Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Director: David Yates
Writer: Michael Goldenberg
Based on the book by: J.K. Rowling
Producer: David Heyman/David Barron
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe/Emma Watson/Rupert Grint/Michael Gambon/Alan Rickman/Ralph Fiennes/Helena Bonham Carter/Imelda Staunton 
Year: 2007
Country: UK/US
BBFC Certification: 12
Duration: 138 minutes

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth installment in the Harry Potter series and holds the title for the shortest Potter movie, while the book holds the title for the longest Potter book. With seven-hundred and sixty six pages of magical and enchanting adventures with Harry and friends, director David Yates had a job on his hands to make the longest Harry Potter book into a two and a half hour movie. However, Yates has done a great job in making a faithful and honest adaptation, even if there is some things missing. With the rumours of Lord Voldemort’s return laughed at, Harry and Dumbledore become targets by the Ministry of Magic, who are slowly but surely taking the reigns from Dumbledore as being Headmaster of Hogwarts. So the story follows the book quite closely although there’s a couple of sub-plots missing and a couple of scenes which are inaccurate to how they were portrayed in the book but if you excuse that, it’s brilliant to see the literature some of you may have grown up with on the screen. As I have previously just said in that sentence, there were things cut from the story but I believe that the important parts of the story was left in. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has fantastic performances all around from the cast and I couldn’t fault any of them as Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint improve more and more each Potter movie. Each of their performances were very emotional and they really captured the personality of their characters very well. The greatest performances not only come from our favourite trio but also from Imelda Staunton and Helena Bonham Carter, who play Dolores Umbridge and Bellatrix Lestrange respectively. I thought Staunton’s portrayal as the vicious Dolores Umbridge was simply perfect as I felt exactly the same hatred for her character as I did in the book and Helena Bonham Carter plays Bellatrix fantastically, showing the evil, faithful and scared sides to her character.

There’s a few scenes in the movie which were done spectacularly and this is thanks to the special effects. The special effects used in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix were quite impressive and nice to look at. Yet again, just like in the other Potter movies, the locations are very nice to the eye and the detail in the movie is great, but I can’t help but be disappointed about one sub-plot, which is missing and I think it was one of the important parts of the story simply because we got to learn more about Neville and his past. However, except for the missing sub-plots, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix focuses on the important story and sub-plots and Yates directs it very well as it must have been a tough job to make the longest Harry Potter book into a two and a half hour movie.

As always with the Harry Potter movies, everything improves just that little bit more and as each sequel goes on, they get a little better. As Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is my favourite book, I’m quite pleased as to how the movie has turned out. I was hoping everything from the book would be involved in the movie but I haven’t seen a book adaptation that has been one-hundred percent faithful to its source material so I knew it most likely wouldn’t have happened. For me, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix are my favourite books and are also my favourite movies too. If Potter fans out there can dismiss the fact that there’s some sub-plots missing from the book, they will not be disappointed at all.

8/10