"You will lose everything"

Rating: 7/10 (18 July 2007)

Well, with all due respect to David Yates, I would like to say that The Order of the Phoenix came,tried,and failed.Now don't get me wrong, I am still a faithful follower of Mr.Potter but I expected a lot more from OOTP.
Firstly, I want to make it a point that the start of the movie was 'great'.The opening with Dudley's ever-growing belly and scary yet funny head, together with two Dementors who look like they've gone unfed since they first visited Hogwarts in The Prisoner of Azkaban, and a very fake scene where Harry sticks out his wand in front of a 'bunch' of Muggles, and then a chase down a sewer.There is nothing in the sequence that leaves a lasting impression.Nothing! The opening sequence in Little Whinging is where Daniel, hanging in midair, his throat clutched by a Dementor, shows us that I'm Daniel Radcliffe and not Harry Potter. I am an actor, not a fictional character.Who would have thought one could deliver all that from just saying,"D-Dudley r-r-run"? But then again, that piece of cinema is ruined by the entrance of Mrs.Figg .There was no feeling in what she said!The Dursleys are brilliant in their little shot.
And then,the real bore.The movie jumps from scene after scene without us being allowed any time to think what happened. Reason why I think The Prisoner of Azkaban was the best movie in the Series(so far) is that Director Alfonso Cuaron made sure the actors were actually acting and that the audience got enough time to breathe after a sequence. He paid homage to the Dementors, the Whomping Willow, even something as small as a bat or a leaf, in between scenes.And the music was sublime.Here, however, the editing is so terrible that just after Harry is hit by a freak scene through Nagini's eyes he is thrown into a chair in Snape's Office and down to learning Occlumency.He hasn't even been allowed to stop sweating from what he saw!
The training of Dumbledore's Army is shown better than expected and I still don't know what the big deal was with the kissing scene.It was poor rather than cute(and they did it in 16 takes!)The visual effects are great but they are a bit too abundant. Even when two characters are conversing there's something going on in the background which acts as a distraction from the real scene.
The only part of the 'movie' which deserves real praise is the climax. From the time the final battle in the movie the audience is treated to some solid acting and not to mention special effects.The Death Eaters look great but they could have looked better.The Department of Mysteries is good, but overdone.Too many orbs.Too many shelves.But, a great fight sequence. The part which everyone wanted to be long and drawn out, wasn't. And then it all came down to Lord Voldemort.Now, whether you like Ralph Fiennes or not, he demands attention when he's carrying out the role of He Who Must Not Be Named.He is brilliant.The little time that he gets on screen is worth savoring.The way the connection between Harry and Voldemort's mind is shown at the end is perfect.
Discrepancies aside; hats off to Imelda Staunton who plays Dolores Umbridge oh so well with her little squeaky laugh and her voice and her Office and her eyes and her hair(I could go on forever).Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood and Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange deserved a LOT more screen time than what was given to them, but they pulled off their 'small' cameos flawlessly.Grawp is cute but fails to leave a mark. Daniel Radcliffe proves his worth as an actor.He even shouts out,"Look at me!" with demanding conviction.The sequence where the Weasley Brothers, Fred and George storm out of Hogwarts with a grand show of firecrackers in between an examination is one of the funniest ones in the movie and definitely deserves a kudos.But the absence of acting sequences just ruins the movie.More importance is given to Parvati and Padma Patil than to Ron and Hermione.
Their are no praiseworthy sequences here like that in The Shrieking Shack in The Prisoner of Azkaban or the conversation where Mad Eye Moody confesses his true identity in The Goblet of Fire.Even the Pensieve was given importance in the fourth installment.Here, everything is mute.
OOTP is more like an attempt at a movie than a real movie. It isn't even an adaptation. The acting is mostly dull. The editing is terrible. The length of the movie is ridiculous if not outrageous and in the end all we get is 2hrs of hardly anything and 15 minutes of cinema. I mean,The Prisoner of Azkaban is a 300something paged novel and that got a 2hrs 20mins adaptation, Goblet of Fire was 600something pages and that got 2hrs 40mins of game time whereas Order of the Phoenix is 700something pages and it gets 2hrs 15mins of runtime? Are you freaking kidding me? Look at The Lord of the Rings. The first two movies are verging on 3hrs whereas the third one stretches to 3hrs 30mins plus. The movies remain true to the storyline. The only reason why The Harry Potter movies aren't getting enough recognition as the LOTR movies is because it's more commercial entertainment than 'movie making'. The only movie which had 'movie making' in it was the 3rd one. And most fans call it the 'worst' film. Why? Because there wasn't enough special effects and there was too much of talking!
As for the next installment(due to release in November 2008), It surely promises better things.