Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' is a dark, grim, serious film, with little of the joy or whimsy that animated the first four movies.Review by Peter T. Chattaway | posted 7/11/2007 12:00AM
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
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MPAA rating: PG-13
(for sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images)
Genre: Fantasy
Theater release:
July 11, 2007
by Warner Brothers
Directed by: David Yates
Runtime: 2 hours 19 minutes
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge), Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore), Gary Oldman (Sirius Black), Alan Rickman (Severus Snape), Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort), Emma Thompson (Sybil Trelawney)
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You have to feel at least some sympathy for any filmmaker who would tackle Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Not only is it the longest of the Harry Potter books, and thus one of the most difficult to compress to a single movie, it has also been regarded by many fans as something of a disappointment. Despite its length, and despite the fact that a significant character dies, not a lot seems to have happened by the time the story ends. Lessons are learned and secrets revealed, but of all the instalments in the series to date, it ends on the least satisfying note.
Even so, despite all these disadvantages, surely a better film could have been made than this one. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a dark, grim, serious film, with little of the joy or whimsy that animated the first four movies—and while some of this can be chalked up to the source material, at least some of the blame has to go to the filmmakers, too.
Ron, Harry and Hermione return for Round 5 of the series
First, the source material. The last film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, ended on a dark and serious note—with the return of the Dark Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and the murder of a student by his hands—but it also ended on a note of potential excitement: with the Dark Lord back, the war between his followers and those on Harry Potter's (Daniel Radcliffe) side must be about to begin!
But it turns out that Voldemort keeps a low profile throughout most of Order of the Phoenix, partly because he wants the wizarding world to think that rumors of his return have been greatly exaggerated. And sure enough, when Harry Potter and his mentor, Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), try to tell their fellow wizards and witches that Voldemort has come back, they are accused—by the government, the media and their friends—of lying and fearmongering.
And so Harry, tormented by nightmares, waits for his enemy to show his face to the world. But Harry also waits for lots of other people. His best friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) don't write him all summer, and for some reason Dumbledore seems to be avoiding him, too. And we're more than halfway into the film before we get a glimpse of Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane), the friendly half-giant gameskeeper, who has been away on a secret mission.
Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge
As if all the waiting weren't bad enough, Harry finds, when he gets to school, that he must spend a lot of time with teachers he hates. It turns out that his nightmares are not merely dreams, but signs of a link between his mind and Voldemort's—so Dumbledore sends him to Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), the potions professor who loathes him, for special lessons on how to block Voldemort's influence on him.
And then there is Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), the Ministry of Magic official who has been appointed the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher—not so much because she knows how to teach, but because the government wants to keep a close eye on Dumbledore and prevent any more rumors about the Dark Lord from spreading. When Harry does insist, in class, that Voldemort is back, Umbridge summons him to a form of detention that Ron and Hermione rightly call "torture."
And where, in all this, is the sense of wonder and enchantment? Once again, Harry learns a few new things about Hogwarts and the wizarding world in general, but there is little sense of awe about it this time. (When a door to a secret room appears in the wall of one corridor, it is a convenient plot device, nothing more.) And where is the humor? At times, the film aims for a little levity, but more often than not, these moments feel forced, dutiful, even recycled from the previous movies.
Harry gets his first kiss, with Cho (Katie Leung)
Worst of all, with the exception of Rickman's delectably devious Snape, there are few if any of the "grace notes" that have made each of the previous films memorable in their own way. No matter how complicated the plots, no matter how outrageous the special effects, the Harry Potter movies have always made time for the characters and given them opportunities to shine: think of Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis) learning to dance in Goblet of Fire, or of Remus Lupin's (David Thewlis) heart-to-hearts with Harry Potter in Prisoner of Azkaban. But there is little of that here.
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