dragonfire88's Full Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
I first discovered the world of Harry Potter in 2001 when I received the first book for my birthday. I was quickly hooked on the books and loved the first movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Since then, I have gotten the other books as they have come out and I've seen the other four movies. I've been looking forward to seeing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix even though it is an adaptation of my least favorite book in the series.
I want to share some general background information before I talk specifically about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Each book, and therefore each movie, has built on what happened previously. Because of that, I do think that it is necessary to know some things before seeing this movie. People shouldn’t start with this movie unless they have already read the books. I will mention some things that could be spoilers for the first four movies or books for people who haven’t seen or read them yet.
Harry Potter had been raised by his Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia Dursley after the death of his parents, James and Lily. Vernon and Petunia had kept the fact that his parents were wizards from Harry. They also hadn’t told him that his parents had been murdered by a powerful dark wizard, Lord Voldemort. Harry somehow survived the attack which caused Lord Voldemort to vanish. Harry went to Hogwarts when he turned eleven and he became friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Harry also got an enemy in Draco Malfoy and had to face Lord Voldemort in different forms before he was able to fully return at the end of Harry’s fourth year at Hogwarts.
****Minor Plot Discussion**** I am only going to briefly discuss the plot of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Most of what I mention will have been shown in trailers. Anyone that doesn’t want to know anything about the plot should skip the next two paragraphs. I will be vague when I discuss certain elements of the movie.
Harry was back with the Dursleys for his summer break and he had to use magic to protect himself and his cousin Dudley which caused him to face a hearing at the Ministry of Magic. A group of wizards, including Mad-Eye Moody, arrived to take Harry to Sirius Black’s house. It was being used by the Order of the Phoenix, a group formed by Dumbledore to fight Lord Voldemort. The adults were trying to keep things from Harry and his friends which was very frustrating for Harry.
Once back at school, they had to deal with Delores Umbridge, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who wouldn’t let them actually do spells in her class. She was very loyal to the Ministry of Magic and Cornelius Fudge and was going along with the denial of Lord Voldemort returning. Fudge passed decrees that affected Hogwarts, including giving Umbridge all sorts of power. Harry had to deal with The Daily Prophet calling him a liar and with other students believing the paper. He was trying to deal with his feelings for Cho. Harry gave in to urging by Hermione and Ron to start teaching a group of students, named Dumbledore’s Army spells they could use to defend themselves. Harry had bad dreams that were connected to Voldemort which led to private lessons with Snape.
****End of Plot Discussion****
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the second of the Harry Potter movies to be rated PG-13. The movie was dark and dealt with some very serious things. I don’t think it was as dark as the book or even Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Harry and his friends were older and they were facing new dangerous situations. A few things might be a little upsetting or scary to younger children. I think children who have already read the book would be all right with what happened. There was some violence in a few scenes, especially later in the movie, and there was another death. The violence and the death played a large part in making the movie dark. Even the music seemed to have a darker tone overall. A small amount of the Harry Potter theme was played at the very beginning of the movie. None of the rest of the music sounded anything like that. This was a serious movie for the most part, though a few characters said or did things that added some humor.
Magic has been very important in all of the Harry Potter books and movies. The main characters are mostly students or teachers at a magical school and several other characters are witches or wizards. The main villain, Lord Voldemort, is a very powerful dark wizard who has used magic to kill many times. His followers, the Death Eaters, have also used magic to torture or kill. The students learn many different magical things while at school. Very few of the actual classes were shown which was a little disappointing since I tend to enjoy seeing those things. Their time in their classes wasn’t really important, so I understand why they were mostly left out. Time was taken to show Harry and the students he was teaching practicing different spells. I really enjoyed seeing that.
Special effects were used throughout the movie in connection with spells or some kind of magical creature. I’m certain that a new creature as well as two new characters were created with effects. I think some kind of effects were used to make Robbie Coltrane look so much bigger than the other characters as Hagrid. An amazing scene was created showing Harry and the members of the order flying through the London sky on the way to Sirius’s house. I liked the way moving pictures were used in The Daily Prophet when the paper was shown. The movie wouldn’t have worked without the use of special effects. All of the effects were well done without being overly showy. The effects didn’t take over the movie.
Most of the movie took place at Hogwarts like happened in the previous movies. I don’t think any new areas of the school were shown. Snape’s classroom looked different when it was briefly shown. I don’t think any other area of the school looked different except for Umbridge’s office. That office has had a different look in every movie because different teachers have had it. The paintings around the school weren’t shown very much. I really only noticed people moving in them a few times, which was a little disappointing. I also missed seeing the ghosts around the school. A few scenes took place at the Dursley home which I think had a slightly different look. I really liked seeing the Ministry of Magic though it didn’t look like I had imagined it. Sirius’s house was also featured, though not as much as it had been in the book.
