Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Rating: 4.25

An impressive effort given the extensive amount of content provided, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix may not be the best in the film franchise, but its certainly not the worst.

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) has had to spend the suffocatingly hot months of summer trapped in the home of his muggle relatives, the Dursleys. He is alone and isolated from his friends and since witnessing the death of a fellow student, has been anxiously awaiting news on the return of Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). Harry has been unable to hear anything about what's going on in the world of magic, but when an unforeseeable event takes place, causing Harry to use his wand in the presence of his muggle cousin, he is finally taken away from the Dursleys and brought back to the Wizarding World.

Once back at school, Harry is being plagued by dreams of mysterious hallways and doors, the Ministry of Magic is calling him a liar, and his vile new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), appears to have it out for him. With so much going against them, it appears that Harry and his mates are going to be hard pressed to find themselves having a normal year at Hogwarts.

With each installment of the Harry Potter films that were released after the Chamber of Secrets, the movies appeared to become less and less faithful to the books. For the most part, this wasn't done because extra content was added in, but because there was so much information in the books that they were unable to include everything and keep the film at a reasonable length. No Harry Potter movie faced that particular challenge as much as Order of the Phoenix did. The fifth book in the series is the longest one, and therefore has the most information packed in. I believe that the movie tried its best to show what it could, but even with excluding numerous chapters worth of important plot points, Order of the Phoenix came off as being very rushed in parts, especially in the beginning. I fully understand the struggle the filmmakers must have faced in deciding what to keep and what to exclude from the book, and that by removing some aspects, the timeline for the story had to be modified for it to make sense, but there are definitely some scenes that only occurred in the book that I would really have loved to see make it to the big screen.

Lord Voldemort is the primary villain of the entire series, but there are few characters as horrific as Dolores Umbridge. From her dainty maniacal giggle to her ability to make your skin crawl with her every word, Imelda Staunton is superb in every aspect of her performance. What's so unique about Umbridge, is that from the outside, she would appear to be a petite and cheerful human being, someone who couldn't harm a fly, but in reality, she is wicked and cruel, making her almost more dangerous than some of the more obvious and malicious evil doers. She can seemingly get away with her crimes due to her physical appearance and fabricated personality. Only those who have been privy to seeing the essence of her true soul are fully aware of the horrific deeds she is capable of doing. That type of character is not an easy one to pull off, because it wouldn't take much to have her villainy go too far and lose the essence of the character, thus turning her into a more expected antagonist. As nefarious as Umbridge may be, Imelda Staunton was one of my favorite parts of the film, because of how brilliantly she portrayed the character and stayed so true to the novel.

What never ceases to astound me is the quality of the special effects in the Harry Potter films. When you look back at The Sorcerer's Stone, the computerized visuals may not exactly be impressive by today's standards, but they are still pretty good for its time. The Order of the Phoenix however has aged remarkably well. Yes, as of right now this movie is only just over a decade old, but a lot has changed in the world of CGI since then. It is because of the immense amount of time and detail that went into the visuals, both computerized and practical, that the movie has been able to hold up so well. Unlike the newer Fantastic Beasts series, the original Harry Potter movies clearly spent an incalculable amount of time making sure that the Wizarding World appeared as magical, marvelous, and immersive as possible. When you watch the movies, or read the books for that matter, you are supposed to want to be transported into that universe, and thanks to the design and set up of each of the sets and special effects, you can't help but wish more than anything that the magic being shown was real. When Harry enters the Ministry of Magic for the first time in this film, you are just as much in awe of what you are seeing as Harry appears to be.

There are many people who view The Order of the Phoenix as the worst film in the Harry Potter franchise, but I'd have to say that I disagree. This movie faced an uphill battle from the very start and I applaud its efforts at trying to fit in as much book content as it could. However overly fast paced it may be, it is still a Harry Potter story, so it will always hold a very special place in my heart.