Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

2007 wizard romp

Rating: 13/20

Plot: It's year five for Harry Potter, and Lord Voldemort is causing problems. So is the Ministry of Magic. Following the tragedies of the last movie, both Harry Potter and Dumbledore are no longer trusted heroes. Harry nearly gets himself expelled (drugs) and the new Dark Arts Defense teacher, straight from the ministry, is a pain in the arse, giving the students meaningless book work and refusing to allow them to use actual magic. Eventually, she takes control of the school. Harry and his friends form Dumbledore's Army, a covert posse that trains in a secret room in order to protect themselves from Lord Voldemort--a freaky noseless guy who is invading Harry Potter's mind--and the other evil wizards. Harry turns emo.

This is a step up from the last movie, but it still has the same fundamental problem--the books are too long and too detailed, and so much gets cut that I'm not sure the movie makes complete sense. The result is a (still-long) sketchy story with lots and lots of interesting scenes that wind up feeling unconnected and unresolved. At least there wasn't any of that Quidditch nonsense in this one. I don't know who the new director David Pate is, but he does a good job and I'm glad he's finishing the series. Already being four deep into a series like this, some of the ideas and imagery that seemed whimsical or fresh back in movie one would be difficult to make whimsical or fresh, but there are some nice touches in this one. It doesn't quite have the look of the third in the series, but the special effects look a lot more realistic than the other movies, even that rubbery giant guy. But there's so much going on and so many characters and so many things that just seemed tossed in either to continue a thread from a previous movie or prepare for something in one of the next three that this just doesn't work completely. And it's hard to criticize a movie just because Richard Harris died, but I really liked him. One thing I really liked was the commentary on education--school's leadership and the government's involvement, the emphasis on standardized testing, etc.