The movies have FINALLY nailed it! O.O.T.P. is Astounding!

Rating: 8/10 (11 July 2007)

As a fan of the books; every single film except for "Azkaban", and especially "Goblet", was a disappointment to me. Not this one!
Easy to read as they may be in terms of language, I have always felt that to pass off the series as children's literature is a massive injustice; one that every film - even my previous favorite, Azkaban - has done so shamelessly and prolifically.
I must warn you that if you think "goblet" was the best, you're in for quite a pooper of a film. Then again, the truth of the matter is that "goblet" is like the Disney-channel-special take on the books, whereas "Order" is like one of Umbridge's cold slaps to the face of that fairy-like, livejournal-gossip-vision of the wizarding world. Order of the Phoenix is, naturally, filled with more "what about that part?"'s than any of the films to date; but that should be extremely obvious when the longest book becomes the shortest film. "Order" is my favorite book in the series because I enjoy the rich backstory immensely, rather than whine for the next chapter where person A and *gasp!* Person B start flirting. Moreso, "Order" is the beginning of the massive, glorious, and resounding end for the entire series - it's where the proverbial poo hits the overhead cooling device for-reals.
To make up for the lack in length, this movie compensates by seemingly fixing a projector to Rowling's brain and illustrating both mood and scenery with beautiful perfection. When Harry first walks into Grimmauld Place, I nearly gasped in amazement; the relatively short moments of showing what the place looked like - and especially Kreacher - were EXACTLY what my own mind had conjured while reading. That's nothing, absolutely nothing, compared to when we see Dolores Umbridge walk onto the screen. Staunton is PERFECT. I couldn't believe at first how uncannily well she had nailed the character - that perfect blend of facetious sweetness and slowly-radiating feelings of making you, the viewer or reader, feel viciously disgusted. The writers of the script, too, deserve great credit for their work. Even the other teachers, who naturally get very little time on-screen as Umbridge takes over the school bit-by-bit, have improved their acting greatly and - another first for the films - convey their deepest and most thoroughly hidden true desires on-screen. The best example of this is the scene in which Snape, in Umbridge's office, shows sympathy towards Harry while keeping up his image of hating the boy. Finally, the chemistry between harry and snape on-screen clicks - he's no longer "that evil jerk"; he and harry both know that they are going to need each other in the times ahead , and for once Radcliffe purveys that sense. On that subject, Dan Radcliffe has improved almost beyond words. He's gone from acting the part of Harry to simply being Harry; and the effect is truly awesome to behold. I won't go into detail here; just watch the film and enjoy if you want to know more! The climax is perhaps the only possible disappointment in the movie; it feels awfully rushed and leaves out some of the best parts from the book (for example, no baby-head-death-eater) and replaces them with technologically neat but overall underwhelming "fill-in" sequences. There's very little sense that these kids are probably going to die fighting here, like in the book (where, if you remember, a good half of them got the living snot beat out of them); you see them all emerge with just a few bruises right after the scuffle between Voldemort and Dumbledore. However, this is saved by the wonderful acting that is done within the context of this "harry-potter-lite" version of the climax. Helena Bonham Carter is truly sublime in her performance of the beyond-psychotic Bellatrix LeStrange, and as usual Ralph Fiennes is still the absolute perfect man for his part. The art design for the death eaters here is like a chuck-norris-roundhouse-kick to the face of the unbelievably trite and tasteless black-KKK-hoods we saw in goblet. The effect is viciously disturbing, and the exact sort of thing that would have scarred you for life had you seen it in a childhood nightmare.
Finally, we have a Harry Potter film that truly does justice to the series as a whole - forget 100% plot accuracy and the like. What's important here is that this is the first to completely nail down the feeling you have when reading the books; to nail down both Rowling's vision and those of the readers. This movie is, like the books, just as frightening and dark as it is wonderful and whimsical; and for that reason it is, by far, the best film in this series. Go out and see it, for cryin' out loud!