Complement to the Book

Rating: 8/10 (13 December 2007)

Those who read the books first may be disappointed in the film. Those who haven't may be puzzled by some of the plot. But reading the book first makes some of the action in the film more understandable.
For starters: the dementor attack and what led up to it in the film came nowhere near what was in the book. More important, the aftermath of the attack just had the Dursleys learn that Harry apparently had been expelled from Hogwarts, and were absent to take Dudley to the hospital, never being told that Harry had to stay in the house when away from Hogwarts until his 17th birthday. Nor, to jump to the end of the film, did the Order members confront the Dursleys on how they were treating Harry.
Naturally, a book as long as "Order of the Phoenix" has to be truncated to squeeze the results into a 2.5-hour film. Yet some of the action would be just perplexing to those who haven't read the book. For example, it's been established that the vast majority of Hogwarts' students cannot see Thestrals, yet when Luna suggests that they can be used for transportation, there's no point of awkwardness (as in the book) where some of the students with Harry don't know how to mount invisible critters.
A critical event in the Harry Potter saga was when Harry gets one of Snape's memories while he was studying Occulimancy; however, in the film, *why* he was studying the discipline was a tad vague.
The basic thrust of the film plot is close enough to the book for transition to that of the book so that there can be a reasonable move to the next year's story ("Half-Blood Prince").
Having said all of the above, the film is reasonably good in imagery. Visually, my favorite scene was Harry and the Order folk flying by broomstick to London and along the Thames after dark. I suspect the magical duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort was added for visual effect, but it was a little long.
A nice view, but better viewed after reading the book.