- Title: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- IMDB: link
Harry Potter finally gets a little style. Harry Potter’s 5th installment of the film is well balanced in acting, technique, mood and storyline, and is a complete joy to watch. I found myself more enthralled in the characters and their relationships with one another instead of being completely bashed with one special effect after another like the 4th film. The Order of the Phoenix kept a great balance with their computer-antics and maturity of characters. Harry has his first kiss, Ron is no longer the complete blubbering idiot, Hermione isn’t so girly and winy and plenty of screen time for characters that had such small parts in the past. Getting a few extra storylines from other characters like Sirius Black, Fred & George Weasley, Neville, Luna and Cho makes the film feel more complete and a whole than just focusing on Potter’s little group. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the best of the 5 to date.
Harry and the kids grow up and start coming into their own. With each passing film Harry, Ron and Hermione gain more powers and fit into their character roles more appropriately. The films are growing into such a joy to watch and experience, I could only imagine being a youth or even a young adult and finding such a film to be a great way to escape into a fantasy world of suspense, danger and magic. As with the books, with each passing film the mood and sentimentality start to get darker and darker and maturing. The Order of the Phoenix brings Harry to face his own death and what has to be done to preserve his own future. Wand battles, odd creatures both new and old, romance, danger, evil vs. good and plenty of adventure keeps the audience on their toes and completely engrossed.
As Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) prepares for his 5th year at Hogwarts he is met with a trial for his expulsion, he had to use is magic’s in front of a muggle and must pay for his so called crimes. Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) jumps to his defense and gets Harry off the accusations and back into the not so loving arms of Hogwarts. Harry arrives with his usual friends, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson), but finds everyone else, except for Luna (Evanna Lynch), has turned against him. They believe that he has lied about Cedric’s death and the return of evil Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). With the school turned against him and the new Black Arts teacher, Professor Dolores Jane Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), one of the most rigid people Harry has ever come across, he starts to feel alone and left out. Luna had made a wonderful point about what Voldemort wanted, how he wanted Harry to feel all alone, friendless and as if the world is against him so he would be easier to overcome. In agreement with Luna, Harry decides to help students who are still on his side to protect themselves against evil; this is where Dumbledore’s Army is formed. The groups hides out in locations that the magic of Howgarts has provided for them and start practicing spells to overcome the evil that Voldemort and his dark crew have planned to bestow upon them. A closer bond and togetherness forms between Harry and Sirius (Gary Oldman), at first this relationship seems a little weird because the past films didn’t show so much love and care between them so now they are thick as thieves and there was no lead up to that. Harry does get his first kiss with Cho (Katie Leung), but ends up crushed when he believes that she betrayed him with giving away the army’s secret hiding place to the Minister for Magic’s, Cornelius Fudge (Robert Hardy), spy Professor Dolores Jane Umbridge. Dolores runs through Hogwarts like a bull in a china hutch and starts destroying the student’s chance of defending themselves and any fun times they had experienced in the past. She fires teachers and finally overthrows Dumbledore, she is a menace to be stopped and that is exactly what Harry and his crew sets to. With Dolores out of the way, Harry has to save Sirius from Voldemort and beat his minions to Harry’s own prophecy locked up in a globe. A spectacular light show and battle of magic and wands alike break out at the hall of mysteries and some are lost others survive, but Harry’s battle is still to come in future installments.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is just another step up in this amazing series, J.K. Rowling really hit it square on the nose with this fantasy world. How could you go wrong in today’s world with technology lending itself heavily to the quality of our film going experience? The special effects, script, characters (both old and new) and casting all flow in unison more and more with each Potter film that is released. Mind you that Harry Potter’s 5th film is not for the younger generation, it is PG13 and has a few rough spots, but the young adult group that has been enjoying every one of J.K. Rowling’s books as they appear at midnight on the shelves of the local bookstores will be in love with seeing such magic on the big screen.
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