I hate to say it as this is rarely ever the case, but the Order of the Phoenix video game is MUCH better. I love it on my Wii.

They all rode them in the books and couldn't see them, didn't they?

That just makes even less sense... I assumed there was a scene explaining that and it got cut (I stopped reading Harry Potter by the fourth book.)

There's no reason you couldn't ride an invisible mount. None of them looked terribly concerned about it in the film though. I assume Harry or someone helped them onto it and then they took off.

And... why the hell didn't they just take their brooms? I mean, the brooms are probably even faster (Harry's definitely is).

You mean brooms, not wands, right?

And did you read the book? If not, this is why the movies should be more careful about what they leave out!

The movie left out the difficulty Hermione, Ron and Neville had with the whole Thestral thing.

Harry and the Order members flew on their brooms without being seen, in the book, because they were hidden from view by a spell which made them mostly invisible. Anyone looking up might've seen a ripple move through the sky, but that's it.

And Harry almost getting expelled was Umbridge and Fudge twisting the laws to try to discredit Harry and get him out of the way. Which is why it was thrown out.

Went and saw it again, this time at an IMAX in Canada. From the part where they rode the thestrals to the end of the battle, it was all 3-D.

Having just listened to the audio book last week, all the omissions were glaringly obvious. It was nice seeing some of the scenes, but if they had changed/omitted more, they'd have had to change the damn name; it's more a collection of scenes then any coherent plot.

1) The Cho thing has done horridly. If they're going to leave out the entire romance subplot except for the kissing, just cut it all. Also, why the hell did they have Cho rat out the DA?

2) Harry's emotional state (the entire point of the book) was handled badly. Sirius's death skipped the whole denial phase (kind of hard to be in denial when he just got whacked with Avada Kedavra) and jumps right to rage, the part with Voldemort trying to get him to (I assume) kill Bellatrix was totally made up (in the book, Bellatrix tells him that he has to mean it when he casts Cruciatus, but that's really not what they have in the movie), they skip the entire bit with his father, and they skip the bit between Harry and Dumbledore.

Basically, I could have fit more of the plot into a one page summary of the novel then the screenwriter did into a two hour movie. They cut the heart out of the book; if you haven't read the book, don't assume you have any clue about it from watching the movie. All you got was a quick outline of the plot, with all the good bits missing.

@Verithrax: They didn't take their brooms because in the book, Umbridge has banned Harry (and Fred and George) from playing Quidditch and locked their brooms in her office. Also, the rest of the group meet Harry and Hermione in the forest, not on that weird bridge thing, so the thestrals are right there. Really, the only option is thestrals, and Hermione/Ron/Neville/Ginny have a lot of trouble.

Harry and the twins beat the piss out of Malfoy after a Quidditch match, got banned from Quidditch, and their brooms were locked in Umbridge's office. After confronting Umbridge in a scene pretty much like the one with Trelawney being sacked (except reversed), they summon their brooms (which break through Umbridge's door) and fly off. After that, Umbridge had Harry's placed in the dungeons and had a troll hired to guard it. Other than Ginny and Ron, I don't believe any of the other's who come along have brooms.

And no, brooms are not faster than Thestrals. You'd know this if they had included the real Thestral intro scene with Hagrid, instead of making one up with Luna.

Does anybody know if there are plans for "Extended Edition" releases for DVDs. I've heard ABC Family has been showing special extended versions of the movies recently with stuff that was cut out. I was wondering if any of those cuts might come back, especially since the LoTR trilogy had done that especially for the DVDs.

That might help satisfy some people's concerns.

I assume it was to make the whole Ginny-rape thing easier.

Yeah, like I said, they gutted the whole character with that one. Missing bits out has to be done, but they -can't- just completely restructure the plot like that. It's not on.

I can say with perfect honesty that Harry's buffness was -not- a problem for me.

Luna Lovegood was hawt (and really cute).

Going to see the movie tonight. Being a avid reader of the series, I am concerned about how good its going to be knowing before hand all the glaring in consistences.

Well, it's not bad. I don't regret going to see it. Some bits are very nice; despite some inconsistancies, I really enjoyed the Ministry fight, for instance.

Also yes, Luna was really cute. Harry should totally go after her.

Luna was great. I loved her.

I was thinking the same, they have a lot of great moments, both in the books and in the movie.

I just don't understand, she set Harry up to where he could have had an interesting and fun relationship with just about every other girl in the book; Hermione, Luna, Cho, the quidditch girls, etc.

She put him with the one possible weird pairing.

Yeah.