Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

After his fourth traumatic year at Hogwarts that ended with a showdown with the franchise's very own Mr Bad, Lord Voldemort, it doesn't seem too much for Harry Potter to be asking for a peaceful Summer. However, he doesn't get such a wish – from the opening scene in which Harry and his despised cousin Dudley have close encounters of the life-threatening kind with two dementors in an underground passage, it is clear that Voldemort has unfinished business with the scarred lad, and that he has every intention of finishing it. Plus, nearly everyone in Harry's school believe him to be a liar, Professor Dumbledore refuses to look him in the eye, his friends don't understand him, and, on top of that, Harry must grapple with the skills required in mastering his first kiss. My, my, aren't teenage lives complicated?!

A word of warning. This is not a film for the uninitiated. If "patronum", "Avada Kedavra" and "ministry of Magic" sound like code to you, then best avoid watching this. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix makes no attempt to guide the newbies along the story (and rightly so, because any attempt at that would detract from the film and patronize its viewers). To fully comprehend the plot, you must have seen the four previous films as well as read the book from which this film is based.

The film itself is a wonderful jumble of goods, bads, and uglies. There is plenty to enjoy here, starting with the flawless turn from Imelda Staunton as the sadistic Dolores Umbridge. The woman who we are so used to seeing in roles as the sweet old lady, whether it be in Shakespeare in Love, or her Oscar-nominated turn in Vera Drake, her performance here is a shock and a half. Kitted out from head to toe in pink and sporting a sugary air, we soon find that Umbridge, whose methods of punishment include using quills that protract blood on her students, is anything but sweet. Staunton captures Umbridge's ruthless oiliness perfectly; never before has evil been such fun to watch.

Rupert Grint is also a joy. His ginger hair, large blue eyes, bumbling demeanour and spot-on comedy timing make him the true star of the show, and every scene that he features in benefits as a result of his appearance. Simply put, he is Godly. Sadly, the other two teen stars are nowhere near as good as Grint; Radcliffe, who gave an adequate performance in the West End's Equus, is back to his shoddy self here with an array of overreaching facial expressions and laughable deliveries of his lines. He is most embarrassing of all in the lead-up to kissing Cho Chang, in which everyone in my cinema was collapsing with laughter at his "performance." But it gets even worst, for Emma Watson, aspiring Cambridge student, World Peace Representative (probably) and general object of annoyance to average, frumpy teenage girls such as myself, gave a performance that was so awful, it damn near lost me the will to live. She just couldn't portray any of her emotions convincingly, and just settled for saying the lines that were written for her. Whereas Hermione was one of my favourite characters in the book due to her kindness, knowledge and appreciation for others' feelings, Emma's presentation of Hermione makes her insufferable and punch-worthy. It ain't good.

The two "actors" aside, my main other foible with this film was how it cut/altered some very important details of the book. For example, in the book, it is Kreacher who betrays Sirius and puts him in danger. The appearance of Snape's past as a hated and bullied student is also poorly put together and left to linger rather than properly dealt with. The Cho Chang storyline is pitiful, whereas in the book, we had been led to see that she wasn't all that she had cracked up to be as a person, in the film, she is the sketchiest of sketches and written off practically before she has begun. In terms of 2007 releases, only Pirates of the Caribbean III had more plot holes than this.

That said, I had a huge amount of fun in the 2 and a half hours that this film played, with three newcomers to this movie, Yates (director), Michael Goldenberg (screenwriter) and Hooper (composer). The direction was apt, not perfect, but acceptable. The score was acceptable. The visual effects were stunning, especially in the climactic finale between Dumbeldore's Army and Voldemort's Deatheaters, led by Jason Isaacs, where an entire storeroom containing shelved globes containing prophecies, one of which concerns Harry. It is here that Helena Bonham Carter emerges as Bellatrix Lestrange, one of the final and greatest joys of the film. Laughing manically and sporting long hair greasier than a Professor Snape-Cristiano Ronaldo mixup, she makes the most of her limited screen time to deliver one of the best performances in all the Harry Potter movies. Utterly haunting.

Thus, verily I say, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a worthwhile outing. If you can put up with the abomination commonly known as "Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson trying to act", as well as the slightly pretentious over-editing of Harry's dream sequences, not to mention the ten thousand odd plot holes, then you should venture out to the cinema to see this. Not capital film-making, but, as I'm yet to see Ratatouille and The Simpsons movie, about as good as you'll get this Summer from the cinema.

When I first walked into the movie, my expectations were not very high. The first two movies, I thought, were the best of the series mainly due to Richard Harris' dead-on portrayal of Dumbledore and screenplays that closely followed the original books. Though the third and fourth movies were very artistic and dramatic, I couldn't really connect to them in the way i had with the books. They glossed over many of the little things that made the Harry Potter series so magical in the first place, focusing on a select few plot lines and limiting dialog to only what was necessary to further the story.

As a result they've felt more like a collage of scenes, a series of puzzle pieces, thrown at the viewers faster than they can piece together, just leading up to a final confrontation. Pacing has certainly been an issue, leaving fans feeling disjointed, and those new to the series confused as to what exactly is going on. In this respect, Order of the Phoenix was very similar to the previous two movies. As a Hollywood film, it deserves praise, bringing this amazing world to the big screen, telling a compelling tale, and keeping the viewers glued to their seats for the duration of the movie. However, to the die hard fans of the books, you will undoubtedly be disappointed.

Many scenes that one would think invaluable to the story have been cut, replaced by the hasty filling in of plot holes. And while it pains me to ignore some of my favorite scenes from the book being left on the cutting room floor (St. Mungo's, Harry's Quibbler interview, the Quidditch fight, etc.), I realize that yes, not everything could be included in the movie. But in this watered down version of the book, there seems to be something missing. We still have all the drama and excitement, but some of the magic just seems to be gone.

Aside from Evanna (couldn't have made a more perfect Luna), the kids give simply average performances, never really reaching the full potential put forth by JK Rowling's writing. The same goes for Gambon, who seems to have ignored the calm, all knowing, endearing idea of who Dumbledore is, in favor of a more erratic yet powerful headmaster. Sure, this works well in the more dramatic scenes (specifically the final battle), but otherwise, his performance falls flat, lacking the eye twinkling charm we came to love from the late Richard Harris. Thankfully, Imelda Staunton more than makes up for this in an amazing portrayal of Dolores Umbridge, one of the more fully realized characters of the movie. As for the rest of the cast, it's largely hit or miss, determined by how each scene is written.

Overall, I would certainly recommend the movie for everyone, fan or not, as it really was a well made movie, despite a few wooden actors and some bad dialog. But when looking at the books, one really can't help but think how much more potential this movie could've had.

Within the first 5 minutes you can tell the series has undergone a dramatic tone shift and I have to say I think thats appropriate since Voldemorts return at the end of Goblet of Fire means that it's time to put aside childish things. The big bad men are here and they don't care about hurting children. it's time to get nasty.

Gone is the frivolity of the first couple of movies where magic was cool and everything in this new and magical world was just wonderful to behold, a la World of Disney. The new director has taken some risks with style and approach and they've paid off brilliantly. Order of the Phoenix is probably the darkest of the five movies we've had so far, even more so than Azkhaban which was a step in the right direction for where the series would eventually be heading. There's very little "fun" in Phoenix and you can see why. The Dark Lord is back, it's no laughing matter and this movie actually sells that fact.

This (in the movie world at least) is where Harry Potter crosses the line from kids movie to grown ups movie.

Harry now has some serious mental scars (as well as his actual one of course) since the events of the previous movie which while lighter than Azkhaban, followed on well from that movie. The Ministry of Magic is in denial about Voldermorts return and are trying to control the flow of rumour stemming from the events of Goblet. To this end we have new teacher and Ministry stooge Dolores Umbridge. Pink and fluffy on the outside, crunchy and evil on the inside. She makes no qualms about re-ordering the law at Hogwarts putting the kybosh on anything even remotely fun and making the students lives a complete misery. What she put Harry through in detention was simply pure evil.

She wasn't quite how I pictured her from the book but Imelda Staunton played her with a deliciously bitter/sweet twist, all charming and proper in her righteous delusions with that "stab you in the back" thing going on. She was a nasty piece of work.

