The Order of The Phoenix

A year ago, I was sitting at the cafe in front of INTEC library with Syafrul, Addin and Saini, enjoying the Abg Indon's ambrosial nasi lemak, but it was ruffled by a conversation between 3 kakak TESL (no offense to any TESLan) who were sitting at the next table.

"You know what..on my way out of the theater, I'd really wanna tell those who were going into the theater, to stop, turn back, return the tickets and use that money to buy a BigMac! " One of the kakaks, wearing a black skirt, stripe black and white blouse plus a white scarf(By that kind of dressing it can be told that she was TESLan), emotionally expressed her feelings about a film she just watched.
"They shouldn't cut off that much from the book, two fabulous chapters of the book!" Another kakak heat up the confabulation to a degree that gave me a sign that they had just seen Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Here came the third kakak, who surprisingly lowered the heat,
"I never read any Harry Potter's book. I walked in with nothing, and walked out with something. I'm happy with it because the film tells me Harry Potter story!"

Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix was released couple weeks ago and it was one of have-to-watch films in my list ("The Namesake" is the best so far!!). Addin, Saini, Alim and I went to Wabash Landing Theater 2 days after the premiere. I'm not into fantasy kind of films, but Harry Potter (and Transformers for this year) has drawn my attention into understanding the guile of fantasy film. Again, the Order of Phoenix didn't disappoint me like others. The Order of Phoenix is well-crafted as the characters evolves, the plots get more convoluted, secrets are unveiled, and definitely, the witchcraft world is being portrayed enthrallingly.

While walking back home with Addin, Saini and Alim,
Alim said "I'm not satisfied!! There should be a scene where Harry uses The Unforgivable Spell to torture Bellatrix Lestrange (Voldemort Death Eater, played by Helena Bonham). They should have that in the film!"

Here's another obiter dictum which has the same premise as the first two kakaks'. This time, I replied "I walked in the theater with nothing except everything I know from previous Harry Potter films, I walked out with something, and I'm happy with it! I don't feel I just wasted $8 because the film tells Harry Potter story!" I used the same premise as the third kakak TESL used. In contrast to the third Kakak TESL, I have read Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix before watching the film, but she never read The Goblet of Fire before watching it.

Nowadays, there's a lot of films made based on novels, short stories, and plays, which are known as adapted screenplay in film language. Some of them are fiascoes and most of them are completely stunning and in Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix, I, personally, put it as brilliantly adapted. The plot flows well as in the book, which means the film tells the story in the book. However, there are some details not included in the film such as the one Alim's complaining about. Can you imagine how hard it is to condense an 800-plus-page tome into restricted-less-than-3-hour film, especially by newcoming director David Yates and screenwriter Michael Goldenberg? Can you imagine how to squeeze everything into a script of 138-minutes film, to tell the tale well? Daniel Radcliffe once apologized for not including some parts of the book in the film, otherwise, the film will be too long. The production does not want to face the same failure as other lengthy-films.

There are millions of Harry Potter's fans who have enjoyed watching the series without having Rowling's works, the same is Lord of The Rings fans who have never read Tolkien's books, so, it is not necessarily a plus reading the books. Still, for the sake of understanding the movie in depth, the knowledge from the books come into its role.

Before sitting in the theater to watch any adapted screenplay films, which I have read the books prior to watch it, such as The Pursuit of Happyness and Harry Potter itself, I would clear all of my thoughts or expectation about the films. I believe that most of the audiences, who have read the books, struggles while watching the films. They try to compare what they have read and what they are watching, whether it is better or worst than the book, even a minuscule detail grabs their attention. In certain extent, they are not satisfied of whatever they have seen and begin to lose their attention. Consequently, they couldn't feel the sensational of the film.

Yasmin Ahmad in her 'notorious' blog, The Storyteller, once noted
"When reviewing a film, it's best to consider its main contention first"
And it came to my realization that the third kakak had a fine review of Harry Potter because it is rooted on its makers intentions, which is to tell Harry Potter tale!