There was a lot in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I expected that because that is what happened with the book. There was more information shared in the movie instead of their being as much action as there as been in some of the previous books and movies. I did think that the information was important and needed to be shared. Some people might feel like the pace was too slow at times with the information being shared. I didn’t feel that way at all. I actually felt like some things were a bit rushed like the director was trying to cram as much as possible into the movie without making it longer. The movie did have a choppy feel with how it jumped from scene to scene and some of the transitions between scenes could have been smoother. With everything that was going on or being shared, people who haven’t previously read the book could be a little confused.
The Order of the Phoenix was very important in the book, but the order itself really wasn’t featured much in the movie. I don’t think it was properly featured and the members were barely around. Bill, one of Ron’s older brothers, had moved back to London and was part of the order. He wasn’t in the movie or even mentioned, which did disappoint me. It was said that Snape was part of the order, but it wasn’t shared exactly what he was doing for the order, something that was very important for this book as well as for the next book. At one point, a memory that featured James, his friends, and Snape, was briefly shown. That memory wasn’t handled as well as it should have been, so it didn’t have the impact that it did in the book. Certain things with Dumbledore’s Army had been changed a bit. The group still worked fine though I did miss seeing Hermione do a couple of advanced spells for the group.
When books are turned into movies a fine line has to be walked in adapting the story for the screen. That is especially true with books as popular as the Harry Potter books. If too many things are changed or left out, people are upset. If not enough things are changed or left out, people are upset. I know that things need to be cut out when books are turned into movies. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the longest of the Harry Potter books, yet this is the shortest of the movies. That just didn’t seem right to me. Yes I agree there were things that could be cut out and I think this was a good adaptation overall. I just felt like there were some important details and information left out that shouldn’t have been. Several things were condensed a bit or changed slightly in the movie. For the most part, those things worked well. There were a few things, like a visit to St. Mungo’s Magical Hospital, that I would have liked to have seen even though I understand why they were cut.
There were a few explanations, like with why Harry had to stay with the Dursleys each summer, that were left out completely. I think that explanation was very important and should have been included. It really only would have taken another few minutes for Dumbledore to share that with Harry like he had in the book. Something about Petunia came out early in the book that I had thought would turn out to be important by the end of the series that was left out as well. There were also a few small things that I had been thinking would turn out to be important in the last book that were left out. When Sirius talked about his family, many things weren’t mentioned. Of course, what I consider to be important may turn out to be just a minor detail in the larger, overall plot with Harry Potter. I’ll know for sure once I get my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
The book contained several subplots that were mostly missing from the movie. I wasn’t surprised that Rita Skeeter wasn’t in this movie since her part was cut so much in the last movie. The OWL exams were brought up numerous times in the book and they were only mentioned once or twice. Hermione wasn’t even fretting about them which was weird. I really didn’t mind that there was no quidditch in the movie though there were a few interesting additions to the Gryffindor team in the book. The movie did show Umbridge briefly inspecting some of the classes once she gained more power from Fudge. I would have liked to have seen when she inspected Professor McGonagall’s class. Harry and Cho’s relationship was even more nonexistent than it had been in the book, consisting of them giving each other a few looks and kissing once. That didn’t bother me because I didn’t really care for their relationship in the book.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix had a very large group of characters, most of which have been in all of the movies. Unfortunately since there were so many characters, a lot of them ended up with basically nothing to do. The Dursleys were back briefly after being eliminated from the fourth movie. I was glad that Remus, Mad-Eye, and Sirius were back but I was disappointed that they didn’t get more to do. Percy was just seen standing in the background near Fudge once or twice and I only knew it was him because of his red hair. Cornelis Fudge was shown in a few scenes not doing much of anything other than denying that Voldemort was back.
