Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix (7 out of 10 Based on 4 Reviews)

The fifth installment of the Harry Potter is likely to be the least celebrated and enjoyed of the series. It contains action only in its bookends, and it does little to explore the world of magic beyond taking the audience to places we already knew existed, like The Ministry of Magic. Furthermore, some of the major characters of the series, such as Dumbledore, Hagrid, and Draco malfoy are relegated to a mere 5-15 minutes of total screentime each--arguably a heinous unforigiveable sin to the Potter fan.

If this is the reaction, however, it is unfortunate; for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is one of the strongest entries to the series as far as actual storytelling and character development are concerned. If the character and personhood of Harry himself have ever been in question, they are put to the ultimate test in this film, as Harry truly rises to the occasion to become not only a leader of the forces of good but layered hero with resentments, fear, angst, and all manner of baggage that comes with heroism.

In fact, The Order of the Phoenix places Harry Potter in the echelon of truly developed heroes of the modern age, alongside Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV, not Film) and Luke Skywalker. His story is not one solely for children or thirty-year old pseudo-wizards who collect squirrel blood and crow feathers in jars. Harry Potter's tale is a dynamic one for all people, another modern day myth with breadth and resonance, worthy of its huge profitability and undying adoration.
I have not gone into plot here, for I feel that is actually an afterthough compared to the thematic explorations within the film. Needless to say, the movie follows Harry and his friends trying to solve another mystery while also breaking the rules and trying to get through school. It's the same structure as the last 4, but it's enough of a twist on said structure to feel new and fresh. Again, the action in this fifth entry is sparce, but when it is onscreeen, it's breathtaking. Some of the beloved characters in the series take a distant backseat, but there are plenty of others surrounding Harry to provide the laughs and innocence for which the series is known. There are a few lulls in the pace of the film overall, but they are never long enough to make one restless or bored. This is a strong, character-driven piece of the series that serves as not only an excellent set-up for the mayhem to ensue in further entries but also a transtition from the innocent school days to the dark times ahead.

I am going to give Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix a very solid (8 out of 10) Cinemabuns.


I am torn on my review of Harry Potter - The Order of the Phoenix. On one hand it was the most developed and rich movie in the franchise on the other hand it was the least enjoyable. So I find it hard to evaluate the movie fairly. It feels much like a difficult episode of your favorite show, the one where a character you love dies. It may have been necessary and right to do it but you didn't enjoy the process. So while I respect the heck out of the actors and filmmakers I was left a bit disappointed in the movie as far as being enjoyable, however I am still fully awaiting the 6th and 7th movies because I think we paid some tolls in this movie for future gains.

As Cj said the characters are greatly improved as we get deeper into them, especially as we see them grow or we get more backstory on some of the older characters. Although, some of the characters were screaming for more screentime (Like the Order for which the book and movie are named, and Snape who should get a spinoff called Snape Escape) while I would love to have cut down some of Umbridge's scenes since I hated her with a loathing that would be tough to fathom. But usually if you find yourself hating the villian then they probably did something right.

Ultimately, I think this movie enriches the entire Harry Potter series and moves it confidently forward into the next but as a free standing film which is how I have to review it. I give it a 7, bordering on a 6.5.


This review might have gone in a different direction if I'd written it a week ago. For years -- really since 1999 when I was living in England and my brother's friends were obsessed with some book about some wizard kid -- I'd resisted reading the Harry Potter books. Before The Prisoner of Azkaban came out I tried to start that book, but the first two movies weren't a fitting a substitute for the first two books as I'd imagined and I felt a little lost and disengaged. Then came this week's Pottermania with an army of my friends and neighbors talking about the final book, the media reporting on spoilers (even though they less prone to reveal the ending of the book than they're willing to reveal, say, secret Bush administration war-on-terror schemes), and I figured: Here's an opportunity to blitz through the saga before the secrets are revealed. So since starting the first book three days ago I've read 700 pages of Potter and I've absolutely become a fan.

But I saw The Order of the Phoenix before all of that. And as less-than-obsessive fan of the films, I found it merely okay, a bit weaker than the previous films. This is an age of criminally bloated movies, and director David Yates deserves some sort of medal for pledging to make the shortest-ever Potter epic -- a mere 138 minutes, almost a half hour trimmer than Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Thing is, I like the extra fat in these movies. Nobody wants to spend hours in the seedy Miami or Los Angeles or Kalamazoo of some Michael Mann movie, but who doesn't want to maximize their stay at Hogwarts? And Yates doesn't let us do that. Like C.J. says, some of the fascinating relationships Potter made over the past four years are barely dealt with here. Does Draco Malfoy even get a line of dialogue? Or does he just smirk in a couple of montages? Yates and his editors strip away some of the fun of the Potter series in order to give us a straightforward action-mystery-fantasy.

The action/mystery elements of the story are fine. Just fine. There's a rush of excitement when the old Order appears in the Ministry of Magic to do battle with the Death-Eaters, but that's mostly because we've been introduced to the Order -- the Death-Eaters could have been exciting, too, if any of their characters had been built up the way Lucius Malfoy's had been. It's not as much fun as the scenes at Hogwarts. The Ministry of Magic, heretofore simply sort of bumbling and easily-led, becomes malicious in its attempt to pretend Voldemort doesn't exist and that the classes of wizards and witches are the real threat to order. It's an old story, the hidebound bureaucracy defending its power at the expense of the civilization it governs, and Yates-Rowling tell it beautifully.

Christopher Columbus' first two adaptations, for all their treacle and flaws, were the sorts of films that could set a kid's imagine on fire. Maybe it wasn't even Yates' intention, but The Order of the Phoenix couldn't do that.

I give the disappointing but diverting fifth Potter film 7 out of 10.


Hey guys, I thought I would add just a few comments. I’m not a "thirty-year old pseudo-wizard who collects squirrel blood and crow feathers in jars", nor have even read the books, though I have seen all the films and enjoyed each one to some degree. I went into Order of the Phoenix with only a mild or casual interest.

The movie opens with Harry sitting on a swing set in what looks like arid mid-west America. It was a little disorienting being thrown into a place so foreign to the world of the Potter movie series. This opening scene was a good indication of what the rest of the film was going to be like for me, I always felt a step behind. I could tell that the movie was only highlighting the major elements of the book and leaving out some of the finer details – but that’s usually what happens with book-to-movie adaptations - and I felt at a disadvantage by not being familiar with the book series. I left the theater with a desire to read the books which did not happen with any other Potter film.

Despite these minor qualms I still enjoyed this installment of the Harry Potter series. I was able to identify with some of the Hogwarts students dealing with fear and inadequacy as they trained for war (I identified with the fear and inadequacy part not the training for war part). Overall, Order of the Phoenix gets a 7 out of 10, but would have been a 6 had it not given me the desire to read the books.