A spectacular fantasy film, with brilliant performances and lean direction!

Rating: Null/10 (7 July 2009)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the best Harry Potter film to date, either tied with or surpassing Prisoner of Azkaban. The new director, David Yates, is very lean and confident, and his direction helps make this new Harry Potter film more mature. It feels more like a regular film, while in ways that is a downside, but also an upside seeing as how sometimes the Harry Potter films might be seen as children's' films. It's cinematography and photography is handsome, but not in the visual way that Prisoner's was. It is more bleak, more moody as well. It has a certain gloomy feeling, while it might turn off a lot of viewers seeing as how how it is different (especially after Goblet of Fire's more cheery and happy tone), I find that an improvement because it demonstrates a feeling of growth and maturity, in both the characters and the film itself. The new screenwriter was impressive. He was able to cut a lot of things out, and still leave a lot in while still not making it sort of all over the place, a flaw that presided in Goblet of Fire. Daniel Radcliffe's performance here is actually quite good. It took him five films, but he is finally able to demonstrate all of Harry's emotions and feelings very well. Rupert Grint and Emma Watson play their characters well. But the performance to talk about here( or rather, performances) is that of Imelda Staunton and Helena Bonham Carter. Imelda Staunton delivers a perfect performance, identical to that of the book's character. She is menacing, villainous, arrogant, obsessive, controlling, and she plays that all with a bit of humanity. What a performance! The Oscars should have caught on. Helena Bonham Carter delivers that same presence, and she plays Bellatrix with such force. Every second she is on screen(which is not a lot, maybe a minute overall) you cannot help but look at her. I just wish her role was bigger, and I hope her role in Half-Blood Prince is larger. She definitely deserved a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination if she can conduct that much passion for a character. The effects and the production designs are all fantastic as always, and the score, ranging from happy tunes to gloomy melodies, is perfect! Both Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban and Order of the Phoenix are the two films of the franchise that manage to be amazing films. Two of the best in fantasy for sure, and I hope Half-Blood prince does not disappoint.