A huge disappointment

Rating: 5/10 (15 July 2007)

Watching the new installment of the series, The Order of the Phoenix, reminded me, what a huge disappointment this movie was. Yes it was a very expensive movie. Yes, special effects were impressive. But no, it does not catch anything of the books atmosphere and no it is not very entertaining (well, apart from very impressive special effects).
One problem in my opinion is actually that Steve Kloves and Mike Newell are not very successful in shortening the book into a 2 1/2 hour movie. The movie just presents certain highlights of the book, bu leaves big holes in the storyline. But one of the greatest things about J. K. Rowlings book is that about everything in them is logically connected to everything else, and in this aspect the movie totally fails.
The second problem is that the director Mike Newell shows no talent for timing a movie right (at least not this one), and therefore no tension is created. Although the special effects are great, just about every action sequence just feels stretched and overlong and I feel, that I would have been happy to see more of the story and a little less computer animated monsters on screen (the old less is more problem).
The third problem is actually that the performance of the cast is actually very unbelievable (with the honorable exception of Ralph Fiennes). It is probably not their fault, they give memorable performances in the movies successor Order of the Phoenix, but it seems that Mike Newell was not very interested in directing actors but very interested in directing animated creatures.
Overall this was a huge disappointment for me, I give it five out of ten for the effects, without them it would be even less.