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 Hopes of winning the Quidditch Cup have been replaced by woes like government corruption, distorted media spin, and the casualties of war.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.

Cliff's Notes Adaptation of the Book

I love Harry Potter, OK? So before you freak out, let me get that out of the way. The book version "Order of the Phoenix" was oustanding. I also think that previous directors have done pretty good to great jobs of translating the books to film (though I must say things went a little downhill once Chris Columbus left.)

All that being said, here's the kicker:

The movie "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" played like a Cliff's Notes adaptation of the book.

It lopped off a lot of the charm and romance and heartfelt pathos of the book--- as well as a lot of the pure creative touches--- in order to get the main arc of the story down. On top of that, it made "adaptations" to the book in order to get the story moving along--- yet all these "compromises" were actually worse than what JK Rowling originally wrote!

Don't believe me?Here is only SOME of what is wrong with this movie:

--Poor devlopment of the Harry/Cho Chang arc (The kiss is about all you get. No real feeling behind it at all. No devlopement of Harry's crush. No final break up argument on Valentine's Day.)
--Making Cho into an evil snitch (which is why she and Harry broke up in the movie.) In the movie SHE is the one who betrays Harry. Stupid.
--No hospital scenes. No meeting of Neville's parents.
--Perfunctory explanation of Grimmaud Place
--Perfunctory development of Occlumency
--Harry gets to hear the prophecy while standing in the Department of Mysteries rather than later with Dumbledore. On top of this, he gets to hear the prophecy just by holding it in his hand. That makes no logical sense at all!
--The Department of Mysteries itself is compressed down into one room (the room with the prophecies.) All the cool rooms (with the blue lights, the 12 doors, the clocks, the brains, and so on) are all just ignored. Those were such tremendous inventions by JK Rowling--perhaps some of the most creative stuff in all the books-- that I can't believe they just cut them!
--The room with the arch is made into a really boring place.
--The battle scene is really short and rather stupid.
--Snape's memory of being tortured by James Potter and his argument with Lily Potter is compressed into literally a total of 4 seconds of film. That scence is so PIVOTAL to the rest of the book series that I can't believe they got away with not fully developing the scene.

On top of all these plot issues, the WORST part about this movie is that there was really no FEELING in it. The whole range of emotional arcs that are so well-developed in the book are done absolutely terribly in the movie. Yeah, Sirius dies. In the book, it is a devatating moment. In the movie, it's like "Oh, well." Harry, Ron and Hermione don't have many moments together. There is no laughing in the movie. There are no lighthearted moments. Almost every scene except one or two that could have developed the emotional attachment we feel to the characters has been summarily excluded.

Like one other reviewer said: The movie is too short, yet it feels too long.

That is, sorry to say, a perfect description of a hack job.

I am quite disappointed.

Movie:good/Extras not

The quality of the movie is fine, etc., but the extras are a waste of time and money. There are a few deleted/extended scenes: we loved Emma Thompson's bit at the table, but the rest were as usual. "The Magic of Editing" held possibilities, but little real information. The activity didn't work too well and became tiresome after a bit. "A Day with Tonks" was, again, lacking in any real insight or information and, although you saw Natalie Tena made up as Tonks, you never see her film anything and at the end she says,"Well, I've had a long day ...". The silliest segment was "Harry's True Destiny", having Harry Potter "experts" make predictions about the character's future, when the final book came out within a week of the fifth move, so that by the time this DVD was put together, everyone already knew the ending! Why include what is bacically an advertisement? So, save your money and just get the DVD of the movie.

Decent but underwhelming installment

(MINOR spoilers)

This is an odd film, and I'm not quite sure how to feel about it. Somehow it manages to feel rushed but too long at the same time. But to be fair, the book wasn't my favorite either - I found it mostly very good, but overinflated and occasionally poorly plotted.

I can't imagine trying to watch this film without having read the book. The scenes aren't fleshed out and rush by so fast that I think it would be hard to keep track and understand everything that's happening. Is that necessarily a bad thing? I don't know - you could argue that all of the films exist as companions to the books, but I still tend to think that they should work on their own.

I question some choices that were made in the adaptation. Why introduce the giant? I don't understand why he's in the book (unless he plays into a later installment - I'm just now starting Book 6). But I understand even less why he's in the film, where he serves little (or no) purpose to the plot...and visually, he's the worst special effect the series has ever seen. Likewise, Sirius's encounter with "the arch" is poorly explained in both the book and the film. I expect that plot point to be revisited in a later book, but in the meantime it's just confusing.

Another complaint is that this film, unlike some of the prior installments, spends nearly every second on critical plot. There's little time spent on additional flourishes that exist only to please the eye or immerse us in the wizarding world. As a result, the film feels forced and incomplete.

Finally, the movie's ending doesn't at all bear the emotional weight of the book. A very major event in Harry's life is glossed over, which is both surprising and disappointing.

As with all the films, this one is well acted, has some great special effects (love the hall of prophecies), and is ultimately worth seeing for fans of the books. But it has plenty of flaws, for which Mrs. Rowling and the filmmakers are both partially responsible.