Movie Review “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”

July 14, 2007 by jon.

Kala and I were lucky enough to be able to see a pre-screening of this movie about 5 hours before it was release. (7:00 pm on Wednesday) And yes, people were in line for the midnight show.

In preparation for the showing, we re-watched the first four films. We never noticed the differences before between directions when viewing them individually but when viewed within a few days of each others, it is glaringly apparent. Like Hogwart’s Castle looks to be in a different place from movie 2 to 3. Obviously, Dumbledore was played by a different actor after Richard Harris passed away. (I liked Lee’s character better) Also, just the camera angles and the use of lighting differed between movies.

That being said, I must say, this is the best Harry Potter film yet. The plot followed the book for the most part, but it was able to keep moving and not get bogged down. The director did a good job of pulling in little details like why Snape doesn’t like Potter without focusing too much on them. The movie flows well and the special effects, while awesome, don’t distract from the general feel.

Order of the Phoenix begins with Harry using magic outside of Hogwarts. It then delves into how he was able to stay at the HQ for the group fighting Voldemorts army. I only had two problems with the movie. It doesn’t show enough of the true Order of the Phoenix which was made up of the adults. I guess to keep the movie to 2 hours 20 minutes, it didn’t have time to. The other problem is how they didn’t use the term Dumbledore’s Army until Dumbledore used it himself after the fact. If you didn’t read the book, you may not have caught a key part there.

Other than that, the fight scene in the Ministry of Magic is amazing. The viewer is also introduced to new characters like Luna Lovegood who begins to play more into the movie (But she really isn’t introduced well). Also new is Professor Umbridge who quite truly steals the show.  I did enjoy how they developed Neville’s character.
This was the most entertaining sequel movie that I have yet to see this year. (Including Pirates of the Caribbean, Spiderman, Fantastic Four and Shrek) Certainly worth the price of admission…Oh wait, I went free.

One last thing. The Goblet of Fire was a very dark movie and there were some disturbing scenes. Because of that, we wouldn’t let our kids (10 & 8 ) watch it. Order of the Phoenix still had the Dementors and a few other scenes that might make a child cover their eyes, but overall it was lighter to watch and would not trouble the kids near as much. We’ll probably take ours soon.

So if you see only one movie this summer. I recommend Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

BTW - I am waiting patiently for the new book (Deathly Hallows) but I can wait a bit. I may even read the others again before reading the new ones.

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