AshesFromStars

Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix
If I’m honest, I was just a little disappointed with this movie. It seemed to me that the entire story was rushed, with not enough emphasis on characters and relationships with the director, David Yates, was trying to cram the entire book into the shortest time possible. Granted the movie lasts for 138 minutes and it is, I suppose, a children’s movie but I wouldn’t have minded an extra twenty minutes in an uncomfortable Odeon chair just to have the story told properly.

The entire story is choppy and I feel that those who haven’t read the book would get lost very easily. The character Tonks isn’t even introduced to the viewer at all, I’m sure that the only mention of her name is when she tells Alastor ‘Mad-Eye’ Moody not to call her Nymphadora. It’s such a shame, as I thought that Natalia Tena fitted the image of Tonks in my head perfectly.

I loved the Dementors at the start of the movie, again these fitted just perfectly with the image I had of them in my head. In fact , a lot of the effects used throughout the movie fitted with the perfect descriptions JKR writes in the books. My favourite scene I think was the scene where Harry and co arrives at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place and the people living in the houses next door don’t realise that their houses are being squished up so that number twelve can ‘appear’.

The kiss between Cho and Harry was rather fanfic-y. I don’t know, I think I expected it to be a bit more..over quicker? Or something…But hey, each to their own.

Overall I think that too much of the book was missed out, with too much time focused on un-important things, like the kiss. The effects were amazing, the camera work was a tad too Hollyoaks-like (funny angles, ‘quirky’ shots) and the character relationships weren’t given enough time to fuse together to make the viewers believe them. I think that I’d probably rate this movie with 3 stars out of 5…unless you’re a major, major fan don’t bother going to see it and wait and rent it when it hits the DVD shelves.
The review of the book is coming soon, I’m still trying to gather my thoughts on it.

After spending over £100 on a ticket for T In The Park I didn’t think that I’d spend most of the weekend inside the fun casino that was there instead of watching bands that I love. I started off with £20 and quickly racked it up to over £750 playing poker, roulette and blackjack. I’d gotten the bug, man! Such a shame that the money wasn’t real.

As soon as I came home I decided that I was going to play for some real money but since I don’t fancy trekking into town every time I fancy a quick game I scoured the internet for a good, British online casino. Finally, after some searching, I came across Bet365 which combines all the games that I love playing.

The offer lots of different types of betting opportunities, on sports such as baseball, boxing, tennis, rugby - even lotto draws. But the best of the site is the casino area. The offer up to £100 free chips when you first sign up (which, by the way, takes mere minutes) which was incentive enough for me. I chose to download the software, but you can play from your browser if you prefer.

My favourite part of the site is the live dealer games - instead of playing with a computerized dealer there’s an actual person dealing the cards. For me, it makes me feel like I’m really in a casino without having to shell out membership fees.

…and I’ve finished Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows. It was magical…