REVIEW: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

It was extra crispy outside when I went to see the new Harry Potter movie. According to my thermometer, 120 degrees.

How hot is that? I was able to find a good parking space at Costco on a Saturday.

The Order of the Phoenix is my favorite of the Harry Potter books as I found it the most emotionally satisfying so far. I can’t say that about the movie.

It’s well made. Well directed and acted. It looks great. The wizard battle at the end is impressive.

But the problem is, they had too cram too much story into very little space and a lot of context is lost in the translation.

The book made me really detest the Dolores Umbridge character. In the movie she was merely annoying and kind of stupid. Imelda Staunton is a good actress, but her eyes are too kindly for a character like that.

But the fact that so much story was crammed into so few hours, it made a lot of it seemed rushed and abbreviated. As a result, there just wasn’t as much to emotionally engage you. Nor did we get much humor. Only one line in the movie got people to laugh.

I don’t want to suggest its a bad movie. It isn’t. But if you love the books, you will see what I am talking about. As it is, they did cram the story in there successfully. Just not as successfully as I’d like. 

<< Back to main