorite in the series (next to PoA).  I seriously love how dark it is and how the real evil is the supposed "good guys" as opposed to Lord Voldemort.  We only get one scene with him in this one (though it's a good one!), yet have to endure the true evil that is Umbridge the whole time.  There are some really great characters introduced in this book, my favorite being Luna.  She's so tragic and yet so sweet that you can't not absolutely love her.  My love for her gets stronger and stronger with each pass I have at this book.  There are a lot of great members of the Order that we meet- Kingsley is cool and Tonks is downright awesome.  Then there are the new Ministry people who we are introduced to such as Amelia Bones, who is immediately likable during Harry's trial, and Dolores Umbridge, of course, and the fact that we loathe her is a perfect testament to what a great character she is.  And finally we meet the evil that is Bellatrix Lestrange, an amazing character who we hate to see more of, but of course will, in books to come.

Between the DA, the battle at the Ministry, losing his godfather, and hearing the prophecy, Harry grows a lot in this book.  He begins as an angry teenager, flying off the handle at everything.  I heard a lot of complaints at how annoying Harry is in this book and it's true, but also completely normal.  My mother tells me that I was a nightmare to deal with at 15, I seem to remember a lot of shouting matches myself, and therefore cannot imagine how horrible I would have been had I also lost a friend, been deemed a lunatic to the general public, and knew that my mortal enemy was out there trying to kill me.  Harry turns a lot of his anger into productiveness, however, by starting up the DA and giving his exclusive interview to the Quibbler.  And even though he does fly off the handle with Ron and Hermione a lot (and really loses it with Dumbledore at the end), you can hardly blame him for any of it.  Imagine how you would feel if the girl you'd had a crush on for two years cried every time she kissed you?

Really the only reason this book is so hard for me is because of losing Sirius.  The first time I read this book I was deeply depressed.  I honestly mourned.  The second time I read it, I stopped for about a week when I got to the chapter entitled "Beyond the Veil" before pressing on to the end in one teary night.  This time, however, I had to plow right through as I am on a tight schedule to finish them all before this Friday at midnight.  It gets a little bit easier to read every time, but I can't say that I'm still not sad about losing Sirius.  Unlike other characters who have died, we lost Sirius in such a questionable way that we have to wonder why?  The veil has so far not been explained to us at all, we were simply forced to accept that because Sirius had fallen through, he was dead.  And then, of course, there's all that guilt knowing that had Snape continued Harry's Occlumency, had Harry listened to Hermione's reasoning, had Dumbledore told Harry exactly what he expected Voldemort to do, had Tonks dueled longer with Bellatrix, etc., etc. maybe Sirius wouldn't be dead.

I'm happy to say that the movie does the book justice.  So much, in fact, that I think it has become my favorite in the series so far.  While I LOVE the third movie, and think that style-wise OotP can't hold a candle to it, I think that this fifth movie represents it's source material in the best way so far.  The only thing I really hated, honestly, was about the first ten minutes or so.  I thought the movie was going to be horrible based on the first ten minutes, but then it took a major turn for the better once Harry got to Grimmauld Place.  Why did I hate the first ten minutes?  Oh, let me count the ways.  First, Harry pulls out his wand in front of no less than five Muggles!  He would never get so angry that he would do something as stupid as that!  Then, for some reason, the filmmakers decided that they didn't like the way the Dementors looked in the third flick and changed their appearance for the worse in my opinion.  Why not be consistent here, especially where there was nothing wrong to begin with?  Then, Harry performs the Patronus charm to defend himself and it's nothing more than a large blur of silver.  Apparently Harry's Patronus is no longer a stag?  This (or later in the DA meetings when everyone else is busting out their Patronuses) would have been the perfect way for them to correct their mistake from the third movie and explain why Harry's Patronus takes this form, but instead, they give it no form at all.  Then, once back at the Dursleys, Harry gets a letter from the Ministry that speaks to him?!?!  What?!?!  The only letters that do this are Howlers, and in any case, the letter is scolding him for doing magic in front of Muggles, yet this speaking letter is allowed with no problem in front of three Muggles?  Once finding out that he will be expelled from Hogwarts, Harry then goes upstairs to his room to sulk.  In the third movie, when he thought he would be expelled for blowing up his aunt, he freaks out, gathers all his stuff, and takes off for life as an outcast.  His mindset has always been that if he could not go to Hogwarts anymore the last place he would want to be was at the Dursleys.  For him to go up to his room is incredibly uncharacteristic.  From there on out, my only little disappointment was that we didn't get any sort of elaboration on Tonks' character.  She just sort of shows up, like we should know her, and gets no screen time at all.  How will we sympathize with a mourning, mousy haired Tonks in the next film if we don't see her bubbly, bubble-gum-pink-haired personality in this one?  I can only assume that her storyline will be cut altogether in the next one.

