Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix - a brief review

If you have not seen this movie and do not like spoilers, please leave now. I don’t want to spoil your viewing pleasure.

Ok if you read beyond the jump, you either:

1. Have seen the movie
2. Have not seen the movie but don’t care either way about spoilers
3. Have not seen the movie, don’t like spoilers but cannot help yourself

Anyway, I caught Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix over the weekend. The place was crowded as was to be expected of a “hot” movie. We arrived on the dot (not something I like doing) and I missed most of the coming movie trailers.

But on to the movie. As I said before, I cannot remember the book nor the storyline. All I remember was that it was quite dark. In my view, a fantasy series should stretch no more than 3-4 books. After that, the writer tends to lose focus and the story starts to take a life of its own that the author cannot do justice to. This is more so, when the books are running concurrently with the movie releases.

This series, which tracks a boy’s journey through school is rather reminiscent of those boarding school stories written by Enid Blyton - Malory Towers, St. Clares etc, that stretched the length of the characters’ time at school, and their adventures within the school period, ending when everyone goes home for summer holidays. Unfortunately, there is a larger story behind the school hijinks and what with breaking for summer holidays and all, the story gets a tad disjointed.

But nevermind the book, how was the movie?

In my view: Mediocre.

I’m sorry to say that 5 years of acting in the movie has not improved the acting skills of any of the young stars of the movie. Emma Watson (Hermoine Granger) still continues in her urgent breathless speech and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) is still rather wooden. Rupert Grint (Ron Weasly) however, was under utilised I felt, as he was probably the only one of the trio who was most “natural” in the role. I also did not notice the famous “scar” on Harry Potter’s eyebrow and believe me, I made sure I looked for it in all the close up scenes.

A character I missed was Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) I missed his blond sneer which is exactly what I imagined Draco Malfoy would have. He hardly featured in the whole movie, and had the most one speaking line? Terribly under utilised.

The movie felt rushed which was to be expected, as there was a lot to get through in 2 hours. I felt it should have been a 2.5 hour movie just to allow the viewers a better understanding of the storyline. As it was, there was too much emphasis on the beginning and the middle; and the final scenes at the Ministry of Magic were just too rushed to allow everyone to fully appreciate what was happening.

The much talked about kissing scene between Cho Chang (Katie Leung) and Harry Potter had unnecessary emphasis and was unnecessarily long. Aside from that one kiss, there was nothing else in the movie that showed any relationship going on between the two. I felt it was just to hype things up a bit to show that “Harry is growing up”. As for the actress, yes she is pretty but I’m afraid that’s all there is to it.

At the end of the day, the 3 people I felt stole the show were:

• Fred Weasley (James Phelps)
• George Weasley (Oliver Phelps)
• Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch)

The highlight of the book as well as the movie was the scene where the Weasley Twins leave school with a blast, and I must say that scene was well choreographed and was fun to watch.

This story is also where Luna Lovegood aka. Loony Lovegood is introduced as a character and they could not have chosen a better actress to play her. She had an ethereal look around her with her white blond hair and fair skin, and that spaced out look that suits the character so well. She might not be the best actress but she definitely suited the role to a T.

The adults in the movie were awesome. I love Alan Rickman in this series. He is absolutely awesome as Snape, with that deadpan look. I’d say that Ian Mckellen Michael Gambon made a pretty convincing Dumbledore [PB says: Thanks for pointing out my fluff moment mudslinger ].

So in conclusion, my view is that this movie is good for those who have been following the movie series, to allow them to catch up on the story line. For people who have read the books however, there are too many important missing bits e.g. who are the Order of the Phoenix? Who are in the Order? What is their cause? Where is the scene in the hospital where we finally get to know what happened to Nigel Longbottom’s parents? But if you are a fan of the book, you’d watch the movie anyway, just so you can criticise it like I just did!

I just finished The Half-Blood Prince and I’m wondering how it will look on the big screen. I’ll review it a little later when I have more time. For now, I’m waiting for the final installment of the series which is launching at the end of this month.

All I want to know is: Who dies in this one? JK Rowling has been consistently killing people off in the last 3 installments, so it would be interesting to see who gets killed finally. Bets are on Harry Potter, but never forget that this series was originally written for children. Children should never have to see their star character die for in the minds of a child, good must triumph over evil. Even in The Lord of the Rings, good trimphs over evil, as it is in all fantasy stories, so who is she to buck that trend?

So, more interestingly, does Ron get it on with Hermoine? Does Harry end up more than friends with Ginny Weasly? A lot of it is answered in The Half-Blood Prince, but it will be interesting to see how far its taken in the last book - The Deathly Hallows.

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