Harry Potter gets dark!

Rating: 9/10 (16 July 2010)

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX (2007) is really, IMHO, the first Harry Potter film to be purely dark in overall tone and mood. There is a sense of doom, sadness, and dread that permeates throughout that is not really completely present in the earlier films. ORDER is actually the 2nd Harry Potter film that I saw when it first came out (GOBLET OF FIRE being the 1st), then I went back and watched the first 3 (SORCERER'S STONE, CHAMBER OF SECRETS, PRISONER OF AZKABAN) on DVD. All films before ORDER definitely had lighthearted moments of fun and whimsy. ORDER does not and I think that's a good thing! In that sense, I'd say that ORDER is the first "mature" Harry Potter film.
ORDER gets off to a great start with Harry (once again played superbly by Daniel Radcliffe, but this time with an added touch of maturity) sitting alone on a swing, having spent the summer re-living the tragic events at the end of GOBLET to Cedric Diggory (played by TWILIGHT's Robert Pattinson, who has a very brief cameo in this one). Voldemort killed Diggory at the end of Goblet, but only Harry saw it. His bullying cousin Dudley (funny Harry Melling) shows up with his entourage to make fun of Harry when the Dementors show up and Harry must use his wizardry powers in Muggle world, which violates Hogwarts rules. The Ministry of Magic wants to expel Harry, but Prof. Dumbledore (again essayed expertly by Michael Gambon, who has made the role his own more and more in each new film) intervenes saying that he believes Harry's story about both Voldemort and the Dementors, so Harry is allowed back in Hogwarts.
Harry meets up with the the Weasleys, their son and his best friend Ron (again played solidly by Rupert Grint) and best friend Hermione (again played by the charming Emma Watson), his godfather Sirius Black (reprised by the great Gary Oldman) and others who call themselves the "Order of the Phoenix" gathered together to fight Voldemort and his evil army of wizards.
Upon arrival back at Hogwarts, Harry is shunned and scorned by his fellow students who don't believe him when he says that Voldemort has returned. Feeling lonely, sad, and betrayed, he pushes away Hermione and Ron (who both are a bit skeptical themselves) and he meets one Luna Lovegood (played brilliantly by the perfectly cast Evanna Lynch), a rather strange Hogwarts student with special abilities to see creatures (an ability that Harry also possesses). They bond and Luna helps Harry to realize his importance and he is able to re-connect with his Hogwarts' friends. They band together to form their own wizard order to fight the impending doom that is Voldemort, who has in the mean time kidnapped Sirius. While training the new order, Harry grows closer to his long time Hogwarts crush Cho Chang (played the sweet Katie Leung).
The wicked new Dark Arts instructor Dolores Umbridge (wonderfully and refreshingly played by Imelda Staunton) has had Dumbledore administratively removed (temporarily) by the Ministry as head of Hogwarts because of the secret goings on at the school and Harry et al work together to correct this. The new order, led by Harry go off to try and save Sirius in the climax from Voldemort (played with evil panache by Ralph Fiennes) and a group of Azkaban escapees led by Bellatrix LeStrange (played with sexy, vicious glee by Helena Bonham Carter).
The main draw to ORDER for me is the rise in maturity and darkness that the prior films didn't quite focus on. It was understandable as they were much younger and those were more "kids" films, although CHAMBER and AZKABAN have draws for adult audiences as well, especially AZKABAN. I think GOBLET is the weakest of all the films as it was much too focused on teen angst and raging hormones. Also, I think that ORDER did a great job introducing an eclectic group of new characters to the Harry Potter world like Luna, Bellatrix, and Umbridge. The start of dark Harry Potter...Great!