Tries hard, but lacks the charm of the other Potters

Rating: 4/10 (16 July 2007)

In some ways the film makers were on a hiding to nothing with Order of The Phoenix; it's the least interesting, most over-blown of Rowling's usually wonderful books, in which Harry spends most of his time skulking around and shouting at people. Discovering his father was a bit of a school bully doesn't help much, I suppose.
But somewhere along the way the film's creators also lost the charm of the Potter Universe - it all feels a little "ho-hum, we've been here before." Most of the major supporting characters have little more than cameo appearances, and the film fills its 138 minute running time with talky, static, move-the-plot-along scenes. We're told things on several occasions when we should be shown them, and the whole enterprise has a grainy, washed-out look, rather like looking at a drab wall paper pattern. The three leads are okay, but nothing special. Daniel Ratcliffe still looks like he's reaching for his lines on occasion, and Rupert Grint seemingly can't get through his fast enough.
But it isn't all bad - Imelda Staunton gives the best performance in the series so far as that monstrosity in pink, Delores Umbridge. The film opens and ends well (even if the spell-duel climax is somewhat confusing). And there's some likable humour from Filch to brighten things up now and again. Gary Oldman is also fine as Sirius Black and the Death-eater escape from Azkaban is well realised.
All in all not as good as the previous films in the series - you can see the film makers straining for effect and the end result is merely a sequence of not very well linked scenes, some good, some bad, some indifferent. Let us hope that the superior Half-Blood Prince gets better treatment.