Order of the Phoenix - Best Potter Yet!

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2008)

I saw the first Harry Potter film amidst a flurry of criticism that kids were being taught "Witchcraft" through these stories. Highly Unlikely, and rubbish. I guess the purple Teletubby is also gay and evil, as is Barney the Dinosaur. J.K. Rowling has created something that most American moviegoers do not grasp very well- English Humour and Morals. These movies show that anything can be used for bad, or good, whether it is "magic" or Technology- And are an encouragement for kids to always use any advantages they have to do the right thing. Therefore, the Jerry-Fallwellian idea that kids are badly influenced by the Potter series must be discarded.
In the films, these stories are rapidly changing from Kiddie stories, to exquisite interesting young adult mysteries- And I like the way the kids are growing up. What I really enjoyed about this one, is the return of several of my favourite characters. Mad Eye Moody, Padfoot, Remus Lupin, Professor Trelawney, Hagrid, and even Lucius Malfoy and my favourite, Ralph Fiennes as "He who must be not be named" - Everything about this film is done well, and as always I love the little vignettes at the beginning of each Potter movie, where there is always something that tries to prevent Potter from returning to Hogwart's. I especially liked this one... And the interaction between Potter and his cousin. Eventually Potter will have to have it out with The Dursleys, and this will be something that I will savor when it comes to pass.
There are a couple of things that are not explained... That archway? What was that? I suppose there was a reason why there was an Archway in the center of the department of mysteries... And why there was a pointed lack of discussion about it, except for Hermione's passive comment about the voices she could net hear (But we know Harry could hear them).
When I saw the first two Harry Potter films, I thought 'He who must not be named was to be the perennial antagonist, like Lex Luthor and Superman. But so far the progress of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's attempts to come back to the land of flesh have been from slightly irritating to very deadly. In this film the malevolence takes full adult form, and Potter deals with it in a mature way. And so it is not just about a silly little kid now... It is about a young man who has been confronted by darkness, who makes the best of the lot he has been given, embraces his friends, and asks all the questions about life any boy who is growing up would ask... And basically, that would be, in Potter's case, "Am I Turning Bad?"
And if this movie, and the books and films based on the books, are filled with bad things, then I suppose Harry Potter would not be asking Dumbledore... "Am I turning bad?" - So instead of a manual for kids to learn magic spells, I rather see the Potter series as an entertaining way for kids to be influenced in a positive way. Who are the children that read and watch Harry Potter books going to imitate... Harry Potter, or Draco Malfoy?
Beginning with Prisoner of Azkeban, the films took a more mature and malevolent turn. I'd say the 3rd movie was the turning, and the ending of Goblet of Fire movie was hideously, fantastically, dark, leading directly to Order of the Phoenix.
And so all 4 of those stories set the tone for Order of the Phoenix, and the first half of the movie, I feel Potter's frustration, which is magnified by Professor/Undersecretary of Magic Umbrich. (I love cats, but any woman who has a collection of CAT-PLATES on her wall, er, has got Problems!)
It took me about 3 years to realise that I Love these stories, and I almost do not want read the books, because I am used to the stories unfolding the way Chris Columbus told us the first 2... Alfonso Cuarón gave the series a sharp NUDGE into the surreal with Prisoner of Azkeban, Followed by the slap in the face we get from Mike Newell in Goblet of Fire: David Yates had really no problem building on what had gone before, and he reminds us in most forceful way of the events following The Prisoner of Azkeban... So now a momentum has built up, and regardless of who directs the next film, all the pieces are now set in place.... (Except for the Womping Willow, where is the Womping Willow?)
My One Complaint is that movies 4 and 5 are desperately Lacking in Quiddich...