- Lord Voldemort has returned, but few want to believe it. In fact, the Ministry of Magic is doing everything it can to keep the wizarding world from knowing the truth – including appointing Ministry official Dolores Umbridge as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. When Professor Umbridge refuses to train her students in practical defensive magic, a select group of students dec
Description
Lord Voldemort has returned, but few want to believe it. In fact, the Ministry of Magic is doing everything it can to keep the wizarding world from knowing the truth – including appointing Ministry official Dolores Umbridge as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. When Professor Umbridge refuses to train her students in practical defensive magic, a select group of students decides to learn on their own. With Harry Potter as their leader, these students (who call themselves “Dumbledore’s Army”) meet secretly in a hidden room at Hogwarts to hone their wizarding skills in preparation for battle with the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters. . New adventure – more dangerous , more thrilling than ever – is yours in this enthralling film version of the fifth novel in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. A terrifying showdown between good and evil awaits. Prepare for battle!
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Alas! The fifth Harry Potter film has arrived. The time is long past that this can be considered a simple “children’s” series–though children and adults alike will enjoy it immensely. Starting off from the dark and tragic ending of the fourth film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix begins in a somber and angst-filled tone that carries through the entire 138 minutes (the shortest of any HP movie despite being adapted from the longest book). Hopes of winning the Quidditch Cup have been replaced by woes like government corruption, distorted media spin, and the casualties of war. As the themes have matured, so have the primary characters’ acting abilities. Ron (Rupert Grint), Hermione (Emma Watson), and especially Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) are more convincing than ever–in roles that are more demanding.
Harry is deeply traumatized from having witnessed Cedric Diggory’s murder, but he will soon find that this was just another chapter in the continuing loss he will endure. Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) has returned and, in an attempt to conceal this catastrophe from the wizarding public, the Ministry of Magic has teamed up with the wizard newspaper The Daily Prophet to smear young Potter and wise Dumbledore (Michael Gambon)–seemingly the only two people in the public eye who believe the Dark Lord has returned. With no one else to stand against the wicked Death Eaters, the Hogwarts headmaster is forced to revive his secret anti-Voldemort society, the Order of the Phoenix. This welcomes back characters like Mad-Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson), kind Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), fatherly Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), and insidious Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), and introduces a short list of intriguing new faces. In the meantime, a semi-psychotic bureaucrat from the Ministry (brilliantly portrayed by Imelda Staunton) has seized power at Hogwarts, and Harry is forced to form a secret society of his own–lest the other young wizards at his school be left ill-equipped to defend themselves in the looming war between good and evil. In addition, Harry is filled with an inexplicable rage that only his Godfather Sirius seems to be able to understand.
This film, though not as frightening as its predecessor, earns its PG-13 rating mostly because of the ever-darkening tone. As always, the loyal fans of J.K. Rowling’s books will suffer huge cuts from the original plot and character developments, but make no mistake: this is a good movie. –Jordan Thompson
FULL METAL HARRY
Saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night. It is a War Movie, plain and simple. What a disappointing story and a terrible message to send to kids. Instead of using his intelligence and clever magic to overcome problems and threats, Harry starts his own (aka “Dumbledore’s”) Army and appoints himself the head drill Sergeant, who later leads his armed group of mercenaries into a classic battle at the end, complete with death, confusion, and destruction. I was left asking myself why either Dumbledore’s Army or the Death Eaters didn’t just use their wands to create AK-47s and really get at it the conventional way? After all, the main message in OOTP seems to be “if you can’t trick ‘em, them kill ‘em”.
Harry’s newly mature look is completely military too – short hair, clean-shaven, tight shirts, combat boots – What happened to the nice comfy academic robes with the cozy hoods? We’ve got students being unfairly held captive and brutally tortured, a secret weapons training camp, and a small army of allied Centaurs attacking and abducting combatants behind enemy lines.
Looks like the author JKR has become entirely caught up in the British-US global strategy of post- 9/11 military domination to deal with conflict, in lieu of research, knowledge, imagination and diplomacy. Seems that the movie’s Writers/Director have been busy adapting every major scene from Platoon and Apocalypse Now for this new “Harry Goes to War” epic.
Most of the critics are just pandering to the masses. There ought to be a wake-up call to parents of young fans and viewers — Keep them at home, the battles have just begun!
Rating: 1 / 5
The carrying of backpacks to school and the eating of cereal in the Great Hall indicate exactly what sort of movie this is. Thoroughly disgusting and unforgivable.
Rating: 1 / 5
When I read the book I said “Well, it was fun while it lasted.” With “The Order of the Phoenix” you can point exactly to where the fun stopped and the franchise died. 800 pages of Harry scowling and barking at everyone was no day at the beach and, unfortunately, the movie is true to its literary source. And no, I will not purchase this movie nor any others that follow; as far as I’m concerned the series ended with The Goblet of Fire. It’s a shame J. K. Rowling couldn’t have just continued to have as much fun with the last three books as she did with the first four; you can have drama without making the narrative so unrelentingly dark and dreary.
Rating: 1 / 5
This is among the worst mass market trash films ever. Full of no script and zero performances. It should even be watched by children as there is so much suggestive content in each scene that it’s amazing that it did not get an R-Rating, Next to this, Transformers seems like fine art.
Don’t get fooled by the hype, avoid this trash. Oh yeah, Harry Potter fans have no life.
Rating: 1 / 5
GREAT MOVIE!
BY WHY DOES THE U.K. GET IT BEFORE THE U.S.?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!
SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME.
Rating: 5 / 5