The worst book, but the best film

Rating: 8/10 (13 August 2007)

I have read and enjoyed each of the Harry Potter books, although I have only read them once each. Reading other's comments, it appears that I am in the minority in that I found that the Order of the Phoenix contained the most redundancy. For me, the first 200 pages and the last 200 pages were up to the usual standard, but the middle section (and a hefty section at that, being over 400 pages) felt an awful lot like filler.
I am pleased to say that the film has been made in such a way that a lot of that filler has been condensed into concise snippets, which assist the story without taking up an inordinate amount of time. My only word of caution would be that, although I haven't read the book since it was released, I still knew enough about it that the story didn't lose me. I would have to speak to someone who has seen the film but not read the book to confirm whether this would be the case for those who haven't read it.
Certainly, the pacing of this film seems perfect, with an excellent balance struck between drama, action, storyline and comic relief. Although the film is over two hours, it really never dragged and I hope is a sign of things to come with the film adaptations.
As far as performances go, the adult cast is as good as always, with particular standouts being Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge, Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix LeStrange and Gary Oldman as Sirius Black.
As for the principals, they have all noticeably improved, with the biggest difference being Ron Weasley. I was finding the portrayal of him to be increasingly irritating, with his range of acting seemingly restricted to face-pulling. However, I am happy to say that in the OotP, he is nicely understated and as a result, the humour when it does arrive is genuinely amusing.
The sets and effects are very well done.

The ministry of magic is much more imposing than I had imagined, but does work very well and nicely portrays a busy working environment, albeit with a magical twist.

Grimwald Place is presented well and although it doesn't figure as much in the film as in the book, it feels that it is now shown only when necessary (one of the many things I felt caused the dragging of the story in the book).

Hogwarts is as good as ever, with the Room of Requirement being particularly well designed. In fact, all the scenes in the Room of Requirement are very well played and again, the pacing means that there is not too much and not too little.

Finally, the effects are very well put together, with obvious highlights being the duelling. It really does feel like old-fashioned duelling, but with magic.

All in all, I throughly enjoyed the film and it far exceeded my expectations. My wife and I were still talking about it the next day and to me, that proves what an impact it had on us.