Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
By stephanie - Monday, March 10th, 2008
Just saw this on DVD….this is actually my favorite Harry Potter film! I have yet to read any of the Harry Potter books except for the first one, and so I did not miss any of the 800 or so pages cut out of the film. (I decided to wait until all the movies were done before reading the books, because the first film was sooo tedious to me since I knew the ending.)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is not perfect by far; there’s not enough lighthearted fun and younger children might find this one to be too dark and political. But this one finally fixes a lot of the plodding screenplay problems plaguing earlier Potter films: The movie flows, evenly, and sensibly. (The previous Potter film was so horribly edited that I was shocked they even allowed it to be shown in a theater.) The political intrigue was interesting and the portrayal of sensational (and misleading) media coverage was timely.
The crowning jewel of Order of the Phoenix is the portrayal of Dolores Umbridge, who is delightfully creepy in her matching pink dress suits, tea, and kitten plate collection. It’s almost fun to see her clamp down on Hogwarts as the teens find a secret room to practice magic in. There is also a wonderful addition of the crazy blonde girl Luna Lovegood to the group; she is a much welcome antidote to Ron and Hermione’s whining.
The ending fight scene was spectacular, the sets were suitably mysterious, and if I had one gripe is that the CGI giant was completely unrealistic. But still, this is surely better than Harry Potter 4. I’m wondering if once again we have an odd/even curse going on here as with Trek, only in this case it’s the odd Potter films that are the good ones.
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:51 pm
You havent read the books, you dont count.
April 27th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Are you KIDDING ME? You can’t see the movies THEN read the books. It doesn’t work like that.