Heather Anne

Heather Anne, you said, you won’t be able to stay away once Harry Potter comes out. You’ll come back and talk about it, you know you will. Heather Anne, you emailed, what’d you think of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix? Did you watch it last night at midnight?

Here’s my review, in case I’m still showing up in any of your feed readers. I’m going to a secluded island next week to hide out and wait for the book. No, seriously. I leave Saturday. I’ll be back to talk about it, if you want. Then, perhaps, I can do something different with this domain, like sell Tater Mitts.

Spoilers for all Harry Potter movies and books below! Caution! Cuidado!

Here was the challenge for Michael Goldenberg, screenwriter, and David Yates, director, for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: take a book that has 70,000 more words than the New Testament, is adored to obsession by an enormous, voracious fandom, and translate it into a 138-minute movie for a studio that sold nearly a billion dollars worth of tickets last time around.

Right, no problem.

I was convinced they couldn’t do it, or that they couldn't do it well. But I was wrong.

On November 18, 2005, here’s what I said in my Goblet of Fire review:

I would like for David Yates, who is directing Order of the Phoenix, to strike a balance between [Goblet of Fire director Mike] Newell’s awkward and choppy transitions and [Prisoner of Azkaban director] Alfonso Curaon’s blue bird flying through the seasons into the Whomping Willow camera wanderings. The pacing of both these movies was way off.

The best scenes, to me were the more subtle ones…[I’d like] more Trio and less CGI…bring back the Dursleys and Molly Weasley!

From my keyboard to God’s lips; the cinematic deities heard my plea!

The moment Hedwig’s theme fades out with the Warner Brother’s logo, you know Order of the Phoenix has brought it, and darkly. Voldemort is regaining power; Cedric Diggory is dead; and Harry is back at Privet Drive, isolated from the very few people he loves. Dudley mocks Harry's dead parents, and is silenced by a Dementor attack. Harry fights off the soul-suckers only to return to home and find out he's been expelled from Hogwarts for using magic outside of school. And all that happens in the first ten minutes.

Did I mention this movie is darker?

Yates makes quick (yet smooth) work of getting Harry back with his adopted family (Sirius, the Weasleys, Hermione), and that is where this film really sets itself apart. Where Goblet was good on special effects and rapid plot, Phoenix captures the best part of JK Rowling’s novels: the heart. When Harry finds Hermione and Ron at headquarters for The Order of the Phoenix (alone in a bedroom, by the way. What were you two doing in there? And why are the sheets on that bed all mussed up?) we know he’s going to be okay; he’s got the two best friends in the world. I really missed that in the other films.

Dan Radcliffe has grown enormously as an actor. He’s not just a cute little Harry Potter look-alike anymore. I believed everything he put out there: the intense fear, the turmoil, the confusion, the frustration, the love. It’s obvious he has deep affection for the character he plays. The Radcliffe of Prisoner of Azkaban is not the same actor of Order of the Phoenix. His performance shocked me, actually.

Emma Watson and Rupert Grint (as Hermione and Ron) were both better than ever. Emma Watson got Hermione just right, striking a perfect balance between studious know-it-all, crusader for the underprivileged, and Harry’s most passionate care-taker. Hermione actually has the funniest scene in the movie.

I want to give Michael Goldenberg a bear hug for bringing book! Ron! to the show. The last few movies have really gutted Ron’s character, but he’s back and genuine this time around. Not only are we spared scared! Ron! face, but we get the lovability, loyalty and aloofness that make Ron Weasley such a great character. Rupert Grint’s comic-timing is perfect. Actually, maybe he has the funniest scene in the movie. If you were waiting for some of that sexual tension between these two to show up, you’ll be pleased. Unlike the book, Hermione has more screen time and lines than Ron, but I can’t blame the camera for loving Emma Watson’s face.

It’s obvious that Warner Brothers struck gold with Radcliffe, Watson and Grint, not only because they’ve shaped up into quite a talented group of actors, and not only because they obviously have a commitment to their characters, but because they’re good people. In interviews they talk about literature and learning foreign languages, about family and their deep affection for each other.

I want to go on record right now as saying that there are six billion people in the world, and Warner Brothers picked the right one to play Luna Lovegood. Evanna Lynch was perfection.

The adult leads were spectacular, as usual. Michael Gambon reined in his Dumbledore. I was actually cheering for him. Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy was deliciously malevolent. Emma Thompson as Trelawney was heart-breaking and hilarious. If there is anyone who can deliver a slithering taunt like Alan Rickman as Snape, I don’t want to meet him. Helena Bonham Carter’s Bellatrix Lestrange was shivery-creepy. Julie Walters and Mark Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, I wish you were my parents. And Imelda Staunton as Delores Umbridge? You’ll hate her almost as much as you do in the book.

There are, of course, loads of book scenes that were cut out. (Did you really expect to see the Weasley is Our King or S.P.E.W. storylines?) But unlike the last two movies, I was less distraught over what was left out, and more impressed with what was kept in.

Mad props to David Yates for his vision in this movie. The tone was different, as was the cinematography. There was a bit of handheld camera work near the end that was fantastic.

This was my favorite out of the five movies. It left me wanting more. Not like something was missing, but like I’d enjoyed it so much I didn’t want it to end. It’s the same way I felt about the book. And that’s about the highest praise you could earn from me.