Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Synopsis:
In "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," Harry returns for his fifth year of study at Hogwarts and discovers that much of the wizarding community is in denial about the teenager's recent encounter with the evil Lord Voldemort, preferring to turn a blind eye to the news that Voldemort has returned.
Fearing that Hogwarts' venerable Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is lying about Voldemort's return in order to undermine his power and take his job, the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, appoints a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to keep watch over Dumbledore and the Hogwarts students.
But Professor Dolores Umbridge's Ministry-approved course of defensive magic leaves the young wizards woefully unprepared to defend themselves against the dark forces threatening them and the entire wizarding community, so at the prompting of his friends Hermione and Ron, Harry takes matters into his own hands. Meeting secretly with a small group of students who name themselves "Dumbledore's Army," Harry teaches them how to defend themselves against the Dark Arts, preparing the courageous young wizards for the extraordinary battle that lies ahead.
The Order Of The Phoenix is formulaic and lacking in depth, and does not make the most of the intensity in the fifth installment of JK Rowling's epic story. It is far crueler than its predecessors and begins to introduce properly the idea that we are no longer in an amusing magical playground, but are en route to an epic confrontation with real victims.
The main story at this stage is the quest of Harry and Dumbledore to persuade an increasingly paranoid and uncomfortable wizarding world that its unspeakably vile nemesis, Voldemort (played by Ralph Fiennes), has returned.
The acting skills of Radcliffe (Harry), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) and Emma Watson (Hermione) have improved, but not enough to truly flesh out the characters and provide the narrative depth that this transitional, plot-advancing film needs. They have got "angry” and "determined” down pat at this point, but struggle somewhat on the more nuanced grimaces. Harry's bellowing cod-psychoanalysis of Voldemort is jarringly awful.
Of the adult actors, Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge – Dumbledore's usurper at Hogwarts – is exquisitely dislikeable. Helena Bonham Carter as the villainous Bellatrix Lestrange is a shining but underused talent.
The director, David Yates, has inserted some lovely touches, including the Weasley twins' explosive transfer from the world of academia to the world of retail. But overall there is a shortage of those joyful little glimpses of the wizarding world's furniture that punctuated and perked up the previous films.
The fifth – and longest – book on which the film is based plays a crucial but faintly turgid role in the saga. Much is explained, much is left hanging and there is nothing like the pace of action that readers had grown accustomed to in earlier episodes (especially The Goblet of Fire). The book pulled this off because it was tantalising in what it didn't tell us.
The film, meanwhile, a necessary digest of the 800-page book, leaves us faintly annoyed that the true denouement of the cycle is now two movies distant. The chief problem, though, is not really a fault of the film but the near universal Potter-literacy of its prospective audience. Most Potter fans are now laser-focused on the release of the climactic seventh book in three weeks' time and its promise to bring together the countless loose ends.
As the waiting for the final book grows unbearable, there are moments when this otherwise enjoyable film, though nicely made and through no fault of its own, feels like a chore to be got through before the main course.
3/5 So-So, watchable movie, but not the best of the Harry Potter Series.
7:47 PM
