Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Review

by Homer Yen (homer_yen AT yahoo DOT com)
July 13th, 2007
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" -
Growing up Too Fast
by Homer Yen
(c) 2007

When kids are 11 and are learning how to ride a
bike, there is joy in their eyes and excitement
in their hearts. When kids are 18 and want to
ride a motorcycle, it becomes more of an exercise
because there's a whole lot more that he needs to
learned and thoughts of randomly jumping your
bicycle over a shrub is now replaced with the
sobering reality that you're going to have to
first talk to your Geico insurance agent.
Now at our 5th Potter film, the joy is leaving
and reality is starting to sink in.

In "Order of the Phoenix", Potter is trying to
convince the masses that the Dark Lord has
returned. Except for his best friends, Ron
(Rupert Grint) and Hermoine (Emma Watson),
practically no one believes him and many label
him a troublemaker. Out of desperation, the
three try to recruit freedom fighters from within
Hogwart's. Out to discredit and to put an end to
Potter's ambitions is a no-nonsense teacher
(Imedla Staunton) who outlaws most basic rights,
making the school resemble more of a prison camp
than the magical domain audiences have come to
love.

The story brings back many familiar faces from
the previous Potter films. All are wonderfully
eccentric and amusing. However, the film seemed
more like a reunion of favorite characters rather
than a project that allowed the Potter lore to
take any significant steps forward. One of the
things that I have really liked about all of the
Potter films is that none of them seemed
recycled. There was enough uniqueness that every
film was a film unto itself. One featured a love
story, one featured time travel, one featured the
character's origins, etc... Even this one is
different from the previous four, although you
could easily decry this latest attempt as
unoriginal. Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and
Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) form an awkward
alliance against an even more awkward looking
Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). Young Skywalker,
Yoda, and the Sith provide much more gusto.

>From a visual standpoint, it is endlessly
imaginative. There are creatures fey and foul. I
loved the 'live' nature of the school's portraits
and the community newspaper. The magical room
that appears when one is in dire need is clever.
And the final scenes are overdosing on CGI.

"Order of the Phoenix" generally has a dark mood
and tone to the film. There are suspenseful
moments. But the entire project didn't seem as
seamless as the other films. There are a lot of
secrets that must be kept secret, so the feel was
somewhat schizophrenic.

In my review of the 4th film (which was the best
film of the series thus far), I ended it by
noting: "we look forward to his 5th year at the
Hogwarts School of Magic." I'm going to have to
amend that by saying that we look forward to his
7th year. The 5th one is more of an
action-adventure film with few twists. Its
narrative is merely average. And, you will leave
puzzled about an obvious missing piece. I
suppose that the 6th film will take time to
correct that injustice.

Yet, for all that it doesn't do, it does manage
to peak my interest in the eventual final
showdown between Voldemort and Potter. And I am
looking forward to how the series wraps up in the
final two installments. Will Potter's love
interest finally receive some respectable screen
time? Will she even be remembered when Potter
has to invoke his mind-shield trick? How will
the chess pieces line up when the apocalyptic
showdown takes place? And what would happen to
all of his friends and the Muggle world if Potter
loses? As Potter said, "when we do fight, there
will be something to fight for."

Grade: B-

S: 0 out of 3
L: 0 out of 3
V: 1 out of 3

   
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