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Title: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
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/ | CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, don't have much to worry about. Despite the PG-13 rating, this isn't any more violent then the PG-rated third film. Recommended for ages 11 and up. |
In less then a week the world will be staying indoors, with their TV's and Game Boy's shut off, reading the final installment of the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." While we are waiting for the book to come out though, we can get a visual reminder of Harry's fifth year in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." As in the books, Harry's world in the fifth movie is growing darker still. Not even ten minutes into the movie Harry and his cousin Duddly are attacked by a couple of Dementors, who are supposed to be guarding the prisoners of Azkaban, but these two must have missed the memo. After defending himself with some magic, Harry is almost expelled from Hogwarts by the Ministry of Magic, who won't allow even defensive magic to be used by underage wizards outside of schools.
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If the ministry needs some logical arguments about defensive magic, I have a book on Malcom X they might find very interesting. Harry escapes this scare with the help of a unattentative Dumbledore, and then goes on to meet new friends and enemies. One of his new friends is Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw girl who speaks as though she's trying really hard to act spaced out instead of just being spaced out. Luna turns out to be a strange friend, but a welcome addition over the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Deloris Umbridge, whose rules and Ministry decrees are more annoying then the memo's I get to sell more credit cards at work. Then there's poor Harry. Now used to a world that no longer seems magical or exciting, Harry now occupies a world where almost everyone hates him, friends are hard to find, and Voldemort is alive.
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Yes, he's alive, though apparently he only has time to show himself at a train station dressed in a tuxedo, which may explain why very few people have seen him. You know, it just occurred to me that I may be getting ahead of myself here. You see, despite the fact that Voldemort is alive and well his activity has been less then active recently. There's a bunch of behind the scenes politics that are preventing Voldemort from attacking Harry directly, and indeed these politics are most likely delaying the start of the next war. Nevertheless, Dumbledore is taking preemptive actions by starting up a rebel alliance called The Order of the Phoenix and getting game keeper Hagrid to try and convince the giants to join the Order's side over Voldemort's side. Harry, meanwhile, is doing his part in the war by training students to cast power magic.
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He's doing this because Deloris more useless then she is annoying, and so the kids have been spending most of their free time reading books, something Hermione actually opposes for once pointing out that "what we read won't help us if we don't learn to defend ourselves against an attack." Amen to that sister. Since the screenplay has been adapted from a book that was about the size of a dictionary, events happen so rapidly that sometimes I felt like I was losing track of everything. Characters make cameo appearances for no reason I can think of, Harry gets his first kiss and then dumps the girl ten minutes later (in a fashion that makes him look like a jerk for doing so), and Dumbledore...well, as they say, if the wise one is quite he is obviously preparing for battle.
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This is all fine and good I guess, but the movie just kind of... sits there . Major events were placed in front of me without much thought or reason, and then taken away so easily with no time for thought or examination. At one moment Harry hates everyone, becomes a leader, and then goes back to hating everyone again. A prophecy reveals that Harry might have to die in movie seven, but I guess we only have to wait five days to find out whether that comes true or not. The movie has been directed by David Yates, and if I have to explain who that person is it isn't worth getting into. Let's just say this guy was given the keys to a major movie franchise without any real movie making experience.
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He's no Alfonso Cauldron or Mike Newel, but I guess he'll do. The sets look good, the action is well paced, and the movie does contain a dark feeling that works to it's favor. He's not exactly what I would call a talented director, but he shows enough skill to let us know he's more then simply a hired hack who's main talent happens to be that he works for a low paycheck. From the looks of things he's set to direct the next film, and with the return of Steve Klowes as the screenwriter I have much faith in the next movie being better. But what about this one? Well, I think this is one of those "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situations. The fifth book was this 900 page monster that was most likely going to suffer regardless who was making it, so all things consider, this will have to do.
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All the key elements are here, the action is great, the acting is praiseworthy, and we finally get to see what makes Voldemort so darn fearsome in the first place. Above all, as a Harry Potter fan, I did reasonably enjoy this. Though, that said, I think this is the first Harry Potter film that felt more like a souvenir of the book then a stand alone movie. That may be a good thing or that may be a bad thing, I leave that for you to decide.
Note: I debated the star rating for this movie for awhile, going back and forth on what I should grade it. Ultimately though, while I reasonably enjoyed the film, I'm going to round it down to two stars because I don't feel the movie works well enough outside of it's source material to warrant a passing grade. That doesn't mean I necessarily don't recommend the film, but it does mean I have trouble totally embracing it.
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