It is a shame that a lot of the content of the book was missing but it was a big book and although I can't put my finger on what wasn't in the movie (I read it a while ago now) it does sometimes feel that there should have more substance to a few areas, mainly the characterisation of some of the characters. Most of the major bits I remember from the book were in the movie. There's a pace here we haven't seen before, a new musical approach also puts a new twist on things and I think Harry Potters world seems to fit it's new clothes well. I'm eagerly anticipating what's next as I hear David Yates is also directing the Half Blood Prince (last I heard anyway) and since that book has zombies in it I think the new dark style will suit it awesomely thank you very much.

The characters all look much older than they're supposed to be in Phoenix but it also kind of works in it's favour. They all look like they have a bit more history and life experience behind them, they're coping with stuff that will age any kid and it shows. That's also testament to the acting as well. Here mostly all the acting is pretty good, Ron Harry and Hermione all put in good efforts obviously having gotten the hang of the whole acting lark. Gambon is good as Dumbledore but I do miss Richard Harris and keep playing what might have been his versions of Gambons scenes over in my head. When I read the books it's Harris I'm picturing. Helena Bonham Carter gives a kooky insane kind of air to Bellatrix Lestrange (must get that from hubby Tim Burton) who was a pretty good character. One thing about this film though is that the actual Order of the Phoenix isn't in it all that much really. A flaw that wasn't in the book. The line about Snape being in the order, if you missed it you wouldn't even know he was in the order at all and a subsequent scene later on might seem confusing.

Kreacher was well done I though, coming across as a real miserable old bugger which was appropriate. The producers apparently weren't going to put him in the movie at all but JK Rowling said they'd be stuffing themselves up for the final movie if they did that.

All in all I think Phoenix is the best so far of the five movies, followed by Azkhaban, Goblet, then the other two in no particular order.

Now I've just got hold of The Deathly Hallows and although it's quarter past five I'm off to bed so see you later....

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is brought back to school where he faces a possible expulsion after using magic in the real world. Dumbledore (Jim McManus) comes to his defense and soon the two of them are warning people of the return of Lord Voldemort.

As I've said in the reviews for the previous films, I haven't read any of the stories so I honestly can't compare the movie to the book. With that said, I did find the previous installment to be an extremely entertaining movie and certainly the best of the series to date. This fifth film is certainly a major step backwards and sadly there are way too many boring moments to make it a complete winner.

Again, perhaps I would have picked up on more things had I been familiar with the book but I personally found the majority of the first half to be quite boring without too many interesting things going on. I honestly thought there was very little character development and I thought too many of the scenes just kept dragging on with dialogue that just wasn't all that interesting or thrilling.

The film does finally pick up during its final act and this is where thing get really good. The final battles almost rival what we saw in the previous film and there's no question that they pack a lot of energy and excitement. They also benefit from some wonderful special effects that really put you in the middle of the action and blend perfectly well with the cast members. Speaking of the cast, a lot of talented actors keep getting added to the series and once again everyone is quite impressive. Regulars like Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman and others return to their roles quite nicely and people like Emma Thompson, Gary Oldman and David Thewlis are of great value.

Once again, I believe that the series is only getting better with each progressive movie. I attended a preview screening tonight and was completely blown away by the movie. While quite a bit of detail was lost in the movie, how can you really expect a three hour movie to capture what takes Rowling hundreds of pages to explain? This said, Yates did a great job capturing the spirit of the book, and he had me on my seat from the first scene all the way through the end of the movie. I cried, I laughed, and I am pretty sure there were a few times where I couldn't breathe from the tension.

What really made the movie for me was the talent of the actors. As expected, the older cast members deliver some of the best acting England has to offer. Sidenote: there is something about Emma Thompson where every time she cries in a movie, I start tearing up myself. I was especially impressed with how much Daniel, Emma (Watson), and Rupert have improved their acting since the last movie. Having come from seeing Daniel in Equus two weeks ago, I was expecting a lot from him. Even after seeing him display more intensity than I thought possible on stage, he surprised me in Phoenix. His emotions were so raw and genuine that I literally got goosebumps.

Well done to the cast and crew! I can't wait for the next one!!