An Exciting, Mature Leap Forward

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2007)

Of all the films in the Harry Potter franchise, the fifth installment marks the first time our hero truly earns his place in story. This time around, Harry must contend with the newly-enfleshed Lord Voldemort, the media (or the equivalent of one in the wizarding world), and the prim and proper Dolores Umbridge, the newly appointed Defense Against the Dark Arts prof. Times have changed in the world of Hogwarts, and not for the better. Harry and Dumbledore face an uphill battle against the Ministry of Magic and the Daily Prophet, both of which seek to discredit the duo's claim that He Who Must Not Be Named has indeed returned to re-ignite his reign of terror. Believing that they are in grave danger, Ron and Hermione persuade Harry to school them and his fellow classmates in the art of defense.
Thankfully, director David Yates takes a cue from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban director Alfonso Cuaron utilizes a motif to unify the story and its many complexities. Whereas Cuaron used clocks and the concept of time to movie the story forward, Yates opts for newspapers and the idea of truth. Yates and company cleverly make use of newspaper headlines in the Daily Prophet as a means to deliver information quickly and concisely, but at the same time shows audiences the often biased nature of printed media. We the audience believe Harry wholeheartedly because, after all, we did see him take on the Dark Lord in the previous installment. But this is the wizarding world, and although witches and wizards are capable on conjuring up magnificent spells and potions, at the end of the day they are very much like Muggles - they only believe that which they see with their own eyes.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is decidedly more violent than the previous films, which, despite the PG-13 rating, did very little to deter children from attending (or in my case, failed to deter parents from bringing their infants and overactive two-year-olds to the theater). Despite the darkness of the story or the on screen atmosphere, it is hard not to see this film as somewhat of an allegory to our world today. As the controlling Dolores Umbridge points out to a defiant Professor McGonagall: "If you question my authority you are questioning the authority of the Ministry of Magic itself, and that is considered disloyalty!" Umbridge's remarks represent the sorry state of things today, where questioning even the most remote of issues conjures up the terms "loyalty" and "disloyalty," and the brazen accusation that you're "with us or against us."
There can be no doubt that is Harry's film. Daniel Radcliffe proves that he is the definitive personification of the character, and he earns his keep in this harrowing segment of the saga. For the first time, he is truly on his own and taking advantage of his true leadership potential. Before, from The Sorcerer's Stone to The Goblet of Fire, his adventures were more like unfortunate mishaps with lucky breaks, which Harry himself admits to his friends and his viewers during the course of this film. This time, Harry is strong enough to stand up to the people who mean him harm. He still lets his emotions get the best of him, as we see in the first five minutes of the film, when he stands up to his bullying cousin when Dudley and company tease Potter about his dead parents. As the film progresses, the message regarding Harry and his intense relationship with emotions comes clear - lose the emotions or lose your life. In the world of witchcraft and wizardry, unprotected and carelessly kept emotions provide Voldemort a suitable path into the head of an unsuspecting wizard, where he can wreak havoc and mayhem to the point of insanity. So it would seem that men with emotions, real or fictional, are highly contemptible, but for different reasons. Even with the frilly cloaks and velvet wizard caps, there is a still a strong sense of masculinity alive and well in the Harry Potter universe.
A rich, exciting journey worth experiencing again and again, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix proves that delivering a Harry Potter film word for word from the book from which it is based is a practice of the past. We have thankfully left the territory of Chris Columbus and entered into a realm where detail-oriented viewers are rewarded and the director isn't afraid to take the them into more intelligent territories. It is obvious that these young actors and actresses have been given more room to explore the dimensions of their characters, and their performances are better for it. Most importantly, the audiences are given room to interpret and enjoy the film as they choose. As an adaptation of a novel in a beloved series or even as an anti-war message, the fifth Harry Potter film gives everyone, especially the lagging film industry, a much-needed summer boost.