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Harry Potter and the Order of the Movies - the Generation Gap of the Potterverse

July 1st 2007 14:20
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Get ready for the next blockbuster in the Harry Potter dynasty
Harry Potter (the Fifth) and the Order of the Phoenix is due to hit screens accross the globe in eleven days now and the box office is raring to go!

The Japanese world premiere seemed to speak vibes more about the Harry Potter (TM) franchise than any event in its history so far. Pokemon and DragonBall-Z surely showed the world that nobody does the whole franchise thing better than the Japanese and Harry Potter's world of wizarding wonderous wads of cash fits right into their vernacular!
There are toys, action figures, games games games, DVD's, music, a whole range of clothing and accessories - from Potter glasses through Hogwarts outfits and "invisibility" cloaks and wands! - IMAX screenings of the movie, marathons, star appearrances, billing billing billing... and the books, of course!
It's Potter-tastic! It's also worth a huge fortune!
Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Radcliffe at the World Premiere
According to Warner Brothers, the Harry films have grossed over US$3.5 billion since their debut in 2001 with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone. And the books... well surely everyone knows J.K. Rowling's rags to riches story by now!

So as book five hits the screens it seems appropriate to have a quick glance at just what the franchise is up to of late - aside from making flipping great wadds of cash that is!
There are a great many issues to cover. A lot is happening for Harry Potter in 2007! For a start, the final book of the series (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - but like you needed a reminder!) is to be released later this year - posing about eight billion questions with at least as many answers on at least as many blogs all over the net.
The stars are growing up! And they're becoming increasingly tasty what's more!!! Worse still they're becoming itchy to get out into the real world and away from the eternally youthful Potter paradise - so very limiting artistically children!
Dumbledore's Army
The increasingly yummy children of the Potter revolution
Better still, they're becoming multi-millionaires! They're not just kids now. They're billion dollar box-office draws - and they're getting paid like it too! Daniel Radcliffe has recently signed a US$50 million contract to appear in the next two films!!!
Early reviews of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix are in and, so far, they ain't up to much! The question of why the Potter films are even reviewed instantly leaps to mind. Everyone is going to go and see them whether the reviews are bad or otherwise! This is, after all, the biggest on screen cult movement in history. Not even Lord of the Rings really compares... well it was only a TRILOGY wasn't it?!?!
Harry Potter 5 opens with high drama. Given the dark (that's DARK!!!!!) nature of the book it is based on it could hardly do otherwise. Harry - young, errr, well, not quite so young, but increasingly tasty Daniel Radcliffe - is attacked by Dementor's in the service of Lord Voldemort... or are they???
Imelda Staunton
She's Dolores Umbridge and she's not happy!!!!!!!!
The whole film is a series of setbacks for young Harry as he tries to convince the wizarding world that Lord Voldemort is back and pretty pissst off!!! Worse, S&M educator extraordinaire Dolores Umbridge has come to Hogwarts and she doesn't like our Harry very much at all! Oh deeyaaah!!!
Umbridge's character as a prime basket of camp-nasty, and early tips about who would play her ranged from the sublime (Judi Dench) to the ridiculous (Kate Hudson). When Oscar nominated UK veteran Imelda Staunton got the job, the direction of the wind almost changed with the number of heads snapping round to check out the syndicate's new arrival.
Advance word is that Staunton steals the movie with a brilliant, dark (that's DARK!!!!!) performance - and comic timing so taut it could crack open a Horcrux - and you all know what they are now don't you!
Dolores Umbridge
Imelda Staunton - Hogwarts has not seen her like before!
Phoenix had scarcely finished before its young stars were out in the world either making other movies or opining about doing so. Emma Thompson was easily the best at this scare-press tactic - sparking genuine global panic that she might now be in the sixth and seventh movies... and winning herself a nice fat pay rise into the bargain.
But then young Em has grown up into quite the young fox! An important point to realise as most of the cast has followed in her footsteps. Radcliffe infamously had tounges and tempers out in full force when he disrobed for the London stage in a revival of Equus. Despite some excessive body hair in some areas he had crowds swooning!
Rupert Grint, like his character has become a lanky red headed atheltic type... don't even mention his two twin brothers!
The Big Three
Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint
Art imitates reality. The Harry Potter books all cover something approaching a year remember. Radcliffe & co. and their magical alter egos have all developed exactly along the same lines. In the present release in fact Harry gets a kiss in with Cho Chang - and thats just the beginning of juicier things to come! In the sixth edition Harry gets it on with young Ginny Weasley!
It's a long way from the first film where a diminuitive Radcliffe and sidekick Grint dealt with a vicious troll and referred to his "bogey's"!!! The Potter generation has matured right alongside their onscreen idols.
Puberty has been a rite of passage they have endured together and with perhaps somewhat greater understanding thanks to the books and the films.
All that's been missing has been an off-screen relationship between one of "the big three"! Emma Watson, responded to questions of that ilk in this movie's round of endless and exhausting interviews and press-conferences with "they're like my brothers!"
DISASTER!!!!!
High School Musical
A little on set romance never hurts the box-office!
High School Musical's Zac Effron and Vannessa Hudgens' desperately brief but very public fling won their show a mass of publicity. Surely somewhere in the Harry Potter empire is a publicist who can co-ordinate something along the same lines!
Pirated copies of the film are already legion on the net as slowly but surely the Harry Potter machine takes the film and its media circus openings around the globe.
It opens in Australia Wednesday, July 11 and the queues are already forming online as advanced ticket sales swell. Despite early reports that the movie is a letdown, the reasons for it seem somewhat hollow just at present - as if the critics are holding back on purpose to keep the crowds guessing and the box-office up!
Stand by for a proper review...
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