Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

Does not deliver

I was recently on a plane in which I was not tired and didn't have anything to read. Thus, I had to determine what to do with three free hours. I decided the in-flight movie, Harry Potter #5, would help me get through the flight.

In this installment, Harry Potter is getting a bad rap because no one believes Big V is really back. Hogwarts gets an obnoxious new headmaster, who rubs most people the wrong way. Harry starts teaching his own "Defense Against the Dark Arts" classes, which basically consists of telling people how to point their wands, say the magic words and have enough confidence that it works (does magic work on faith?).

The movie succeeded in helping pass the time, but not much more beyond that. The characters are not very believable or sympathetic. For me, it's hard to get very excited about a storyline where all problems can be solved with magic. I know this puts me in the minority, since most people think Harry Potter and friends are the bomb, but I just don't care about them. Granted, the books are a much better read (and I have not read this particular book) than the movies are to watch, but I can't really recommend this to anyone who isn't already an avid HP fan. July 25, 2008

VERY INTENSE

The world of Harry Potter has changed considerably from the 1st film. Gone is the light hearted wizardry and magic and in is the dark challenges and sorrow. Harry Potter continues in this film to endure tradgedy oafter tradgedy but somehow is able to go on. An inner strength that picks him up time and time again. In this installment Harry takes action. He teaches his fellow students self defense after the ministry of magic goes into denial about voldemort. Harry and Dumbledore are seen in a different light because the wizard community will not accept the fact the he who can not be named is back. Harry and his fellow students havea showdown with voldemort with dumbledore again to his aid. But again Harry faces loss. In the end he learns that he and voldemort can not exist as long as the other lives. His tragic life seemingly hopeless and filled with despair but Harry manages to rise above it all. July 24, 2008

Dark "Phoenix" captures essence of fifth Harry Potter story

Many arm-chair quarterbacks have slammed David Yates' turn at the helm of the "Harry Potter" franchise, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." These killjoys need to take to heart Anton Ego's soliloquy on criticism at the end of Pixar's "Ratatouille" and remember how hard it is to create something, but how easy it is to criticize.

This is by far the most difficult adaptation of Ms. Rowling's beloved series of novels. "Phoenix" is the darkest and longest of the first five novels, easily containing enough material for two films if one took the same stance as Chris Columbus and threw everything from the books into the movies. Yates didn't have that luxury, and so drastic cuts were needed. For devoted fans, this movie likely feels like "highlights from Harry" instead of a true movie, but such is the fate of most film adaptations.

The question is, how good an adaptation is it? For the most part, the movie triumphs brilliantly. Harry is traumatized by Voldemort's murder of Cedric Diggory at the close of "Goblet of Fire," but it seems that only (some) Griffindors and Albus Dumbledore are willing to admit that Voldemort is back. The Ministry of Magic sticks its head in the sand and questions both Harry's and Dumbledore's credibility, leading to a dark analysis in the story of media manipulation and government paranoia.

Not for nothing is there not a single mention of Quidditch in the entire movie.

The acting is all top-notch, particularly from the three kids we've seen grow up before our eyes in this series. The cast of experienced British actors is at their typical excellent best. But the movie is practically stolen from our favorite heroes by a villain, and not Lord Voldemort. Insead, Imelda Staunton swipes the movie with her evil schoolmarm, Dolores Umbridge. This lady says more about evil with a polite 'hem-hem' and a glassy stare than any number of foam-mouthed rants by lesser actors - she is a riveting, horrible pleasure to watch.

Special kudos also go out to newcomer Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood, Harry's spacy classmate. This moon-unit's a charmer.

The DVD is also chock-full of the usual DVD extras we've grown to appreciate from the Harry Potter series. While nothing rises to the level of Peter Jackson's four-DVD sets for the Lord of the Rings movies, these are excellent additions for the kiddies (lots of games and whatnot).

