REVIEW: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Mad Professah saw the new Harry Potter movie, the fifth one in the series, called Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, on Thursday at the Edwards Renaissance Theaters in Alhambra. The screening was packed so I'm not surprised to see that the movie mad $140 million dollars in its first 5 days of release, with an opening weekend gross of nearly $77 million. Nikki Finke over at Deadline Holllywood Daily had predicted a big debut early in the week. "Never bet against Harry" she said, and Mad Professah agrees.

But how is the movie? Actually I think it's easily the most entertaining movie made of the J.K. Rowling books. The users (86%) and critics (76%) at rottentmatoes.com agree with me. It's very clear now that these are not "kid's books" just as the movies are not "kid's movies." The actors portraying the 15-year old main characters in the books of Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), his best friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and know-it-all Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) are 17, 18 and 17 respectively. The lead actor has appeared nude on the London stage, and those picture are widely available on the Internet.


The adaptation (by Michael Goldenberg, Contact) of the novel does an excellent job of not including any extraneous of superfluous plot threads. The main thrust of the narrative energy is bestowed to the idea of a political rift in the Ministry of Magic and the wizarding populace at large about whether it is true that He Who Shall Not Be Named (Lord Voldemort, chillingly actualized by un almost unrecognizable Ralph Fiennes) has returned. At the end of the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,the reader and Harry have no doubt that Voldemort has returned because he kills the most popular boy at Hogwarts School for Wizards and Witches, Cedric Diggory at the culmination of the quadrennial Tri-Wizard Tournament. Unfortunately since Harry was the only person who witnessed Voldemort's murder of his friend and he has no physical evidence to substantiate his story the Ministry mounts a campaign to maintain order among the Wizarding community by denouncing Harry and denying The Dark Lord's return.

In the meantime, Harry has become a real life teen-ager with a requited crush on Cho Chang and typical teenage angst about his place in the world, which is made worse by his family situation, since he is an orphan and the person who killed his parents and failed to kill him as a child is very much out there and gathering strength to make further attempts to assassinate him. The director, Peter Yates, makes some hard choices to not include fun but distracting story elements like John Cleese's Nearly Headless Nick and Moaning Myrtle. The casting is again impeccable, with Oscar nominee Imelda Staunton as the latest Defense Against The Dark Arts professor, Dolores Jane Umbridge, who is deeply involved in the political machinations at the Minstry of Magic to denounce Harry Potter and Hogwarts' Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, played with great impact by Michael Gambon. However, even among these great actors and actresses (Dame Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter also make appearances) Alan Rickman steals every one of his scenes as the ambiguously sinister Severus Snape. I'm hoping that Dame Judi Dench and Patrick Stewart make an appearance before the Harry Potter series concludes.

In Book 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, there are some shocking developments and Rowling has stated that at least two main characters will die in the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is released worldwide on Saturday July 21, 2007. It will be interesting to see if film makers can top Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with the last two books, which are according to IMDb set for release in 2008 and 2010, respectively.

GRADE: A-.