Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 2007
The fifth book in the series was not a favorite of mine. It took forever for events to unfold and the characters were unrealistic. But in a movie format, it doesn’t take nearly as long for events to unfold, and the characters are more realistic because they are played by real people.
The writers made good decisions on what to leave out since not nearly everything in the book would fit in a movie. There is less detail about Dolores Umbridge’s ineptitude (but still plenty), much of the hand-wringing romance in the book is gone, quidditch is completely excised, and an obnoxious reporter is left out entirely. The movie still has to jump around a lot in order to cover the essential points, tying in items from previous movies and laying the groundwork for the final two, in addition to telling a complete story. But the director has done a good job of giving us enough information and making everything reasonably clear. We get to see the imposing Ministry of Magic and get a glimpse of the wizard prison of Azkaban. Alan Rickman as Snape continues to shine even though his part is fairly small. Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge brings a real touch of evil to her character, making her more realistic than in the book. Even the girl who plays Luna Lovegood is good in a silly role that instead becomes cute with some great insights. Some difficult concepts to film like jumping into someone’s mind and casting spells in general, are well realized. It is difficult to hear exactly what spell is being cast, so more often there is just some unfathomable command and something neat happens. But that’s okay.
The core group of young actors are looking a little too old, but I wouldn’t want anyone else playing them. Having used the same cast, the director can show flashbacks to previous movies where the actors are clearly younger. Daniel Radcliffe as Harry has a meaty role and plays it well, though the adult actors can still run circles around him. I could quibble over a few items like the need to follow the past formula by starting with Harry’s terrible summer guardians. Harry’s love interest, Cho Chang, isn’t terribly cute or much of an actress; it seems like we should have gotten one or the other at least. Hagrid’s half-brother was just plain creepy, a lesson that CGI doesn’t always add to a film.
But despite a few negatives, I thought this was at least as good as the third installment, which up to now has been my favorite. I can not rate how well someone who has not read the book would like this, but for me I will give this an A.
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital