Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Review

This is it. The fifth installment of the Harry Potter saga. The one we've all been waiting for. Being a Harry Potter fanatic, I was of course eagerly awaiting the arrival of OTP as well. Yet after only a few scenes into the movie, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of disappointment. Disappointment turned to dismay by the end of it all.

Despite its length, and despite the fact that a significant character dies, not a lot seems to have happened by the time the story ends. Lessons have been learned and secrets revealed, but of all the installments in the series to date, it ends on the least satisfying note.

When best-seller books are adapted into movies, there will never fail to be critical comparisons between the two. The adapted movies are often at the mercy of movie critics and unmerciful literature fans. I am one of the latter, and have much to disparage about the movie. Of all the Harry Potter films, OTP is probably the one with the most conceptual errors that deviate the most from the book. Details have been either thoroughly ignored or twisted in order to compress the entire book into a single movie. Scenes vital to the plot were not spared either. Many significant events in the book were totally left out of the movie. I pity the directors of the inevitable next two movies who would definitely have a hard time trying to correct the many mistakes made under Yates' hand.

The movie doesn't seem to have much humor either. Yes, there were indeed a few feeble attempts at levity, but more often than not, these scenes seemed forced and done only for the sake of doing it. While I understand that OTP is a darker, grimmer and more serious film, it is no excuse to forsake humor. Another issue is the poor attempt at incorporating romance into the movie. Romance hardly fits into the theme. Take Harry's budding romance with Cho Chang (Katie Leung) for example. Their first kiss was so abrupt that nobody saw it coming and people who didn’t read the book in advance wouldn’t understand why it happened.

The special effects that had the audience ooh-ing and ah-ing in the previous films did not succeed did time round. Perhaps we are already accustomed to them. Heartbreaking scenes that were supposed to rekindle the dread, the ache in your stomach that says, "Noooo! He can’t die!" did not serve their purpose. The only thing I felt at the scene where Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) fell into the veil was a dull ache -- a small reminder that one of my favourite characters had perished so unceremoniously.

In addition, the film introduces significant figures, like Kreacher, only to ignore their significance. The climatic battle between Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix revolves around an archway with a curtain which plays a crucial role in the plot of the story. Yet, its significance was never explained.

The only perk of the movie was the involvement of so many talented actors. The newest additions to the cast -- Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange), Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge), Natalie Tena (Nymphadora Tonks) and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) – played their parts well. Few could portray the crazed, power-crazy Bellatrix Lestrange as well as Helena Bonham Carter did.

Not forgetting Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge, who dominated most of the film, as Hogwarts' newest and most detested Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher ever. The old cast – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Emma Thompson, Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters, Jason Isaacs and Alan Rickman, as our favourite Potions professor -- remained up to standard.

At some points in the film, we get some flashbacks to Harry's younger days. I suddenly realized just how much growing Harry had done within the span of 6 years. Unfortunately, what began as a series with great potential is beginning to show signs of sequel fatigue.

By Alice Zhao Yang