Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Review By Velvet

Well, the longest book in the Potter series turns out to be the shortest movie in the series. Go figure.

With trim line and movie reels lurking behind good actors and a new director, we see that this Harry Potter fell a bit short, but it was touching and it kept action at its good point.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", being the fifth movie adaptation from the fifth book of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" was the slip from Potter fans and non-Potter fans alike. It focuses on Harry, now 15, taking on teh presence of what Death Eaters are around him now, that the Dark Lord has returned from the un-settling ending of Goblet of Fire from what most of us endured. The "Order" being the witches and wizards who fight against the Death Eaters under Dumbledores stead, merely shows Harry that the good is now against the evil. A good metaphor even for a book-to-screen film.

The acting in this Potter was superb, probably the best in the series. We see now the affections that lie so deep in Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and how it connects to the characters around him, including Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), who performed wonderfully. Rupert Grint and Emma Watson do the same old acting as before, with a bit less screen time then any other Potter film. Imelda Staton who portrayed Dolores Umbridge did it well, and cooky. She was funny yes, but it felt like something was missing, as in her role as the new DADA teacher at Hogwarts. There could have been more.

The score was great. Atleast it was an improvement over Goblet of Fire, which was disappointing. Now, like I have said, a good movie needs a good score, and this Potter hits the score-board. It was touching, it fit well with the scenes, and it was evolving all the rest.

The story was the main concern for me. As most have said that this one was "OK" and not exactly to the book, most of the time we just cant get it exactly like the book. Order of the Phoenix was the longest book in the series, being some 830 pages, but here. we get the SHORTEST movie? I don't know.. it sure felt like it. Its pace was too quick, it was a short movie. The beginning came, then the end just shot up like you took a shot of whiskey. In my opinion, there should have been more screen time for all the actors and there could have been more scenes, like Quidditch or more Dumbledore's army.

The ending I was just lost at, as it was mostly different from the book and a lot, I mean A LOT of scenes were cut out of this film, more like the most scenes cut out of any Potter film to date. The movie basically covered about half of the chapters of the book. You don't want to make the whole book into the movie, or else it would be around 7 hours along in this case, but more scenes could have been added to help the story. Not just the ending I was lost at but the beginning too. For those who have seen it you'll probably know what I'm talking about, as it is a bit too altered.

To make quick and interesting, this Potter film was not the best of the series, POA bringing in number 1. It was "OK". It's not a must see, but more a "go see it, it was good". Kudos to the acting and the score for this Potter film.