Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [16]

It may not be fair to compare the 1,590 minutes of narration by Jim Dale to this great book by J.K. Rowling with the 138 minutes of running time for this movie. The movie suffers greatly in comparison. Many scenes and much character development had to be excised to move this story along. The movie has to establish

1. Harry uses a patronus on dementors in Little Whingeing
2. Harry goes to the Order of the Phoenix headquarters
3. Harry faces the full assembled Wizengamot for using magic in front of muggles
4. Harry goes to school and runs afoul of Dolores Umbridge
5. Harry forms the D.A. society
6. Harry gets caught
7. Harry has dreams of the Ministry
8. Harry has occlumency lessons from Snape, then stops having occlumency lessons from Snape
9. Harry gets lured to the Ministry
10. Harry and the DA fight the Death Eaters and Voldemort in the Ministry of Magic
11. Sirius falls through the veil

Anything else becomes extraneous. Screenwriter Michael Goldenberg pruned quite a bit of material and tried to fill in the gaps. Director David Yates tried to keep the pace of the movie going. It seems that they did not have enough experience between them to make this work right. I do not know if Warner Brothers decided to go in a different direction or if this book was just too difficult to film. The editing cuts did not work. The acting did not work. Why were these experienced actors allowed to appear as if they were posed like toys in uncomfortable positions?. The scene in the Gryffindor common room where Seamus Finnigan (Devon Thomas) squares off with Harry (Daniel Radcliff) and Ron (Rupert Grint) is one example. That scene should have been dramatic, but came off childish.

Also Rupert Grint was unintelligible in a few scenes. I usually act as an English-to-English interpreter for friends when regional dialects are used. But I think that Rupert suffered a stroke during the filming of this movie. I could not understand him, particularly in the scene were he makes Hermione laugh. It was as if it was a private joke.

There is one real laugh in the movie. Harry flashes back during occlumency lessons to the first movie when he looks in the mirror of Erised. Snape appears in the reflection and taciturnly states, “I may vomit.” Ha!

This movie is not for younger kids, they will squirm and not really understand what is happening. I hope Alfonso Cuaron comes back for Half Blood Prince, or perhaps Chris Columbus. Steve Kloves is supposed to be back for the final two installments as screenwriter. Yay! {BB}

See the Group29 Expectation Review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Added: July 13th 2007
Reviewer: BB
29 Point Scale Score:    [16]

Related Link (IMDB): IMDB - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
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Language: english