Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Ahh, another record set­ting film for the sum­mer. I’ve been a huge Harry Potter fan since the sum­mer of 2002, and unlike some of my friends who refuse to see the films until the book cycle is com­plete, I wel­come watch­ing the lit­er­ary and cin­e­matic phe­nom­ena come out side by side. Of course, I’m more excited about Deathly Hallows hit­ting the shelves this Friday, but that didn’t stop me from get­ting my seat at the mid­night show­ing of “Phoenix” last week.

How can I say this? As for the series of films, this install­ment appears to be the most suc­cinct of them all, which is fas­ci­nat­ing because the novel is also the longest. Longer than “Ivanhoe”. Perhaps it was a stroke of magic that caused direc­tor David Yates and scripter Michael Goldenberg put together a story that was tighter than Hermione Granger at the Wizards Ball. Which is a good thing. Certainly it strays from the book, but it keeps in the core story. This is not some­thing to be taken lightly. It’s a true feat to be able to keep so much of the book while keep­ing the audi­ence inter­ested visu­ally. So in that respect, it might just be the best script of the sum­mer.

The hor­ror film has always been an influ­ence on these films, but as we go fur­ther into the series, we see the palette, music, and act­ing get darker and darker. I still con­sider “Prisoner of Azkaban” the dark­est (and the best) of the fran­chise, but as far as contrast-per-frame goes, this one takes the cake. The film print prob­a­bly looks like a Mars bar it’s so dark. There’s even the impres­sive scene in the hall of prophe­cies, which is lit by crys­tals and wands (Lumos!). Of course, for such a mag­i­cal world, the pal­lette is rather lim­it­ing. It’s mostly based around blues and grays, with the occa­sional greens pop­ping out of he-who-must-not-named. I wouldn’t mind see­ing a lit­tle Dario Argento stylings pop­ping out of those wands in future releases. But we’ll see. Mr. Yates is lined up the next film, but the 7th and final film needs a direc­tor. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Viva Cuaron!

Our kids that we’ve seen grow up from age 11 are less awk­ward now, but it’s hard to remem­ber that they are in fact kids at some times. With sto­ries so packed with action and intrigue, it’s hard to find those lit­tle moments, the kinds of moments that made “Azkaban” so won­der­ful. Of course, we are treated to a nice lit­tle wand spar between Ron and Hermione. Ahh, when will a direc­tor start play­ing on the sex­ual impli­ca­tions of wand-as-weapon?

I highly rec­om­mend the film, and I thor­oughly enjoyed it. Then again, it was hard not to enjoy. Action was good and the stakes were very real. I con­nected with the char­ac­ters very well, as did the over­all mid­night crowd. When death seemed immi­nent, it resonated.(SPOILER) Of course, there was a much larger impact in the book when Sirius meets his demise. I was near tears in the book, whereas here, I was a bit con­fused. You hear the killing curse (Avada Kedavera) and see it hit him, but he sorta pulls an Obi Wan.

See it for your­selves, and dammit read the new book this Friday. We are in the mid­dle of a Phenomenon that may not come around for a decade or two. Live it up.