Speaking of cutting things though, I was incredibly pleased with how much they managed to squeeze into their short running time.  I predicted, before I went in, that they would cut Quidditch, Grawp, and the centaurs, and I was only right about one of those.  It's a shame they cut Quidditch (Ron hardly gets any glory otherwise) and Grawp doesn't come to the kids rescue from the centaurs at the end exactly how I'd envisioned it, but it was still really nice to see them keep such important elements in the story.  Dumbledore's and the twin's exits from Hogwarts were precisely as I would have imagined and so well done.  The detentions with Umbridge are brutal and the film makes the "educational decrees" so much more ridiculous and laughable in the movie than the book ever could have done.  And of course, there is the major Sirius time that is necessary and completely succeeded in making me cry multiple times in the theater.  Harry's scenes with Luna didn't help either; the scene with Harry, Luna, and the thestrals is so beautiful and such a wonderful way to introduce the creatures and get a better sense of Luna's character (in the book the thestrals are introduced in class and Luna doesn't divulge information about her mother until the last chapter)

Finally, the battle at the Ministry is done wonderfully.  You don't necessarily get a sense of the danger in the movie as you do from the book, where the kids are being knocked down one by one and Hermione nearly meets a brutal end, but when the Order arrives, the battle truly begins.  Harry dueling next to Sirius is a beautiful touch that the book doesn't have and I think I let out a very audible sob when Sirius laughs and says, "Nice one, James."  The movie had hardly touched on how Sirius felt that with Harry it was like getting his best friend back like the book did, but that one line said everything.  I don't know who to thank for it, but an all encompassing thanks to the "filmmakers" goes out for that one, because it was a small stroke of genius.  I had envisioned Sirius' death differently, for one he doesn't get hit with "Avada Kedavra" in the book, but I understand how they wanted to get the point across that he was gone.  It did look like he almost deflected the spell, though, and when he fell through the veil he still had a very alive look to him.  It was the "floating" through that I didn't like- I always envisioned his death as the book described it, being hit square in the chest with a spell and, arching back, falling into the veil in a sort of slow motion.  I loved how the battle went silent as Harry screamed after Sirius and chased Bellatrix.  I loved Voldemort egging him on to hurt her.  And I really loved the way they showed Harry being possessed, Dumbledore looking genuinely frightened, and Harry fighting Voldemort off with love.  When I reread the book I wondered how they would get that point across, but they did in a way that I would never have thought of and it worked.  I cried so much during the end of that movie (and later in the car, and the following day, etc...I was really attached to Sirius) that I really feel like I need to see it again to truly appreciate it all, but I do know that I absolutely loved it.  Cut the first ten minutes out and I think we'd have a near perfect Potter film.

Another revolutionary thing happened when I reread this book.  I think I have finally joined the side of those who trust Snape.  I read through this book keeping a close eye out for evidence of his betrayal and found nothing.  On the contrary, while reading those Occlumency lessons again, I found that he was actually very fair with Harry.  Through Harry's hatred he would never recognize it, but Snape really tries to make him learn Occlumency.  He answers all of Harry's questions with informative answers as opposed to the snide comments about things he need not know about that he might normally give.  He never catches Harry off guard, but instead readies him before every turn and genuinely tries to help.  When he kicks Harry out and refuses to see him again, it is only natural, Harry invaded his privacy in a very unforgivable way by going into that Pensieve.  Additionally, Snape was a tortured kid, we all knew someone like that, and they will try to hide their past, as opposed to overcoming it in any way they can.  Finally, when Harry has no one else to turn to and delivers the cryptic message to Snape that "He's got Padfoot in the place where it's hidden," Snape contacts Sirius right away, then alerts the Order when he reasons that the kids have gone off to the Ministry.  If he had been on Voldemort's side at that moment, he would have done nothing at all and Harry and his friends would have died there that night.  Snape could have easily claimed to not understand the cryptic message.  As for goading Sirius about being locked up (which is why Harry ultimately lands on Snape to shoulder the blame for Sirius' death), it's simply a childhood grudge that would never have died.  Snape will never get over the way Sirius and James treated him, and therefore will always be awful to Harry and was to Sirius before his death.  The only argument I have against Snape in this book is sheerly tactic- Rowling could make us forget all of his untrustworthiness for now, so that our guards are down when she makes him seem supremely evil in Book Six.  This, however, is the only thing holding me back from completely putting my trust in him.  One more book to go and then we get some answers.