Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix

Mostly everyone who has been following the Harry Potter series knows that a phoenix is a bird that crumbles up on its death bed, but rises from its own ashes to live again. Immortal is the word that fits perfectly for this mythical creature. Immortal seems to be what J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter is turning into as the queues for the latest movie and the pre booking for the last book seems to be ceaseless. Everyone wants to know what happens to their dear little wizard. And those who don’t follow the books, well, they just want to see what the fuss is all about.

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

The movies have been directed by different hands and one can’t help but notice the tendency that the series has to lean towards the dark side. As we progress further and further into Harry’s life, the plot seems to get thicker and definitely more eerie. Now there are those who will expect the movie to be an exact translation of the book and will be indignant at even a small slight. But it is almost impossible to fit an 800 page book into a two hour movie. Plus, since Rowling is not making the movie, you can’t hold it against the director David Yates when he adds his own personal touch to the film. I really don’t know about others, but I sure liked his point of view.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, we are exposed to more darkness, evil and rebellion than ever before. Continuing from where the Goblet of Fire left him, Harry insists that Lord Voldemort is back. But no one believes him-especially the Ministry of Magic. Only Dumbledore believes our poor hero. The head of the Ministry is convinced that the principal is up to no good and installs his representative as a teacher in the school. Hogwarts is not the same as there is distrust, malice and venom thick in the air.

It is in this part that we get to explore Harry a little more. No longer a sweet little boy, this teenager has a lot of problems of his own and the anger is not helping him. Uncharacteristically, his friends start observing a lot of changes in the now snappy Harry. But along with those changes, we also see Harry having his first kiss (yes! Really!). Though the chemistry between him and Cho Chang could have been built, it is not all bad. This leaves Ron and Harmionie with little to do, but we can see good character development here too.

About the acting, well, the usual players are great as always, but some really good performances are given by Dolores Umbridge- the defense against dark arts teacher. The Weasley twins are great too-they provide the only comedy in the movie.

I certainly would recommend this film to all Potter fans as this is a different one-one you may agree with or not, but one which you will no doubt enjoy.

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 9:38 pm and is filed under Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Movie Reviews . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.