Fantastic

Rating: Null/10 (27 August 2007)

Usually, if a film series ever reaches a fifth installment, the franchise has long shown strain and popular interest is long gone. 'The Order of The Phoenix' is something of a miracle in several respects. It shows great imagination and no sign of fatigue or lack of ideas despite it being the fourth sequel. This is due almost exclusively to the novel's author. It also offers the audience a delicious peak into the minds of a radically talented writer and director.
A new man behind the camera, and a new man writing the words together tackle a labyrinthine story which is widely considered the most polar of the Potter novels. Some felt it was rich with amazing detail that peered into the young adolescent lives of its heroes. Others felt it was superfluous for the sake of being superfluous. One way or another, David Yates has created one fantastic film! Michael Goldenberg's script has somehow found a way to string together everything that makes the novel so terrific, while also weaving through the multiple bulky elements. He managed to explore certain characters and revelations while dealing with the constructs of film time limits. He condenses story elements wonderfully, but does so in a way that would please even the most die had of Potter fans. This is an Oscar caliber piece of writing.
Director David Yates also brings the best out of the actors, and gleefully dances through what should have been the most difficult film in the series so far. He makes it look easy. Consider the first shot in the film. The camera is perched high above an English suburb on the hottest of summer days. Young Harry Potter sits on an eerily staged swing set and a voice over the radio gives some small detail without too much information. Deep isolation rests in his eyes. We know he is a wizard. We know he can do great things. However, he is stuck in a scene from a David Gordon Green movie. This tells us early on that it won't all be about magic and wonderment, but also this character who is still essentially a kid.
Another scene featuring Arthur Weasley, demonstrates Yates' pure enjoyment with his material. Arthur is escorting Harry to The Ministry of Magic using the London underground. He gleefully steps off the escalator and with wide eyes; he enjoys everyone casually traveling to work. Nothing is said in the scene, but its message of character could not be more clear: he is in love with his surroundings. In Chris Columbus's hands there surly should have been a fake sounding monologue, but Yates assumes his audience is smarter than that.
New cast members also help bring about the very best from the story. Academy Award nominee Imelda Staunton is so perfect as Dolores Umbridge that it is nearly distracting, and Evanna Lynch gets many of the film's laughs as the ecstatically spacey Luna Lovegood. It's still Radcliff's show as Harry, and for the first time in the series he truly commands the screen, depending less on his wonderful supporting cast.
It's true the film is darker and less focused on the magical aspects in Harry's life, but at the same time it perfectly shows his desperation and the uncertainty of some very troubled times. You could say this is an allegory for our world, but that would be cheap. The fans of Harry are growing and so is he. The films in tern are also becoming more adult. There are no longer any of the "gee, I'm a wizard" moments, but now they are starting to realize that it will get a whole lot darker before it becomes bright.
The film never snags along the way, and when it concludes 2 hours and 20 minutes after it started, you get the feeling you have seen something great. Too much more, and the film would have been overlong. Removing any more, and it wouldn't have captured the essence of the work. The film finds its rut in a wonderful place of cinema heaven where talent is beaming ever so bright. No longer can the fans have word for word translations into film, but instead they will have to appreciate well planned and constructed movies, this may please adults more than children. 'The Order of the Phoenix' is truly a wonder of film-making, and represents what would be the best Potter film by far, had it not been for Alfonso Cuaron's 'The Prisoner of Azkaban.'