| | | | Product Features- Lord Voldemort has returned, but few want to believe it. In fact, the Ministry of Magic is doing everything it can to keep the wizarding world from knowing the truth - including appointing Ministry official Dolores Umbridge as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. When Professor Umbridge refuses to train her students in practical defensive magic, a select group of students dec
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| | | | Description:
Lord Voldemort has returned, but few want to believe it. In fact, the Ministry of Magic is doing everything it can to keep the wizarding world from knowing the truth - including appointing Ministry official Dolores Umbridge as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. When Professor Umbridge refuses to train her students in practical defensive magic, a select group of students decides to learn on their own. With Harry Potter as their leader, these students (who call themselves "Dumbledore's Army") meet secretly in a hidden room at Hogwarts to hone their wizarding skills in preparation for battle with the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters. . New adventure - more dangerous , more thrilling than ever - is yours in this enthralling film version of the fifth novel in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. A terrifying showdown between good and evil awaits. Prepare for battle! Amazon.com:
Alas! The fifth Harry Potter film has arrived. The time is long past that this can be considered a simple "children's" series--though children and adults alike will enjoy it immensely. Starting off from the dark and tragic ending of the fourth film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix begins in a somber and angst-filled tone that carries through the entire 138 minutes (the shortest of any HP movie despite being adapted from the longest book). Hopes of winning the Quidditch Cup have been replaced by woes like government corruption, distorted media spin, and the casualties of war. As the themes have matured, so have the primary characters' acting abilities. Ron (Rupert Grint), Hermione (Emma Watson), and especially Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) are more convincing than ever--in roles that are more demanding. Harry is deeply traumatized from having witnessed Cedric Diggory's murder, but he will soon find that this was just another chapter in the continuing loss he will endure. Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) has returned and, in an attempt to conceal this catastrophe from the wizarding public, the Ministry of Magic has teamed up with the wizard newspaper The Daily Prophet to smear young Potter and wise Dumbledore (Michael Gambon)--seemingly the only two people in the public eye who believe the Dark Lord has returned. With no one else to stand against the wicked Death Eaters, the Hogwarts headmaster is forced to revive his secret anti-Voldemort society, the Order of the Phoenix. This welcomes back characters like Mad-Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson), kind Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), fatherly Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), and insidious Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), and introduces a short list of intriguing new faces. In the meantime, a semi-psychotic bureaucrat from the Ministry (brilliantly portrayed by Imelda Staunton) has seized power at Hogwarts, and Harry is forced to form a secret society of his own--lest the other young wizards at his school be left ill-equipped to defend themselves in the looming war between good and evil. In addition, Harry is filled with an inexplicable rage that only his Godfather Sirius seems to be able to understand. This film, though not as frightening as its predecessor, earns its PG-13 rating mostly because of the ever-darkening tone. As always, the loyal fans of J.K. Rowling's books will suffer huge cuts from the original plot and character developments, but make no mistake: this is a good movie. --Jordan Thompson | | | | |
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating : 
Rating : - I really liked this movie!
Although this is the most watered down film in the series, it's not the worst, and it's not bad. Personally, I do agree with many of you that many essential plot developments were excised from OOTP, but after reading Deathly Hallows, I realized how unimportant some of those plotlines or revelations were. When I first saw this movie in theaters, I was left a little bewildered that they would cut out most of the prophecy made by Trelawney in the orb; the entire (spoiler alert) dialogue about Neville almost suffering Harry's fate (end spoiler) was left out, and I thought that that would be an essential revelation for DH, but after reading the book, I figured out, it wasn't. So, all in all, I felt the film was not missing anything as a film. Yes, if did not have the all-around action Goblet of Fire had (instead, it had an amazing finale where you see wizards wand-dueling). My only complaint with Order of the Phoenix was not its plot, but mainly its delivery. I think Yates is an outstanding director (especially after seeing Half-Blood Prince), but his transition from television film to Hollywood film could not have been made more apparent than in this film. There were parts that I felt Yates was not able to handle a Hollywood production as effectively as a more experienced director such as Alfonso Cuaron and Chris Columbus would. There were scenes that lacked the proper intensity or scenes that ruined the credibility of this medieval-looking fantasy world. An example would be a scene where Filch sits in front of the Room of Requirement to wait for the students to leave. While he waits, he is sitting on a chair with a foldable table in front and a thermus on top (two objects that seemed very out of place for this dark and surreal setting); but, then again, that might have been Yates's intention (bringing the real world to Hogwarts). Another example would be when the trio arrive at Hogwarts and are seated in the Great Hall; here, Dumbledore's speech is handled in too much of a mundane way. In all the other films prior, Dumbledore's speech marked the beginning of the adventure at Hogwarts, but here, it became too routine and slightly boring. Luckily, this was something Yates realized and fixed in Half-Blood Prince, where he gave Dumbledore the proper close-up he deserved as well as a moving, metallic owl to mark the beginning of his foreboding speech. On the up side, Yates is an amazing filmmaker, and he does some really great work here. In my opinion, this was the first Harry Potter movie to develop J.K. Rowling's strong themes of good and evil. The scenes where Harry is having internal struggles are very well-done; so well done that they brought to mind classic films such as the Star Wars pictures. When he confronts Voldemort at the end of this film, he doesn't do so physically, but it proves to be more of a psychological showdown; and it is done extremely well. In fact, Yates did this so well that I was left extremely satisfied after watching the film because I felt that the most importand aspect of J.K. Rowling's book was adapted masterfully onscreen. Could it have been done better? Maybe! But, all I know is that Yates was able to achieve it effectively, and that was good enough for me.
I really recommend this movie. It's not perfect, but it's entertaining and it proves that children's entertainment can be challenging, thought-provoking, and powerful.
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