Sarah Smith's Review

Is there anyone who did not like this movie? Not many, apparently. All the reviews I've read have had nothing but good things to say for it.

What I want to know is WHY.

Of all the movies, I thought that this was by far the worst one yet. It had the potential to be great, of course, but the yet-again new director David Yates sadly dashed this. The Order of the Phoenix, the second longest (and surely most plot packed) book thus far made into a movie, and yet it was made into the shortest film? Tell me, how exactly does that work?

As far as covering the required plot for the stories to progress, it technically passed. If by “passed” here we mean it mentioned (in brief) random facts and theories that were not stressed at all, as the movie moved in quick-time, skipping from scene to scene like it couldn't wait to be over. The films are always a bit choppy, and reading the books helps to understand them-- yet I have read the 5th book more than once (and again, in fact, in the week leading up the to the movie) and I was still confused in some parts as to what was happening. The film left out and undermined too many of the things which made the story understandable in favor of some more “humorous” bits, and close-ups of a sweaty Daniel Radcliffe twitching in bed.

If there is one thing to say for this film, it's that Daniel Radcliffe did twitch well.

Many good, majestic scenes (like the flight to Grimmauld Place) were ruined by the strangely jerky, “artistic”, camera angle that showed its face several times throughout the film, including the also-under-done Thestral ride.

Then came the little things: How Sirius is supposed to die by means of a Stunning Spell knocking him through a curtain, not the Avada Kedavra Curse sending him through a Star Gate-like watery blue substance. How Grawp is supposed to be the utter opposite of cute, and yet he is made into friendly-looking child. How Neville is not supposed to tell Harry about his parents' fate, Kreacher is supposed to be humorous, the Black's Family Tree is meant to be a tapestry, and how the hallways in the Department of Mysteries are meant to be dark and “dungeon-like”, not glowing blue bricks that put you in mind of a computer game. O.W.L's were hardly mentioned, Fred and George's fireworks looked more like floating sparklers than the shapes that they were meant, and the list goes on.

Now, you may be saying, this is a film review, not a book-to-movie review. So I'll stress this: even as a movie I thought this was a poor job. The Order of the Phoenix just wasn't with it.

Good things: Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange, Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood, and the depiction of Floo powder.