Pre-Screening Sips
- I am having a really hard time placing any specific plot points from this movie; I’d like to say it’s because as the movies get more recent, I watched them less, but I remember quite a bit about six and eight
- This is the first David Yates-directed Harry Potter, which is significant since he goes on to direct the entirety of the series from here on out
Post-Screening Snippets
- How could I have forgotten about Dudley turning into a sk8r thug?!
- The old raincoat lady seems to have some sort of significance, but I am not sure what it might be; I think this is where the books started running like one thousand pages and us movie watchers get the cliff notes
- I know Voldemort’s return raises the stakes and makes things more “serious,” but man, even the color scheme is dour
- The introduction of the Ministry of Magic does effectively expand the universe of Harry Potter beyond just Hogwarts, but, uh, what a boring expansion
- Luna Lovegood is the Quirky Queen of Pudding
- Dolores Umbridge is one of the wickedest cinematic villains of all time
- This restructure of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class is a brilliant critique of standardized testing and state-mandated curriculum
- Umbridge’s attempted dismissal of Professor Trelawney is one of the most heartbreaking moments of the series
- The Sirius fireplace sequence is so goofy-looking, and I cannot think of why this change was made
- Harry and Cho have so much more potential than Harry and Ginny ever do
- I love that it just took a shower and a shampoo to turn Uncle Sirius into World’s Greatest Godfather
- In the long list of things that are amazing about Hagrid, his insistence to spill tea at any opportunity is at the top
- About an hour in, the amount of lines similar to “it’s changing out there” gets exhausting
- Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange is right up there with Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in terms of perfect casting for me
- Hagrid’s half-brother is a new level of hideous CGI monstrosity
- Dolores getting taken away by the centaurs cleared my skin and lowered my blood pressure
- If only Harry and Luna can see the ugly death horses, are Hermione, Ron, and the others just floating through mid-air on their way to London?
- How is Draco Malfoy possibly allowed back at the school after his father so publicly gangs for the Death Eaters?
- It really is surprising that there isn’t more magic-murder in these movies since the spells rolls off the tongue so easily
- Dumbledore v. Voldemort is my Godzilla v. Kong
The Final Potion
Harry Potter and the Dialogue about Things Changing is one of the more uneven entries in the series. Big moments absolutely slap, but there is also quite a bit of negative space. Episode 5 may be inconsistent, but it establishes Yates’s vision and really does make the Wizarding World feel like a world.
GRADE: B
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