one of the best Harry Potters yet!

Rating: 8/10 (15 July 2007)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has a gripping main story involving the continuing peril for Harry and his arch nemesis, the dark lord Voldermort (Fiennes, as sinister as possible), but what surprised me a little was seeing that there's even a kind of political subtext to the story at Hogwarts. This is personified by the ministry's new professor-cum-control freak Umbridge (Oscar nominee Imelda Staunton), who teaches theory instead of practice, and is every ultra-harsh, practically laughable disciplinarian you've ever had the horror to have over your heads. Odd for some other "kids" movies (save for Happy Feet), but for the Harry Potter universe the foreboding presence of the ministry makes the feeling of the dread that Potter has to face that much more pronounced, as a feeling of helplessness spreads out amongst everyone in the society despite the message from the messenger that 'everything's fine'. Staunton is perfect in the role of Umbridge, and helps to make the character as part of the ranks of those played by Alan Rickman (?), Gary Oldman (not really), and Ralph Fiennes (for sure) as one of the most dastardly figures in the Potter universe. Though she may even be more chilling, even as a momentary figure, because of what she represents for those who need to practice magic first hand.
The sense of rebellion with the Hogwarts school is a solid facet for the Order of the Phoenix storyline, and except for a tiny sub-plot involving Harry and Cho Chang, and some of the visuals involved when the kids finally take over during a big exam (kind of like a super-magical version of the Another Brick in the Wall music video), it's a great balance for the much darker elements at work. There's another facet, aside from strong performances (Radcliffe, by the way, is really coming into his own more than ever), which is that David Yates- primarily a director of British television- imbues a lot of extraordinary imagery here. Mostly, because, he makes what could be another 'kids' movie, as the first two films were, and makes a gradual progression from the third and fourth installments into the realm of a sort of pop-surrealism; the image of Voldermort at the train station moving his neck around could be out of a stark painting, same for the "mystery" room that serves for the climax of the film. It's much more sophisticated than one might expect, albeit some typical flashbacks used in the realm of the conceit that Voldermort screws around with Potter's mind a lot, and it's certainly the first time since 'Azkaban' that the direction and the script are at levels of quality that one might not expect in a big summer blockbuster. There's nuance in this struggle of good vs evil, and it's worth seeing it in the theater if only on that level.
And as foreboding and cryptic and always with the ominous foreshadowing- unless you've read Half-Blood Prince (from which I've heard, as I haven't read any of the books, is even *darker* than any of the others combined, with even truly disturbing imagery)- as Phoenix can get, there's still a sense of it being a crowd-pleaser. I liked the scenes where Hagard shows Potter and the others his half-brother, a huge ogre that marks as the least essential character story-wise but is a lot of fun to watch, and the scenes with Potter and the others in their secret training rooms gives the movie a sense of purpose for the audience to follow along. In a strange way there is some hope in Order of the Phoenix, though one needs to find it, and not in the way that the one "we don't mention" would go about it.