Jun 292007
 
two reels

The Adventures of Harry Potter during his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Things aren’t going well for Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), or anyone else for that matter. Harry and  Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) have been ridiculed for claiming that the dark Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is back.  Out of paranoia, the Ministry of Magic attempts to shut them both up, sending the obsessively conservative Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton) to the school to stifle thought. Harry, having learned that most of the adults he respects are part of a secret organization called the Order of the Phoenix, forms his own covert group organization where the students can learn the defensive magic that is now forbidden to them. They’ll need that training, as Voldemort and his Death Eaters want a special object and only Harry can stop them.

It’s Harry Potter, only slower, drabber, simpler, and less fun.  If you liked the first four films, you’ll like this one, just less. If you didn’t like those, don’t bother with this installment. The basics are the same. There’s Harry, respectably portrayed by a Daniel Radcliffe who’s looking a bit old for the part. He gets into a lot of trouble, some of his own making but most due to the adults never telling him what’s going on.  Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) are still his loyal friends, Hogwarts is still a place of mystery, and there is yet again an abundance of adolescent angst.

What isn’t here is the wonder, that feeling of amazement at a world of magic and adventure.  There’s nothing grand or beautiful or breath-taking. That wouldn’t have to be a bad thing, but there needs to be a replacement. The idea was to go darker with this episode (though I’m lost on why dark stories can’t also be beautifully presented, why claustrophobic sets and washed-out colors are needed for tales with tension and pain). OK, so no childhood wonder. Fine. That means we ought to be getting a deeper look at the characters, a more complex story, and greater emotional weight.  But none of that is here. Order of the Phoenix has the slightest character development of any of the Potter films. Harry rarely changes expressions this time out and no one else gets enough screen-time to do more than clock in. It’s a cameo fest. Character after character pops in, says a line or two, and then disappears, only to put in a second, equally brief appearance before quitting the movie altogether.  Pull out your Potter Character Chart and watch the parade: there’s Mad-Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson), Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), Prof. McGonagall (Maggie Smith), Mr & Mrs Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Draco Malfoy & his sidekicks, Prof. Trelawney (Emma Thompson), Prof. Flitwick (Warwick Davis), Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane), and new bad-girl Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter). None of them are significant and could have been written out of the film easily. It’s nice to see them all, but it takes time. Not much time for each flyby, but it adds up, and unfortunately, it adds up to most of the movie.  Cut five or six of these folks and there could have been a couple of minutes for Ron or Hermione or the always wasted Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) to do something…anything.

The plot is an even greater problem. There isn’t one.  At least not for three-fourths of the film.  Harry and his cameo companions exist at Hogwarts and go through their daily activities.  Nothing has a point or leads anywhere. They go to classes, they get detentions, they practice magic, they hide from Dolores Umbridge, and they moan a lot about how bad it all is and how they might be bad people.  OK, it’s Harry that does most of the moaning. Then, when the credits are within sight, a plot suddenly appears. It isn’t much of a plot but I guess you take what you can get.

It isn’t all bad. This is a Harry Potter film after all, with flashy magic spells here and there. The wizards and witches are an amiable group to spend some time with (our small band of heroes that is).  Even if it is filmed in a more pedestrian, flat style than the previous outings, there are worse looking films hitting the Cineplex. The picture shows some sign of the old charm when Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch), a pleasant but, well…loony   new student is on screen. Her cock-eyed world-view is the one bit of sparkle to a franchise that’s getting dingy.

As has been the case with all of the a Harry Potter movies, the biggest problem comes from slavishly following the book. Since a film holds far less material than a novel (a very long novel in this case), something has to go.  It should be characters and subplots so that what is left is a complete, fleshed out story. They went a different way, giving us a Cliff’s Notes picture. Add to that a director who over-compensated for the excessive spectacle and grandeur in Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets by shooting as if he was making a small-screen melodrama, and you have the first Potter movie that isn’t worth the price of a theater ticket. Wait till it pops up at Blockbuster and Netflix.

The other films in the series are Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

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