Review: Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix

Harry
Potter returns to Hogwarts for another year. This time around
he’s on the verge of being expelled from school for using
unauthorized magic in the real world. But wait, there’s more! The
Ministry of Magic is announcing that the return of Lord Voldemort is
completely rubbish and is a fabrication made up by Harry Potter and
Dumbledore. As a result, the Ministry is putting one of their own
into Hogwarts to re-evaluate the school curriculum. Needless to say,
hell breaks out at the school and Harry learns about the secret
society of “The Order of the Phoenix”. More witches, more
wizards, cool magic showdowns, Ralph Fiennes dressed to the nines
with a snake face, quite a few creepy moments and characters
(especially that little blond chick and Dolores Umbridge) all ensue.

I’ve
never read any of the Potter books, but I have been following all of
the movies since the beginning and I think it’s safe to say that
they are the next generation’s STAR
WARS. I’ll say this much, Harry just got off the “potty”.
I find with each new installment, the story and the characters just
get better and better. This installment totally took me by surprise
as it was much darker (like creepy/eerie darker) and a lot
more mature with its storyline and characters. I don’t even know
if this is a "kid’s movie" anymore…that’s how dark
and creepy it was. But that’s what I liked about it. I suppose
it’s the perfect transition from being more of kid’s movie to a
young teen flick as it touches issues that a lot of teenagers could
relate to, but with magic thrown into it. The development of each
installment is genius as the young fans are growing up with the
series.

All
the principles return for this one, plus a few more who make
interesting additions. Daniel Radcliffe returns as Harry Potter and
he really takes the character leaps and bounds beyond the other
installments this time around. We really get the sense of his
isolation and how emotionally tortured he was. I hate to say this
because Radcliffe is great at playing Potter, but I’m worried that
this kid will be on the SURREAL LIFE series in a couple of years.
Maybe it’s just me, but when I see him, I’m pretty sure he’ll
always be Harry Potter to me. Hopefully I’ll be wrong!

As for the rest of the cast, well Hermione,
played by Emma Watson, is looking cuter and cuter with every
installment. She’s still as serious as ever with the character,
but she plays it well! On the other hand, Ron Weasley’s character
seemed underused. He was there, but he didn’t say much and he
always looked stunned or perturbed in every scene. The one character
that really stood out was newcomer Dolores Umbridge played superbly
by Imelda Staunton. I’ll say this much: she really creeped me out.
She reminded me of Kathy Bates in MISERY. Most importantly, I
can’t forget to mention Gary
Oldman as Sirius Black. This man can turn any character into
gold and with the Potter series, he certainly leaves his mark!

This installment is the darkest of the series. The storyline was
very engaging with the character arcs and it explored their emotions
which elevated the sophistication of the storyline. However, that
might also be one of the reasons that I had a problem with the
editing. I found they jumped around a lot and as a result, it was a
little hard to follow at times. Plus, it seemed like they cut out
certain scenes that would have explained other key scenarios. I’m
referring to the Azkaban scene and the Severus Snape and Harry
memory-shielding sequences. Other than that though, it was fun ride!

I think that Potter fans are going to love
this! Like I said, with each new installment, it just gets better
and better and in this particular instance, it also gets a lot
darker. Hopefully with the last episodes to come (I think there are
two left) they won’t change any of the actors. What’s great
about this series is that you don’t have to wait a number of years
for the next one to come out. I already can’t wait for the next
installment; then again, I guess I could always read the book… 😉

— by Tim
Goernert