None of the returning teachers at Hogwarts got much screen time which is a shame since they are all played by such wonderful actors. Professor Dumbledore wasn’t around much at all, though that did fit with the book. He was still given the chance to show how powerful he is once or twice. I do think that Michael Gambon handled the part well. Hagrid was missing for a lot of the movie like he was in the book. Professor Snape played a somewhat larger part in the book because of the special lessons he was giving Harry. Because of that, I was really hoping that Alan Rickman would finally get more to do even though Snape is far from my favorite character. That wasn’t the case, which was very disappointing to me. Rickman is absolutely amazing and perfect as Snape and he deserves more screen time. Argus Filch, the caretaker, was frequently shown around the school even though he didn’t really say much of anything. He was loving the changes that Umbridge made.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were featured the most with Harry being in more scenes than the other two. These characters have been very developed over the course of the movies and the actors fit the parts very well. They have all gotten much better in their acting. I was happy that Harry’s attitude was a bit better than it had been in the book. He still was irritated at times and a bit moody, but it wasn’t as annoying as it had been in the book. Neville did get a chance to shine a bit in the movie which was good. Fred and George really didn’t get to do too much. They did have a big scene that I had been hoping would be in the movie. It was just slightly different. Ginny was in the background a lot, but she did get to show just how talented and powerful she is. Harry’s parents were shown in a few moving pictures.
Draco was useless, only getting to say one or two lines and then just standing around in the background in a few other scenes. It was like he was a prop instead of an actual character. His father Lucius got to play a more important part later in the movie. The presence of Voldemort was looming throughout the movie but he was actually only in a small amount of the movie. That does fit in with what happened in the books and the last movie. Voldemort seemed just as menacing to me and I still found the way he looked to be very creepy. I think Ralph Fiennes did very good with what he had to do.
There were several new characters introduced in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Delores Umbridge, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, received the most attention. That was fitting since she was a very important character in the book. She had a very prim and proper look and attitude about her that hid how cruel she really was. She used a punishment during detentions that was sadistic and she enjoyed doing it. The woman was a whole different level of evil that Harry and his friends had never faced before. In her way, she was scarier than Voldemort. At least with him, you knew what you were dealing with. I couldn’t stand her in the book and I felt the same way with the movie. She is my least favorite character and makes a very good villain. Imelda Stanton fit the character very well even though she did look a bit different than I had imagined her.
Nymphadora Tonks was a member of the Order who ended up with not much to do. She had the ability to change certain aspects of her appearance, like her hair color or even how her face looked. She was very underused so Natalia Tena didn’t get much to do. Luna Lovegood was a slightly odd, unique student in Ravenclaw that others called Looney. She was part of Dumbledore’s Army and part of the final battle in the movie. During the first night back at Hogwarts, Dumbledore mentioned that Professor Grubbly-Plank would be filling in for Hagrid. I never saw the character
At one point in the movie, several Death Eaters escaped from Azkaban. The only one that was identified was Bellatrix Lestrange. She was a dangerous, cruel woman who had been responsible for torturing several wizards before she was sent to Azkaban. Helena Bonham Carter was great in the movie though she didn’t have much to do since she was really only in a few scenes. She certainly had the look of a crazed Death Eater. Kreacher was the house elf in the Black house. He was a very old, grumpy elf who was still loyal to his former mistress, Sirius’s mother. Kreacher was only shown twice in the movie and it seemed kind of pointless for him to be included. He had a slightly bigger part in the book.
Main Cast
Timothy Bateson - Kreacher David Bradley - Argus Filch Helena Bonham Carter - Bellatrix Lestrange Robbie Coltrane - Rebeus Hagrid Warwick Davis - Filius Flitwick Tom Felton - Draco Malfoy Ralph Fiennes - Lord Voldemort Michael Gambon - Albus Dumbledore Brendan Gleason - Alastor (Mad-Eye) Mooney Richard Griffiths - Vernon Dursley Rupert Grint - Ron Weasley Robert Hardy - Cornelius Fudge George Harris - Kingsley Shacklebolt Kathryn Hunter - Mrs. Arabella Figg Jason Isaacs - Lucius Malfoy Katie Leung - Cho Chang Matthew Lewis - Neville Longbottom Evanna Lynch - Luna Lovegood Harry Melling - Dudley Dursley Gary Oldman - Sirius Black James Phelps - Fred Weasley Oliver Phelps - George Weasley Daniel Radcliffe - Harry Potter Chris Rankin - Percy Weasley Adrian Rawlins - James Potter Alan Rickman - Severus Snape Fiona Shaw - Petunia Dursley Maggie Smith - Minerva McGonagall Geraldine Somerville - Lily Potter Imelda Stanton - Delores Umbridge Natalia Tena - Nymphadora Tonks David Thewlis - Remus Lupin Emma Thompson - Sybil Trelawney Julie Walters - Molly Weasley Emma Watson - Hermione Granger Mark Williams - Arthur Weasley Bonnie Wright - Ginny Weasley
David Yates - Director
I had been looking forward to seeing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for a long time even though it was based on my least favorite of the books. I did think the movie had a few problems - mostly with a few explanations that were left out - but I still thought it was a very entertaining movie. Fans of the books and the first four movies should give this one a chance.
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