Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Action & Adventure

This isn’t the cute Harry Potter you first saw in 2001. The boy wizard played by Daniel Radcliffe returns to the big screen with “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”. Based on J.K. Rowling’s novels, “Phoenix” is volume 5 in the seven-part saga that has enamored fans for nearly a decade. Just as the books have grown progressively darker after each volume, so have the films become gloomier as Harry and his friends have achieved puberty. It makes for an interesting subtext as Harry’s adolescence is shown amid the return of the dreaded Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes).

In his fifth year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter is troubled. Not only did he witness Voldemort’s murder of Cedric Diggory, he’s also attacked by Dementors outside the campus, in “the Muggle world”. Even his mentor, Prof. Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) is under scrutiny from the Ministry of Magic due to their own paranoia. When the Ministry appoints Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton) to teach at Hogwarts, Harry and his classmates are reduced to learning basic defense, far less than what is needed to face the Dark Lord. Thus, Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) convince Harry that he must teach them how to defend themselves. In doing so, they don’t just practice wizardry, they unwittingly start a rebellion which leads to a battle that will ultimately seal the fate of someone close to Harry’s heart.

As each “Harry Potter” movie has been shown, each director has proceeded to place his respective stamp on his particular installment. For this film, director David Yates was tasked with compressing over 800 pages of source material into a two and a half hour picture. It was no easy task, and fans of the books will undeniably point out the disappearance of the Quidditch matches as well as greater explanation behind Dumbledore’s Army and the gathering of Voldemort’s Death Eaters. Since I last read the novel version of “Phoenix” over two years ago, I was still surprised with how some scenes came across on film. Still, even as Jo and I filled in the blanks on how some scenes progressed, I couldn’t help but wonder how non-Potter fans would react to those same scenes. Something tells me they may end up more puzzled than enamored.

Undoubtedly, Radcliffe and his crew have taken this acting thing quite seriously since they started. With more depth to their acting comes a sense of desperation and anxiety as the shadow of Voldemort slowly rises once again. Surprisingly enough, it was a newcomer to the series who steals the scenes where she is in. Evanna Lynch was perfect as the eccentric Luna Lovegood and her portrayal really does do justice to Rowling’s original idea. If not for Cho Chang (Katie Leung) and Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright), one would think that Lynch’s Luna might have a shot at stealing Mr. Potter’s heart.

It really was a treat to see Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) interact with Harry for longer stretches. SPOILER ALERT!!! Thus it was even more painful when Sirius is taken away at film’s end. In that sense, Yates succeeds in capturing the essence of the novel and translating it onscreen. Still, I found myself yearning for longer scenes to capitalize on Oldman’s talent and mesh that with Radcliffe’s rising acting ability. END OF SPOILER ALERT!!!

Despite these drawbacks, I still feel that “Phoenix” has been the best book-to-film translation of a Potter novel so far. When the Order comes to recruit Harry and flies across London, you get the same sense of awe as in Disney’s classic “Peter Pan” when Peter first took the kids to Neverland. The culminating fight scene at the Ministry of Magic is the closest we’ve gotten yet to a “Star Wars-type” of fight between wizards and witches. For this scene alone, the movie is a winner. To see Voldemort and Dumbledore throw down like the bad asses they are was a great adrenalin rush that I felt cemented this film’s coolness factor.

I’ve come to realize that rarely are these Potter films as good as their original source materials have been. That being said, I still feel that “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” is the best of the five Potter movies to date. The combination of darker shades, deeper story, and underlying dread all add to this film’s mystique and gives me hope that when “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” comes out next year, that film will be just as good if not better.