Flight of the Order has its ups and downs

Rating: 7/10 (16 July 2007)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix/2007/***
Main Stars: Harry Potter: Daniel Radcliffe Ron Weasley: Rupert Grint Hermione Granger: Emma Watson Dolores Umbridge: Imelda Staunton Sirius Black: Gary Oldman
This adaptation of the very entertaining book proves that movies can never beat the books. Although a good film, it lacks the magic, excitement, and suspense that the books and past movies had. The past Harry Potter films have actually intrigued us a lot with the stories. In this one we seem to observe what happens with moderate interest (which is good!), instead of wanting, extremely eagerly, to know what will happen next. That is my main negative point. Glad I got that out of the way. I seriously hate talking negatively about a Potter film but I did have to let that out. The film still gives us some entertainment, especially by the wonderfully portrayed Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), who gives us so much entertainment just by her brief clearing of her throat: "hem, hem". Staunton has given us a character to laugh at, laugh with, and even to relate with for those of you who are intolerably bureaucratic. The acting is great here by the KIDS, surprisingly. The adults, except Umbridge, seemed a little dull, not really depositing much life into their characters, especially Dumbledore (Michael Gambon). Radcliffe did a wonderful job; Watson and Grint, too. Gary Oldman (playing Sirius Black) didn't have as much life in this chapter as he did in the third. Then again, the book didn't really portray him as lively But he played his part well, I guess. As for the script, it was good. The script was well written and original, just like the book. The music by British composer Nicholas Hooper was good. His best was Umbridge's theme. Not as good as Patrick Doyle, who should have been up for an Oscar for number four. And, of course, not as good as Williams' score for the first three. If you don't know who I mean, I feel sorry for you. The third was his best achievement for the franchise and actually was up for an Oscar but Williams didn't win. The first was in the same boat. Back to the story what a convoluted, although well written script. The third 'Pirates' script was convoluted and crappy. This one was convoluted and good. Remember, it wasn't as intriguing as the other four! But when Harry started creating a rebellion, sure, we wanted to see more. I mean, come on. I couldn't be bored by it. That's not possible when it comes to Harry Potter. So I watched and was impressed to see Harry finally get aggravated with all the nonsense going on. I agree with him. There is a lot going on that needs answering quickly, especially the dream he has been having about a certain door at the end of the hallway of a certain building that is certainly going to answer a lot of certain questions. Well something inside the door SHOULD. But does Harry know yet? No, that's too easy. Meanwhile, havoc is reeking at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by one certain teacher. Umbridge. She is basically making Hogwarts into a bureaucratic school and enjoys doing it. The Ministry of Magic, under the control of Cornelius Fudge, is behind quite a lot of it. There is also a sub-plot about Sirius Black and his evil cousin Bellatrix Lestrange. But that's not near as vital as Umbridge's role but it is slightly important, but I'm not going into any of that. See the movie for yourselves for that. There are also some things that were somewhat vital in the book that the movie didn't even mention! There was something about Ron joining Quidditch. They didn't include that; no Quidditch at all! There was another slightly important aspect about a girl named Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch), who is in this film, and her father's newspaper/magazine articles entitled, I believe, "The Quibbler". None of that was even mentioned except for just showing one scene with her reading it. So, if you haven't read any of the books, you ARE missing some extra detail. Some important and some not. Depends on what you think. As for the duration, it was adequate. I actually wouldn't have minded if they had increased the running time. This is THE shortest Potter film of the series running at 138 minutes; followed by the third (142), the first (152), the fourth (157), and the second (161). I believe they tried too hard to reduce all the unimportant (TO THEM!) scenes and made it shorter than initially planned (the book is 870 pages long!). Whereas, the second film, running at 161 minutes, was longer because they didn't try as hard to reduce it because the book was shorter (341 pages long). It most likely turned out longer than they initially planned. You know what I mean; you know what I'm sayin'? Overall, however, this film is good. Yeah, it had some minor mistakes, a bit too short, dull acting, convolution, etc. But hey they tried and whatcha gonna do? No film is perfect, but this one has an imagination and gives you entertainment and escapism for a good 138 minutes. This film is the funniest of the series, also. It is definitely worth the money to spend. You will enjoy it. I guarantee that. Although David Yates' direction could have been slightly better. Okay, I'm done criticizing Movie directed by David Yates. Oh, by the way, Dumbledore and Voldemort finally fight in this one! It's a rather different conflict, however. You'll know what I mean when you see it