“Order of the Phoenix,” although an enjoyable enough movie, could have been much better if they fleshed out the scenes more instead of providing a quick glimpse of something without much supporting background information or commentary. To make an analogy, this fifth HP movie is like comparing a paragraph to bullet points; both share the same information, but the latter does not go into as much depth, only providing a general idea.

The general plot is that the Ministry of Magic is preventing the public from believing the horrible turn of events that happened in the previous movie, in particular the death of student Cedric Diggory. However, the movie chooses to bundle this entire plot into one person, Dolores Umbridge, and focused exclusively on her and her various decrees passed in order to keep the peace. While one could say that that is the major plot of the story, it seemed like a bad move to shove all the other side plots aside for the sake of the major one, especially since even the main plot wasn't that well supported and molded. It would have been better if they were to keep with the same template of the other movies: portraying the school year at the wizarding school of Hogwarts and eventually delve further and further into the plot.

Others, me included, also mention that the movie seemed much shorter than the previous ones, or at the least, that they wanted to see more developed. The numerous uses of flashbacks further illustrates how short the movie was (if said flashbacks weren't there). Instead of providing smooth transitions into each scene, “Order of the Phoenix ” tends to jump from scene to scene, without taking much down time in the form of school classes, or fire-side chats in the dorm rooms. The film seemed almost as eager to move to the next scene as HP fans were to see this film. Some additional scenes to at least flesh out everything that has happened so far would have been appreciated.

Another point I must bring up is Kreacher the house elf. Word on the street says that he was kept on Rowling's suggestion, who said that his not being there would make it pretty difficult for some loose ends to be fully tied when the seventh and final movie finally comes about. But the way he was treated in the movie was such that it seemed like he was merely inserted there at the last minute and not given any role of any importance but to just be there. As for Dobby, the other house elf, his role in the movie of discovering the Room of Requirement has again been taken over by Neville. Apparently the two are interchangeable in that sense. And as long as I'm talking about characters, newcomer to the series Luna “Loony” Lovegood could have done so much more, but like the movies plot was merely okay with what she was given to work with.

In a nutshell, “Order of the Phoenix ” could have used more plot development and “down time” to serve as transitions between every action oriented scene. Sure, it's an enjoyable movie, but I've grown to expect more than “enjoyable” from the HP movie series.