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Potter’s ‘Phoenix’ flies a little low, still impresses
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix cuts perhaps a bit too close to the pangs of adolescence. Not only is that time marked by awkward fumblings, so is this new movie, one of the weaker films about the boy wizard.
Don’t get discouraged, though. Adolescence is also full of riveting drama, just like this film, flaws and all. Even when the magic isn’t as potent as it could be, Harry and company still dazzle.
Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) feels surly through much of Phoenix, and for good reason. When he fends off an attack by the soul-sucking Dementors, Ministry of Magic officials threaten to expel Harry from Hogwarts.
And that’s hardly the least of his worries. It’s readily apparent to Harry that the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) has returned to build a new army. Many people, in denial, refuse to believe Harry’s claims. Undaunted, Harry and a group of his fellow students build their own army, despite the meddling eyes of new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), who makes Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) seem like a barrel of laughs.
As the Potter books have gotten longer, the movies have become shorter, meaning that the filmmakers have to compress or drop more details from J.K. Rowling’s text than ever before. I haven’t read Order of the Phoenix yet, but for the first time, I sensed the trimming was excessive.
Too many plots are given short shrift. After all the news stories specifically about Harry’s first kiss, the romance between him and Cho Chang (Katie Leung) barely registers in the movie.
When the spacey new student Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch) is more compelling than the love interest, something has gotten lost in translation.
Worse yet, Hermione (Emma Watson) and especially Ron (Rupert Grint) are given too little to do in this film. Watson and Grint are as engaging as ever, and they’re in the movie just enough to be interesting - but only enough to make me wish they were around more.
The film also lacks in action somewhat. New director David Yates does an extremely good job of setting a mood of creeping dread as the specter of Voldemort looms ever larger, but Yates keeps the movie at a simmer a bit too long.
The movie stays on track thanks largely to Radcliffe and Staunton. Harry is much more front and center in this story, as he should be, and Radcliffe grows ever more impressive in the role. The scenes of him teaching defensive magic to the students are among the best in the film. And Staunton (Vera Drake) is perfectly cast as Umbridge, who’s like a Dementor in a pink outfit. She sucks away fun wherever she goes, making for an enemy I loved to hate.
Yates makes his mark on the series by masterfully staging the final confrontations between good and evil, resulting in the most exciting fight in the entire series. I’m anxious to see how this finale looks in 3D in its IMAX presentation. I imagine we’ll see even more scenes like this in film six, so it makes sense that Yates will be back to direct Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Some Potter fans say that the novel of Phoenix is a “bridge” story - a setup for more exciting things to come. The movie bears that out. It may not reach the heights of Goblet or especially Azkaban, but I’ll take a merely very good Potter movie over a bloated one about pirates or an overpraised one about robots any day of the week.
GRADE: B+
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Reviews
Comments
By Mandie
July 12, 2007 11:09 PM | Link to this
I have not seen the movie yet but I am going to go on Sat. Having read the book prior to this I think they are being a little harsh on the movie. The book was boring. The most boring of them but it just explains and leads up the the final two books. Its not like they had that much to work with for the movie.By Sir Critic
July 12, 2007 5:47 PM | Link to this
I think people are too hard on Columbus, whose contributions are important. He set the mold, and most importantly, guided the three lead kids. All that said, his two films are my least favorites. My new ranking, from top to bottom, would be Azkaban, Goblet, Phoenix, Stone, Chamber.By mike
July 12, 2007 5:33 PM | Link to this
Is Sir Critic a Chris Columbus fan? I think this one is probably second-best after #3. I agree Ron and Hermionie don’t have enough to do here…By Allie D.
July 12, 2007 1:09 PM | Link to this
A movie being great and a movie doing great businesses are typically mutually exclusive concepts. This movie will do great boxoffice because it’s a Harry Potter film, not because it’s a great Harry Potter film. And I suppose I have missed out on its greatness. Kim hit the nail on the head as to what was wrong with it. It doesn’t have to be utterly faithful to the book in order to be good. Prisoner of Azkaban was a pretty huge departure from the novel in many ways, and yet that remains (in my opinion) the best of the series. The problems with this one stem from the film’s pacing, and the obvious things that were cut out of it that made certain things make no sense at all. Case in point: No mention at all of Percy Weasley’s fallout with the family, and yet he shows up with the Ministry in Dumbledore’s office with no explanation whatsoever as to why he’s siding with them against the Order. Perhaps the DVD will have oodles of deleted scenes. Or, perhaps, there will be a Director’s Cut that will drastically improve the film.By Kim
July 12, 2007 9:22 AM | Link to this
It is definitely a good movie - well worth seeing more than once. However - I think it could have been even better. I agree that it was underdeveloped - it needed to be longer to have more of the character development that has made this series so great. I thought that the pace of it was rushed - chapters of events were reduced to a single sentence of dialog. At points I wondered if those who hadn’t read the books would even really understand what was going on. Trelawny’s fired - but no Firenze? Hagrid’s visit to the giants left out? And did anyone else find the centaurs to be poorly animated in a film known for spectacular special effects? I understand leaving out some things - but I really wanted more! I agree that Harry’s teaching scenes were great & think Daniel did a great job - but wanted more of the total terrific trio. Still the best movie of the summer so far for me.By jemcx
July 11, 2007 5:27 PM | Link to this
I think you are off base on this one. This is by far the best of the Potter movies so far and, although much of the subplots of the book has been taken out, there is just enough to keep the backstories going. I thought this focused on the best stuff of the book. Except for the first movie, all the rest haven’t followed the book religiously. This is a very good movie…and will do well at the box office (of course, that is a given).By Allie D.
July 11, 2007 1:04 PM | Link to this
We more or less agree. I gave it slightly lower marks, though, perhaps because I was feeling a bit more tinged by the film’s shortcomings having just recently read the book. I know that’s not fair, and I tried to keep that prejudice out of my review, but it was very difficult. I really, REALLY wanted to love this movie, but I simply couldn’t do it.By Jess
July 11, 2007 12:53 PM | Link to this
This was by far the best “series” movie this summer. It has held up to the hype and has tried to do justice for which it was based. I have noticed the “trimming” of the original plot for many of the movies; however, this was missing a lot of the personal side of the characters. This was still an amazing movie that was very well done. Worth paying the money to go see it in theaters!