Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the film adaptation of the fifth book in J. K. Rowling’s earth shatteringly popular Harry Potter series. David Yates takes over the directing reigns attempting to bring the longest and most rambling of Rowling’s books in as a 2 hour movie. Yates succeeds in making the longest book into the shortest film at only 128 minutes. But he has not made the most structurally sound and entertaining of the films by at least a film or two. In the Harry Potter film archive, Order of the Phoenix is somewhat better than the first two Potter films but well below the quality of Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire.

This time around Michael Goldenberg takes over the screenplay honors from long time Potter scribe Steve Kloves. Kloves was often decried as adhering too closely to the structure of the books. In Order of the Phoenix Goldenberg takes a looser hand in removing or revising character but the results aren’t any more successful. The structure of the story moves important bits of information around to other characters and leaves certain pieces out of the film entirely. There are certainly a number of things that could have been left out of the book, Dobby and Winky, Professor Lockhart, Ron’s Quidditch troubles, but the problem is that Rowling is so good at describing such scenes of fantasy that one can’t help but expect to see many of them in the film. When Phoenix passes without a single visit to St Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Ailments, much less the two described by the book, the audience misses out on a singular visual feast. The much larger problem is that many of the characters act in very uncharacteristic ways and this will most likely anger fans of the books.

Choosing the quieter moments that motivate the characters continues to be a problem for the Harry Potter films. Directors spend so much time hopping from one spectacle to another that they rarely give there characters a chance to breathe and to make decisions that take them to these adventures. Considering that the action is dialed down in books 5 and 6 it should have been somewhat easier to incorporate this. Perhaps this was not so important in the first two films when Harry was young but as he gets older and his final showdown with Lord Voldemort approaches what he has learned and what he chooses to do with it make a significant impact on the gravity of the story. In Order of the Phoenix Harry Potter is a cork in the water blown this way and that with each prevailing wind. Even his book 5 funk, his angry outbursts, is toned down for the movie which makes a marked contrast with the books in which, to be honest, Harry Potter is something of an angry prick. If he weren’t, readers wouldn’t see how hard it is to grow up as the most famous wizard without a family. But if you leave it out then Potter doesn’t seem to be learning or growing or maturing much at all, he is just a young wizard who is unfortunate enough to have a mortal enemy and fortunate enough to have powerful friends who are willing to protect him.

The biggest problem with Phoenix is not the actors. Daniel Radcliff is actually growing into quite a good actor. Though the same cannot be said of Emma Watson whose emotional range seems to consist mostly of hyperventilating or Rupert Grint whose grimace has been well documented in the films before now, at least they aren’t given too much to do. Ron especially seems to have faded further and further into the background with each passing film. Gary Oldman as Sirius turns in perhaps the best performance of the film as the proud and protective godfather to Potter and Alan Rickman’s Snape is finally back chewing up the scenery. Even the new additions of Evanna Lynch as spacey Luna Lovegood, Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange, and Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge are all well planned and executed.

It is the directing that leaves so much to be desired. This is additionally unfortunate as Yates is slated to direct the sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. While Yates seems to be capable of marshalling the actors through their roles there is no cohesion to much of the action. Each director seems to need to make their mark on the franchise and Yates decides to do it by redefining the rules and look of some things that we have already seen in the Potter universe. So now instead of a head being made of the fire, Sirius’ face simply swims hazily projected over the fire looking like an effect from a school film of Macbeth. Not that either was the way it was described in the book but at least the previous effect looked impressive. The dementors too eschew their massive black cloaks for a more mummified flying wrath look. Even worse the camera directs much of the action pulling the audience out of the story with unnecessary crane shots, strange pauses, and uneven transitions.

It was rumored that Kreacher the house elf was going to be left out of the film entirely until Rowling interceded on his behalf for the continuity of the final story. While I have to wait like everyone until this weekend to find out why Kreacher must remain in the story, Yates made little attempt to actually fit Kreacher back into the plot giving him only two throw away scenes instead of actually fitting him back into the plot. Indeed much of the film seems like a string of unrelated scenes jostling to fit in all of the characters and different story arcs.

The film of course looked incredible most notably Kreacher himself and the shots of Harry and the Order flying over London on their broomsticks. Unfortunately the finale showdown within the halls of the Ministry of Magic, while attractive, was not nearly as impressive as the book might have intimated. Leave out the time-turner room, the tank of brains, and anything having to do with the fountain of brotherly cooperation and there is still a good fight, it just much less involved than one might imagine.

Now I have had issue with every Harry Potter film. I think that each film feels rushed and leaves out major portions of the book. It is like a 5 minute conversation to catch up with a lifelong friend, it just isn’t enough time to do the matter justice. The films do look nice and they do get better with repeat viewings once the audience accepts all of the liberties that have been taken with the material. The problem has been the structure and adherence to the material all along. The team behind the Lord of the Rings films dismantled a masterwork and pieced it back together to make three magnificent films. The Harry Potter writers have gone about things differently taking the book and cutting things out until it resembled a screenplay. It leaves the finished product feeling like a thin stretched version of the books rather than a stand alone cinematic achievement based on the original books.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is well worth seeing. It is visually impressive and entertaining and the film isn’t too long or too dull. The new additions to the cast fit well into the Potter universe and we expect to see more of them in the next two films. One would just expect that after the formula has been laid down that the Harry Potter films would continue to improve and Order of the Phoenix feels like a step backwards after the quite good Goblet of Fire. Hopefully seeing the film will make those who haven’t read the books go read them and will make those who have read them want to go back and re-read them to pick up all of the threads and character development that the film has left out. If nothing else the film piques anticipation of the 7th and final book due out later this week.

Related posts:

1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
3. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe