Seriously, you guys. It is. it's totally my least favorite Harry Potter book, but it somehow produced the best movie. Somehow, David Yates managed to cram in almost all the important parts of the book without making it feel crammed. He left out some stuff and changed some stuff that upset me, but, well, duh. Still, it was the best adaptation of a book I've seen in a long while. I can't really explain better than that, but I did want to list some specific things that made me love the movie.
That girl they found to play Luna Lovegood is spot-on perfect. As perfect as Emma Watson is for Hermione and Rupert Grint is for Ron. Maybe even more perfect.
The Weasley twins' W in fireworks is the Ministry's M upside down---exactly. I love that subtle image of rebellion. I LOVE IT.
Even though she serves no purpose to the plot of the film, Tonks is there, being awesome. And in the five minutes (or less) we have of screen time, we get several of her characterizations: she's astonished by the cleanliness of the Dursleys', because her Muggle pop's a slob (okay, the Muggle pop's thing not in there--and perhaps her father was Muggle-born, I can't effing remember); we see her change her hair color and her noses to make Ginny laugh; we discover that she hates her given name of Nymphadora, and we also see that, while she's good at disguises, she's a fuckin' klutz. It's all so well done! I forgot I even liked Tonks, because she bloody sucks in Half-Blood Prince, all inexplicably in love with Lupin, who has to be, like, fifteen years older than her. I would have hooked her up with Charlie, since Bill is so taken with Mademoiselle Delacour.
While I was watching the movie, I figured out what truly and utterly bugs me about J.K. Rowling's writing. She creates these fab stories and these fab characters, but she writes about her characters in a way that, like, prevents me from actually caring about them. Like, I was totally put off by Luna in the books, and even Hermione kind of sucks sometimes, but in the movies, they're both awesome. That's why I was nAHt impressed with the first book--because I couldn't get invested in the characters. But in the movies, you totally can. And I blame that on Rowling's writing. I know that's totally snobbish or whatever, and it's not like I could do better, but you know. I'm not trying to.
This movie handled the Harry/Cho thing way better than the book. Because it was barely there. That gets a thumbs up from me. Also, I liked the subtle reminders that Ginny's still pretty stuck on Harry. Those were good.
Barely any OWL nonsense.
So much less exposition. So much less.
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