Harry Potter and the Sorely Tested Attention Span (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2 DVDs))

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Product:	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2 DVDs)
Date:	20/12/07 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very well-made

Disadvantages: Dull source material

It's Harry's fifth term at Hogwarts and trouble's afoot. A confrontation with the malevolent Death Stealers leads Harry to use his magic in front of a "muggle", and he subsequently finds himself hauled in front of the Ministry of Magic for his crimes. Back at school, he tries to settle into the term again, but the arrival of a bureaucrat from the Ministry shifts the focus of Harry's curriculum and he grows increasingly concerned that he and his fellow students will be ill-equipped to face the evil of he who shall not be named. With Dumbledore removed from power, it falls to Harry and a select gathering of his close friends to continue to learn the skills of defensive magic. But can they persuade the Ministry of Magic that the return of Voldemort is more than just a silly rumour? Testing times lie ahead - and then Harry has to deal with the onset of puberty.....

Broadly speaking, I'm very tolerant of the Harry Potter film franchise. Whilst it rests firmly in the tame, family-friendly genre that generally fills the cinema multiplex every year, I've always liked the premise, imagination and visual flair associated with each of the films. Indeed, The Goblet of Fire was one of my favourite films of 2007. For the fifth film, another new director has been drafted in for what promised to be a difficult project. The fifth novel is widely regarded as one of the least appealing, a weighty tome worn down by endless narrative and very little in the way of action. To transfer this successfully to film and create an entertaining end product would take a skilled director, indeed.

The good news at least is that new director David Yates emphatically proves throughout the film's (significant) running time that he is more than up to the job. Whatever your views of the Order of the Phoenix might be, Yates is a skilful, innovative director with true visual flair and an approach to the subject matter that yields a film significantly superior to previous instalments in terms of cinematography. The Order of the Phoenix looks fabulous, incorporating common themes and content from the previous four films in a more sumptuous way and adding new things to entertain an audience hungry for thrills. Yates sets his stall out early on, with an oppressive and malevolent encounter with evil within the confines of Harry's apparently normal civilian world. From there, the film is a constant barrage of sights and spectacles, as Harry visits London's Ministry of Magic, meets the Order of the Phoenix, returns to Hogwarts and finds himself battling to be heard against a backdrop of bureaucratic ignorance.

The Ministry is excellent. Accessed via a magical telephone box lift system, Harry, his chaperone and the audience are treated to the usual imaginative flair associated with Harry's encounters with the world of magic and for short bursts of time, the film is exciting and ambitious. The trouble is, from here on in, the film gradually starts to slow down, as less and less happens, things run at a slower and slower pace, and both audience and characters start to lose interest, patiently waiting for that one big confrontation promised from the start.

I'm not entirely sure what J K Rowling had in mind when she wrote the Order of the Phoenix, but it seems very out of sorts with the previous four instalments. The very dramatic conclusion to The Goblet of Fire left the audience salivating for more, but the shift in tone here is almost entirely disappointing. Voldemort keeps cropping up in dream sequences but takes forever to actually appear, by which time it's a dead certainty that the target audience will be asleep. Instead, Rowling opts to compose a political essay, intent on using Hogwarts as a symbol of everything that is wrong with today's education system. Dolores Umbridge's arrival at the school is initially quite entertaining but quickly dominates the narrative and becomes the thrust of the film. The "trouble brewing at Hogwarts" storyline would almost certainly provide an interesting back-story against other, more dramatic events, but as the driving force behind the film, it simply doesn't have enough power to really captivate the audience. Indeed, Umbridge's bullying manner is generally of little interest after a while, and you can't help hoping that somebody will turn up and shut the woman up.

The film's namesake represents a secret order of wizards, operating over several generations to combat evil wizards (like Voldemort) and comprises a number of series stalwarts, returning for (in some cases) little more than a couple of brief cameo appearances. The Order is one of the film / novel's most wasted opportunities. The sheer number of characters involved should have yielded something dramatic and crucial but in contrast to the Hogwarts story line, it all feels half-finished and ill considered. It's only when the film drags itself into its final, breathtaking act that the Order has any real meaning, and then of course, it's all too late.

Said climax is what the Harry Potter series should all be about; a stunning battle between good and evil with glorious special effects and a good old-fashioned stand-off between our favourite heroes and villains. It's just a shame that it takes so long to get here and that, subsequently, it's all over pretty quickly. It's all rather like waiting for two days for your favourite celebrity to appear outside Harrod's and then spotting them dash inside without stopping even to wave hello. Just as you wake up and think it's all taking off, it's all, well, taken off - and the final credits roll.

Our leads continue to develop, with Rupert Grint's Ron Weasley appearing to have grown up the most since the last movie. The ginger moppet is gone, replaced by a maturing young man who finally drops that stupid grimace and is all the more likeable for it. Emma Watson is still convincing as Hermione Grainger, although at times, Order of the Phoenix threatens to expose the young actress's increasing disinterest with the role. Daniel Radcliffe's Harry Potter is now slightly spoilt by all those pictures of the actor rolling around naked with a horse (it's hard to see him in the same light) but once he dons those glasses, he proves that he was born to play Harry Potter for sure. There's also a fabulous addition to the ranks in the shape of Luna Lovegood, played as a complete space cadet by new cast member Evanna Lynch. Severus Snape played by Alan Rickman remains one of my favourite adult cast members, but Michael Gambon is magical as ever as Dumbledore and Robbie Coltraine (although with slightly less screen time) still works his magic as Hagrid. The caretaker is still hilarious but Imelda Staunton's Dolores Umbridge far outstayed her welcome for me and will hopefully not return in later instalments. Helena Bonham-Carter is probably the most exciting new villain, with a completely over the top cockney accent and a screeching insanity that will certainly chill the blood of anyone under 12.

To the director's credit, he has put together a very competent, artistic film based on very poor subject matter. The Order of the Phoenix looks fabulous and the quality of special effects is outstanding. It's hard, nonetheless, to shift away from the inherently dull source material and this is largely what lets the film down. I'd be extremely surprised if a young audience took to this at all, and despite the obviously strong box office takings, Phoenix is almost certainly only really one for the Potter stalwarts (albeit the tens of millions of them that there are out there.) Phoenix is a well-made, but fundamentally very unappetising movie, mainly due to the fact that it's just plain boring.

Summary: Unappetising fifth instalment for Harry and chums