Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix Review

Overall Rating

Superb direction
Visually stunning
Great effects
Solid performances

A few of the kids still need to relax in front of the camera
Emma Watson's over-earnest Hermione
A shaky ending

Suffering from ever-more-frequent nightmares after his fateful encounter with the resurrected Lord Voldermort (Fiennes) last year, Harry Potter (Radcliffe) has just had a particularly miserable summer with his detestable relatives. Things are made even worse when he finds that he and Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore (Gambon) have been made the subjects of a media smear campaign. The Minister of Magic himself, fervently denying the renewed threat to the wizarding society, takes it upon himself first to discredit Harry, and then undermine Dumbledore's authority by imposing his own bureaucratic representative on the school (Staunton). Meanwhile, Harry has discovered an alarming mental connection between himself and his nemesis, which threatens the stability of his mind...
There's a moment in the latest Potter instalment that makes you feel really old. It's a flashback from the very first film of a minuscule, bowl-haired Daniel Radcliffe staring into a mirror. When we're brought back to the precocious present-day Potter, following this stark contrast, he seems even less of a boy than ever before. Yet it seems hardly yesterday that Warner Bros.' fantasy franchise first obliterated box office records with Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, way back in 2001 when the Potter phenomenon was truly at its peak. Six years, five films and millions of dollars later Warner Bros.' star pupil is still on a roll, but things have changed slightly. For starters, those three loveable young moppets, Radcliffe, Grint and Watson, are not only old enough to drink and drive (though not at the same time you'd hope) but are flirting and even snogging on screen. Of course that's nothing. Lately Mr Radcliffe has been attempting to shake off his good boy persona for good by strutting around in the buff on the Westend, not to mention flicking condoms at Diana Rigg on BBC comedy Extras. Perhaps even more disconcerting, young Miss Watson was recently entered into FHM's 100 sexiest poll. But in the innocent world of Potter, a single kiss is a significant step towards more adult matters. Weren't these sprogs eleven only recently? Clearly it's true what they say, time flies when you're having fun.
While the Potter films have been getting better for years, growing along with their audience, Order of the Phoenix would appear to be the first genuinely cinematic offering. Sure Mike Newell upped the scale to impressive effect with Goblet of Fire, but as a result the British boarding school familiarity that's so much a part of Potter's charm was lost in the din. It would appear that David Yates, the fourth director to take on the challenge, is the first that confidently tackles the text and successfully blends all its elements. Seemly unconcerned by the considerable length of his unwieldy source material (at a monstrous seven hundred and sixty six pages it's the most rambling of Rowling's series) Yates and scribe Michael Goldenberg effectively hone in on the central threads of the book and casts off the baggage. After all, do we really need to dwell on Harry's career advice and exam revision sessions? The result is a slick, stunning and often downright spectacular fantasy treat, grand but still with its feet planted firmly on the ground. Unlike its predecessors, which often created the impression of a hurried flick through the novel's key chapters with a series of disconnected scenes, OOTP flows nicely, with several terrifically staged montages accompanied by a rousing score by new composer Nicholas Hooper. The most innovative of these moments are when we literally soar through a series of blaring propagandist newspaper headlines, rejuvenating that overused clich and effectively propelling the narrative forward without losing the pace. The first Potter to really experiment with editing, the boy wizard's internal struggle with Voldermort is strikingly portrayed with dramatically spliced images and the occasional surrealist flair.
But there's also plenty of time for laughs, provided largely by the sickly sweet new teacher Dolores Umbridge and the leering school caretaker Filch (David Bradley). As the pink-wearing, kitten-loving, well spoken Umbridge, Staunton has created the most loathsome creature we've come across so far, topping even Fienne's histrionically 'eeevil' He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. A deliciously toxic combination of Vera Drake and Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Umbridge defines the 'wolf in sheep's clothing', embodying our most feared school teachers who always disguised malevolence with middle-class manners. Also joining a cast that will surely include every notable British thesp before long (I'm holding out for an appearance by Bill Nighy, surely an essential addition to the rogues gallery) Bonham Carter does a great job with limited screen time as cackling lunatic Bellatrix Lestrange. The regular kids hold up well, although Watson's Hermione is still always too goddamned earnest, and newcomer Evanna Lynch is ethereal perfection as the gang's kooky new playmate, Luna Lovegood. Meanwhile, Gary Oldman, David Thewlis and Brendan Gleeson make welcome returns to take control of the drama as the Order, lending some deftly handled gravitas to the affair. It's no longer all up to the kids to get things done, and now most of the players are introduced and Rowling's world is well established it's time to roll up robe sleeves and cut loose. A frenzied penultimate magical skirmish in which the members of the Order go head to head with Voldermort's Deatheaters finally propels Potter from fun kiddie romp into an adult world of real peril and violence. Coupling awesome effects with a breathtaking, adrenaline-fuelled pace, we're not left wanting. And that's even before the Voldermort vs Dumbledore finale: a vicious, super-scaled, explosive showstopper easily deserving a place alongside fantasy cinema's greatest stand-offs.
Despite all these improvements and triumphs, Phoenix, like its predecessors, remains a companion to its literary counterpart rather than a film in its own right. Admittedly not to the extent of three and four, it's still pretty much essential to be familiar with the story before entering the theatre. Being released alongside the books, the films and books are hardly trying to be disassociated. In fact, never before have the two mediums been so tightly entwined. But the eagerness of Warner Bros to jump on the Potter bandwagon before it was half way through running its course all those years ago does finally present some problems. Denying themselves the perspective afforded other filmmakers who are able to observe the overview of a completed literary series before adapting it, there's now some inevitable groping around in the dark. With the retrospect afforded us with the release of Rowling' seventh and final novel we now notice some small omissions in OOTP which, though not immediately necessary, might prove problematic later on. After all, while Columbus' first two offerings seemed to work on the assumption that Harry Potter was to be a series of stand-alone adventures for our boy hero, we now know that its one continuous, expansive story, with clues sprinkled throughout each and every book. Unless she's deliberately trying to sabotage these adaptations, you'd assume Rowling would have thought to point these things out. While the variety of directors has lent the franchise new perspectives, it has also noticeably affected the continuity from film to film. Newell's decision to end his GOF on an oddly upbeat note instead of a foreboding cliff-hanger, complete with a smiling Harry seemingly recovered from his recent ordeal, could lead to some confusion at the start of Yate's OOTP which returns to a decidedly traumatised boy-who-lived. But at least through some neat flashbacks there's now some attempt to draw things together, and with the news that Yates is signed on for Potter number six, these errors of judgement could be a thing of the past.
So the end is now in sight, and the last two films will be in the disconcerting position of standing alone, without mummy Rowling to hold their hand, the full weight of the ongoing Potter legacy on their ever-broadening shoulders. But these prudent concerns about the future seem irrelevant to a franchise that's so far displayed the same blinkered unconcern for the future as a child. After all, we're still in school right now, things are going well, and the future is so far away.