A must-see for any fan of Harry Potter, although die-hard fans will likely grab their dog-eared copy of "Phoenix" to see what exactly Yates left out. July 20, 2008

Poison pen

A lethal combination of bad screenwriting and hack direction. The nuances introduced in Potter movies 3 and 4 by Cuaron and Newell are jettisoned. Cuaron's sly take on book 3, his ability to suggest the pending sexual awakening of the three main characters, and the sexual ambivalence in some of the other characters, all wrapped in sinuous action, rescued the movies from the clueless Chris Columbus. Newell built on this, and brought the young actors to carefully shaded and detailed performances, performances that linger in the mind well after the FX have faded. Phoenix removes virtually every trace of character development, every trace of humor, and the spirit of fun that bubbled in the first four films is crushed in a wall of stony compositions and unfeeling visual effects. Emotionally cold and depressing, and even more depressing to find out that Yates is being brought back for the sixth film. Heaven forbid they give him the final two films. Bring back Cuaron and Newell! July 11, 2008

Less of a movie, more of a moving book illustration.

After watching Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix, I was insulted on two levels. One, being let down as a reader of the book it was based on and two, as an appreciator of well-made movies.

First off, let me say I don't have expectations that any movie based on a popular book will live up 100% to the details of the book, and am willing to forgive the filmmakers if they see fit to drop any superfluous elements that would be distracting to the flow of the movie. Believe it or not, Harry Potter books have a TON of side detail going on at any one moment that makes its universe rich and interesting to the reader, and most of it wouldn't make sense in a movie with limited time. However, I do have the expectations that whatever the book was trying to convey in terms of a story and the relationships of the characters to their circumstances and each other should be preserved in the film. Unfortunately, Harry Potter & The Order of The Phoenix accomplishes a feeble fraction of this, and the movie suffers for it greatly, especially moreso if you are a fan of the book series. Relationships between Dumbledore and Harry, Harry and his friends, Harry and the Order of The Phoenix, Harry and Sirius, Sirius and his estranged Black family, Snape and Harry, and worse, Harry and Voldemort's conflict are ill-defined, most of the time immediately appearing out of nowhere then soon left dangling without any emotional resonance at all. In fact, like the previous film, Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire (also directed by Yates), the breakneck speed of the film in attempting to show all the neat-o sequences of the book leaves the viewer wondering not only what the hell is happening on-screen, but also empty of understanding or empathy towards any of the characters' plights. Where the book would take time to show both Harry's immaturity and heroisms, we are only left with the idea that Harry is angry and petulant simply because, well, he said he was angry and also shouts at his friends. Only a few, rare sequences register with both wonder and emotion, but they simply remain too far and few in between the choppy editing that reduces Order of The Phoenix to an "acceptable" film length.

And that is the great big problem of this film: the editing is so poorly cobbled that it reduces scenes to mere soundbites of no value to the filmgoer. Worse is the fact that it is unable to stand up as an interesting film even to people who have either watched the Harry Potter films, read the books, or both. It is simply to harried to try and compress big scenes to coarsely illustrate the main parts of the book,and then ties them together with the loosest of connections (if at all). There were so many emotional dead-end scenes in this film that it became more frustrating to put up with them than Dolores Umbridge's mad fascist campaign at Hogwarts. I mean, how many films have to rely on both characters explaining what and why something is happening in the movie and on newspaper clippings flying out from the middle of the screen? That to me is the ultimate in lazy filmmaking and an insult to the book's storyline.

That said, the look of the movie was excellent, and the depiction of the Ministry Of Magic was top-notch. Unfortunately, due to the haphazard editing of the movie, most of the places had very, very little time to sink in and convey their wonderments and charms. Suffering the same fate, the plethora of characters old and new were reduced to the most simple of walk-ons and given few lines, which is sad given the caliber of actors hired to portray them. Of course, most of them have meatier roles down the road in the other books, but, unfortunately, when the time comes to make the films based on them, I have the utmost lack of confidence that David Yates will be able to translate the magic to the screen, which is ironic given the subject matter of the books.

1.5 out of 5 stars, mostly for the superb special effects and a rare few good scenes. July 9, 2008

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