Dones’ Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (contains some spoilers)
Cats: Movies, Books| |
Bottom Line: Make sure you at least have seen the first four movies before watching this one. Books are optional, but highly recommended.
**Note: If you want to remain totally spoiler-free before you read the book/watch the film, please note this review does contain what I would call mild spoilers. It’s also safe to assume any comments may contain spoilers**
I went to see this in the Imax 3D theater, and I’ll just preface the review by saying that the digital Imax theater was the way to see this film, and I look forward to seeing more there. However, this film was not shot with 3D cameras, and as a result the overall effect of the third dimension thrust upon the final half hour of the film was not only distracting, but not particularly appealing. I have done my best not to let that experience color my review of the overall film, but I felt it necessary to note that in this case, retrofitting the 2D visuals with 3D effects is imperfect at best, and detracts from the overall experience instead of adding to it. Now to the review of the film itself:
At least before reading book 7 (read my review of it here), Order of the Phoenix was my favorite book of the series. As such, it naturally holds a place in my heart reserved for books that generally are butchered when made into films. Notably exceptions to this trend are the Lord of the Rings films, but can the longest of the Harry Potter books be made into the shortest of Harry Potter films without suffering a fate worse than Jurassic Park? We shall see… here are the ratings:
Production value: 5/5 stars. Heck yeah. First, the casting of the new characters was outstanding. Imelda Staunton was not a toad-like Delores Umbridge as in the book, but she did capture the sickly sweetness of her print character excruciatingly well. Likewise, there couldn’t have been a better actress cast than Helena Bonham Carter for Bellatrix Lestrange (in general, and for the part). There’s no one else I would have chosen for the part, and she performed it quite well. Again, she wasn’t quite the same as in the book, but I’ll be darned if her performance wasn’t as good or better than Rowling wrote the character, for all her evil creepiness. Additionally, the special effects were astounding, and the CGI is as good as anything out there today. The finale was especially exquisite, and certainly worth the money put into the special effects.
Story: 3.5/5 stars. I’ll be honest. Having read and loved the book, the film was a less complete version of its literary counterpart than any of the other films were to their respective books. Why it couldn’t have been done the way Prisoner of Azkaban was, I don’t know, but there was very little true character development. I’m not sure what the viewer experience would be like for someone who hasn’t read the books, but I admit I would have been lost as to who half of these people were if I didn’t intimately know each character beforehand. I think most of the time was spent on developing Umbridge, and not enough time on (admittedly minor) characters such as Kingsley Shacklebolt & Nymphadora Tonks. Another big nit to pick is the lack of interstitial transitions between scenes. Again comparing this film to Azkaban, Phoenix was in desperate need of the kind of world-establishing shots such as the seasonal scenes with the Whomping Willow that we see in the earlier film. I think there may have been one distant shot of Hogwarts in the entire film, with the exception of the thestrals scene. This is an unacceptable trend, and one I hope will be remedied in the last two films, as 80% of the enjoyment of this series is the connections and comparisons we can draw between the wizarding world and that of our own. Another 15 minutes of film time would have been more than enough for these missing shots, and the film is worse off because of their absence. The video game version of the film includes much of what is missing in the film, though it makes its own sacrifices (read the video game review here).
Enjoyability: 4/5 stars: For all its faults, it’s still a very enjoyable film, overall. I’ll admit I had higher expectations for this one than the others, and the filmmakers were faced with more book to cut out than in previous installments. They did an applaudable job at this task, but they certainly could have done better if they’d taken a lesson from Alfonso Cuaron. If they had simply added 15 minutes in the right places, it would have been my favorite film of the bunch.
Dones’ Rating: 
Another reason to be a Harry Potter fan.
