Order Of The Phoenix is a huge and giant disappointment !

Rating: 1/10 (8 July 2007)

I am one of the biggest Harry Potter book fans on the planet, and have bought each and every one of the wizard's fantasies since the 1990s, from Philosopher's Stone, to Half Blood Prince. I even have my deposit slip for the Deathly Hollows on the 21st.
The books started out as a slow but interesting set of books for children, and exploded into one of the most popular children books series since The Chronciles of Narnia.
Then in 2001, Warner Brothers decided to make a series of films based on the Harry Potter book series, and every kid around the world waited in anticipation.
Both of Chris Columbus Harry Potter films, The Philosopher's Stone, and The Chamber of Secrets were interesting takes on the storyline of Harry Potter, and both were huge hits at the cinema.
Then in 2004, Columbus decided to hand off the director's reins to another director, Alfonso Cuoron, the director of 1993's A Little Princess who brought a different take on the Harry Potter series.
2005 came and went and director Mike Newell took on the reigns of The Goblet of Fire, which is for many fans, the best book of the series.
Now we have the fifth book being made into a movie, The Order of the Phoenix, being directed by British television director, David Yates.
My problem, as well as those for hundreds of millions of Harry Potter fans around the world is that for the last three movies, far too many details have been eliminated from the book.
This time around, one of the most crucial elements of the Harry Potter storyline has been cut, and Quidditch is completely missing, that's what makes the books stand out from other fantasy books in the first place. It's elements like this which frustrates many fans of the book series like myself. It's as if Warner Brothers sold out to the highest bidder and made the films more as a commodity rather than taking what is special about the books in the first place.
The ending, rather than being exciting, is simply a video game inspired duel between the students of Hogwarts, also known at Dumbledore's army, against Lord Voldemort and his nasty Death Eaters, then of course, out of nowhere does the top wizard himself Dumbledore show up to fight up Voldemort so that he can run away again. By the end of this film, we are right back to where we started, and it feels as if the audience just wasted two and a half hours of it's time.
This my friends equates to the cliff notes method of film-making which is to take tidbits of a book and see if it sticks together. It didn't work in either Prisonser of Azkaban and The Goblet Of Fire, and it unfortunately definitely doesn't work in Order Of The Phoenix either.
Watching the film in frustration though all the talky elements, and yes, this film is the talkiest of the Harry Potter films, with very little action, except at the end.
I have no doubt that many Harry Potter fantatics will enjoy this, but, then again many people will buy any product, even if it's second rate, with the Harry Potter name attached to it.
All I can say is that I hope someday that Warner Brothers can make a film that is worthy of the name Harry Potter, but this my friends, is not it.