Warner Bros. Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint
Directed By: David Yates
Rated: PG-13
Warner Bros.
Back in 2001, I got caught up in the phenomenon known as Harry Potter. I would have bet against that happening--what with the target audience being fairly young--but something about the first couple of books really hooked me. When Sorcerer's Stone hit the theaters, I played hooky from work to see it. (In my defense, the company was going under at the time and I had little else to do.) The movie was faithful to the books, and was the perfect way to introduce my wife, who just doesn't have that much time to read, to the series. I've been a faithful fan ever since, and have always grabbed the new books the day they come out. (Alas, for the last time as of this year.) I also make sure I'm one of the first in line to see the new movies.
Order of the Phoenix, based on the fifth book of the seven-book series, tells the story of the rise of Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and his dark army of Death Eaters. After being reborn in the previous installment (Goblet of Fire), Voldemort is becoming more powerful every day--a fact that is steadfastly denied by the Ministry of Magic. Harry (Radcliffe) who witnessed the event first hand is cast as a liar and an alarmist by most, including some of his peers. But, eventually, many of the students at Hogwarts come around to his way of thinking and ask him to train them to fight and defend themselves against the Dark Arts--something that the Ministry appointed Dark Arts teacher, Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton) refuses to do.
As a book, Order of the Phoenix was easily the least cohesive and most rambling. Not to say it wasn't enjoyable, but there were a huge number of sub-plots throughout the story that diluted the main narrative and inflated the book to over 1000 pages. When I first read the novel, I wondered how it could possibly be translated to the big screen without cutting out a substantial amount of material (or making a five-hour film). The answer was, of course, that it couldn't. More than any other film in the series, Order of the Phoenix cuts a swath straight down the middle of the story, sticking to the main plot line and ignoring nearly everything else. Some of the missing parts aren't particularly important and don't really detract from the film's story--but some of the other missing parts are definitely felt. For example, very little time is spent with the titular Order of the Phoenix, whose number includes characters introduced in previous films, such as Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), Mad-Eye Moody (Brendon Gleeson), and especially Harry's godfather Sirius Black (Gary Oldman). A lot of character development regarding Harry's past is lost because of this, and his relationship with Sirius never gets fully established in the films while they are extremely close in the books. New characters who are part of the Order like Nymphadora Tonks (Natalia Tena) get almost no screen time at all, and Sirius' evil house elf Kreacher (who is very important in later books and, in fact, plays a fairly large role in the print version of Order of the Phoenix) is only seen in passing.
The hack and slash method of bringing the story down to a manageable size doesn't limit itself to shorting the recurring characters--the regulars are chopped pretty badly as well. Hagrid's part is miniscule compared to the previous films--he's only on hand to introduce his giant brother, Grawp. (This would probably have been axed as well if Grawp didn't play such a crucial role in a key part of the story.) The Hogwarts teachers, who never get much play because the classroom scenes are usually the first parts cut when making the transition to the screen, are barely seen at all and have only a handful of lines. Even Dumbledore, who usually has some very big scenes, seems sidelined. The other students get more screen time than usual, thanks to the training and battle scenes, but most of them don't have much in the way of lines. (When is poor Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright) going to get more than four lines in a film?) Even Ron (Grint) and Hermione (Watson) seem to have less to say this time around. The Ministry of Magic, which is seen for the first time in this film, is also shortchanged--it should have made a big impact, but instead it was used only minimally. The trials and tribulations that Harry and his friends must go through in order to get into the depths of the Department of Mysteries is reduced to opening a single door, which is a real shame because the addition of these scenes would have given more screen time and action to Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and Luna.
All of this is, of course, based on the observations of someone who is a huge fan of the books. Despite all of the missing bits, Order of the Phoenix does stand on its own as a very good film. It continues the trend toward darker and more dangerous themes (as do the later books), and the moody style makes this film distinctly more adult. Casting of the new characters that we do get some time with, especially Umbridge and Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch) are perfect. And, action-wise, Order of the Phoenix rises (no pun intended) far above the rest. For the first time, we get to see a full-tilt magical battle between wizards. It's really outstanding.
I am probably rating this film a little higher than it deserves to be rated because I sympathize with the filmmakers' task of trimming such a huge book into a two-and-a-half hour film. If only they had gone out on a limb and made it three hours--or been a little more picky about what to cut and what to keep--the film would have been great. As it stands, it's just very good.
Bottom line: Dark, sinister, and fun to watch, but missing lots of material from the book that would have made it truly great.