Good film at best, but strays from the pack

Rating: 6/10 (11 July 2007)

When the first film came out I was awed, like many others, at the amazing fantasy world that is Harry Potter. I soon after began reading the series' books with much enjoyment. I have approached each movie with excitement and an understanding that it is often impossible to portray every detail from such long and complex literary works as these. As such I find myself torn with this fifth installment of the on-screen Harry Potter series. I want to love this film but I cannot overlook its very obvious flaws.
Overall, Order of the Phoenix is a good and entertaining film on its own. It has a straight forward plot line that is fairly easy to follow but the lack of the more intricate subplots leaves the characters feeling flat. This is by no means a bad film but is probably the weakest of the Harry Potter series so far.
Having spent this past weekend watching all previous four films in preparation for the big premiere last night I will say that Order of the Phoenix is a good film at best but it strays pretty far from the rest of the pack. Each director in the series has added their own touch to the series but all have respectfully built upon the previous directors' choices while doing so. Yates clearly did not want to be compared to the former directors of the series as he has completely changed the cinematic style of Harry Potter right down to the way spells fizzle and spark through the air. Dementors hardly resemble the incredibly creepy and mysterious creatures that made them so scary in the previous film. The Petronus Charm has been dumbed down to nothing more than a spark of lightning and riding a broom stick has lost all of the finesse that made watching Harry zip around Hogwarts exciting. The lighting and cinematography of the film, while dark, is devoid of all artistic style that has defined all four previous movies. If I hadn't waited 3 hours in the theater and spent $11 on my ticket I would have assumed I was at home watching the film on TV. Yates simply does not have the artistic style that sets a film director apart from a television director. Yates instead focuses the film entirely on plot and does a fair job weeding through the wealth of literary work provided by Rowling to depict only the necessary information. Unfortunately that is all Yates does, depict the necessary information needed so the film misses a lot of the quips and quarrels from the subplots in the book that give each character multi-dimensional-ism. Instead the characters look flat and uninteresting with the exception of Luna Lovegood. A few of the subplots have been demoted to a mere brief appearance with little to no dialog which leaves the viewer with many more questions than answers. Other very important subplots have been completely left out of the film but their importance can certainly be debated.
So now that the bad has been explained lets look at the good because despite the mistakes there is plenty of good in this film. The acting is all top notch; most notably by Imelda Staunton and Evanna Lynch. Staunton brings to life Dolores Umbridge with the very same feeling of loathing one feels when reading the book. Lynch, who plays Luna Lovegood is every bit as strange and awkward that makes her character so lovable and entertaining in the book. The Ministry of Magic and Department of Mysteries come across as an enchanting place of business for the wizarding community. Clearly this is where Yates chose to focus the majority of his attention. The final act comes across very strong with plenty of excitement, spells zipping and zapping around the Department of Mystery with Death Eaters and members of the Order apparating from place to place in the heat of battle. It's here that the true magic of Harry Potter starts to come out but is simply too late in the film.