Best One Yet: From the Acting to the CGI

Rating: 9/10 (13 July 2007)

I am an avid fan of both the Harry Potter books and movies, and therefore I have quite a bit of experience in the world of Harry Potter when I say this: This is the best Harry Potter movie to date. On thing that David Yates seems to get that none of the other directors did is that the movie is ABOUT THE KIDS, how they interact, discover the miscarraiges of justice in the world, and make decisions based on who they are becoming as people. All in all, the best part of this great film was the acting from the kids' end. Student who have had fairly prevalent roles in the books finally got to exercise some sort of emotion, a notion that has been lost in the other movies due to a need to cram as much plot line in as possible. Finally, David Yates figured out the secret: Make a MOVIE out of Harry Potter, trim down the plot, create good and bad, and allow that actors to act and make a movie out of it, with special effects laying the foundation for the magic that they create. The film captured all of this deftly.
Another thing that I absolutely loved about this movie was the fact that it was done so artistically and with so much thought to reality. Even in the second best movie in the series (Prisoner of Azkaban), there was nothing that chained the story of the Harry's tragic life to the real world. This movie uses acting, costume design, set design, and especially camera work to make this REAL. One of the best moments in the movie was the whole opening sequence. Dudley was a true bully, not this caricature of some fat kid throwing 12 year olds into trash cans. The unsteady cam shots were perfect for the action sequences in real life, and yet they were properly NOT used for the magical dueling, which was the magical part of the movie. Yates created general contrast in this film, which makes it more like a movie with a plot line and less like a book on the screen.
All of this being said, there were serious portions of the plot line that were mangled in an attempt to trim the text, which was as thick as a California Redwood, though I loved every page. Some of the things that really bothered me were the absence of Sirius's two-way mirror (a hint for its true 'importance' in book 7?), Kreacher's whole plot line, and the lack of real animosity between Snape and Sirius, an element which, in retrospect, would have made the movie reallllly good. Hermoine's whole SPEW thing, for those of you who read the book, was a load of crap, and I'm glad they didn't include it. I was very pleased with the Occlumency scenes, as well as the whole Umbridge element and character (Immelda Staunton was positively BRILLIANT). As I have said, the best part of the film was the acting; the kids were great, and obviously the adults were spectacular, as Harry Potter is an excuse for practically every incredible character actor in Britain to get some easy money for fun. The kiss was frankly well timed and not awkward at all, all in the name of fun, and I really liked how the camera would pan to Ginny's contorted face every time Cho was mentioned (sorry for the spoiler, I found it amusing). Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was the best Potter film yet, from top to bottom, and it Definitely did a good job of leading into the next film with that subtle feeling of growing hopelessness, as is conveyed so effectively in the book. 9 out of 10 stars... Bravo David Yates