Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix

'Harry Potter and the Order of Emoting'

Before I rant and rave a bit, know that one the way back I was completely rebuked by the people who I saw this with who thought this movie was excellent...however, they also strongly disliked Harry Potter 3 and 4 for reasons that sounded bizarre and completely contrary to my views on the films. So, let me delve in.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in my opinion, is the worst of all the films so far. The visual style is lacking for the most part in originality. The dialogue is stilted and delivered a bit too obviously. Oh, and the whole Harry angst whiney thing that he ALWAYS does, which was heavily prevalent in the book, comes out well enough for me to despise it. I liked the book for being darker than the last one but honestly, all the crap with Harry Potter as a maturing teen going through angst ticks me off since he can never do much more than whine and feel mistrusted. I understand that each novel is a different lesson in growing up and I have actually come to appreciate the structure and intelligence of the novels, although it did take me a while. However, I was informed that not enough of Harry's angst was in the film, which I completely disagree with since I could barely stand to watch the screen whenever he felt "alone". Harry is the weakest protagonist I have ever seen. Each book he requires others to insure that he learns a lesson which he is unable to learn quickly and easily on his own. Just not my taste.

Anyhow, the film. The film starts off promising with some great visuals and editing, somewhat disorienting, but really promising and well done. But soon after Harry leaves the normal world and comes to Hogwarts, the story becomes a bit too...angsty for my taste. The style soon becomes a very obvious continuance of the style employed in the fourth film to make everything seem darker. Thankfully, Yates seems to understand how to make some great beautiful moments, however they are so far apart and the main three actors have such a hard time holding their own without overdoing everything. Radcliffe has come far, but still struggles and the editing is lazy at best. Rupert Grint has a lesser role and as such can't let his natural charm come across as much and when it does, the laughing moments aren't usually funny seeing as how they seem like a complete rehash of previous Ronald Weasley "moments" from other films. Hermione is simply overdone. Most of the beautiful moments in this film come from practically everyone else but the three main characters and the beginning, the ending, and the bit with the destruction of the O.W.L.s comes to mind of particular great visualization. Also, the Black estate is well done if scantily used. I must say, that although I had a very different vision of the death in the novel, I must applaud Yates subtle and great handling of it. The best part of the movie though belongs to Dolores Umbridge played with panache by Dolores Umbridge and Sirius Black who is otherwise known as Gary Oldman. Oldman makes the scenes work that he is in and a better choice for Sirius Black could never have been found. Also well done is Michael Gambon's Albert Dumbeldore who really steps up his game in this film and convinces me that Dumbeldore should be in control of Hogwarts. Alan Rickman as Snape is always a pleasure. Even the Weasley brothers and Luna Lovegoode are excellently handled.

Conclusion:
To be fair, the story is told with some flashes of brilliance occassionally and the rest at a low hum. A lot of the effects, settings, and plot works well enough. Most of the actors are great to watch with some standing out more than others due to the script from newcomer Michael Goldenberg. However, I think maybe I just didn't like the story as much in this one. I honestly am terribly uncomfortable and dislike teen angst stories usually. The main actors didn't impress me and could be seen as taking a step back in some cases in acting styles. However, I highly doubt that my tale of discouragement and dislike of this film will stop the Potterites and influence any of them. No one will ever agree with me on this point, which is fine. Unfortunately, now I am stuck with at least one more film of Potter and Yates. Hopefully Yates will surprise me and the dialogue won't be so bloody obvious about EVERYTHING thanks to the return of Steve Kloves as scripter. One last chance Yates, one last one.

3.3 out of 5

Wannabe