the abridged version.

Rating: 7/10 (13 July 2007)

Dan Brown once said that if movies were to be too faithful to their material we'd be having 7 - 10 hour feature films. Hardly something that anyone might want to go through in a sitting. But what is the remedy? This is where Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix or perhaps some of the previous films and moreso, other adaptations fall short. While in direction, atmospherics and cinematography it has a lot of moments to boast, the pacing is left uneven and the rhythm of the film would seem rather episodic. Add to that the little slack they cut for those who have not read the book, since I have read Phoenix and even Half-Blood Prince already, I can wink at the same people who have also read them - but the choppy flow of the story is something that is bothersome even to those who understand how the motion picture medium MUST be abridged to have the true 'show don't tell' essence of cinema rather than the comprehensive introspection of a novel.
Ralph Fiennes was as menacing as he should have been as the antagonist, though underused in my opinion, I suppose I wouldn't want to get habituated to his villainy too soon that he would no longer feel a thread if given much much more screen time. The rest of the players performances range from good to average, and the ending doesn't quite capture the same melancholy and tragedy in the end of the book. On the plus side there were issues and conflicts that were absolved from needing to be in the film such as the relationship of Harry Potter and his foster parents. Cutting some things short also means loosening the weight of emotional gravitas the novel has, and for this maybe audiences can breathe more. But it makes the film's depth, if any seem shallow-er.
3/5