dir: David Yates
2007
Betterer and betterer...
Order of the Phoenix is probably the best of the Harry Potter films
thus far, but that seems kind of redundant to point out. The story
itself, of a young wizard, his friends and allies, and the evil
arrayed against them, and the author herself have been improving over
time. The story is getting more complicated, deeper and richer, and,
as such, it is getting harder and harder for me to maintain my disdain
for the books and the people who wank on about them all the time.
As with the more recent flicks, they just go straight into it, with no
****lly-shallying about. There's plenty of references to happenings and
characters from the previous films/books, but not in the sense of
summarising the whole premise for the clueless coming in. It's assumed
that if your bum's on the theatre seat, you know everything that's
transpired over the course of the story, or at least have some idea.
The catastrophic events from the last flick resonate loudly even with
the passage of time. The murder of Cedric and the return of He Who
Shall Not Be Named Too Often (Ralph Fiennes) signal the beginning of
the gathering storm that will be the war between the Light and the
Dark. But, since this is the early court****p stages, as both sides
build and marshal their forces, the tension is agonising.
Few people apart from the obvious ones actually believe Harry's
(Daniel Radcliffe) description of events occurring at the end of
Goblet of Fire, and even fewer believe his claim of the return of
Mouldy Wart, sorry, I mean Voldemort. The Daily Prophet, the local
tabloid newspaper that is clearly a part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp
Empire, maligns, slanders and otherwise impugns the good names of
Harry, his godfather Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) and old man Dumbledore
(Michael Gambon). The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, is not only
a useless prick, but someone who actively works against the good guys
because he cannot accept that the gathering dark is gathering, or that
Voldemort could have returned.
The flick begins with Harry and his semi-retarded bovver boy cousin
Dudley being attacked by Dementors. When Harry repulses their attack
with the Petronus charm, he is brought up on charges of using magic in
the presence of muggles (mundane humans) and dragged before the
Ministry. Right from the start we see that Harry is still deeply
disturbed over the events of last year. He feels isolated, and afraid,
and it doesn't help that a lot of people believe the Daily Prophet's
slanderous lies about him and think him mad/delusional. The constant
nightmares don't help either, which surprises me. Nightmares tend to
do me a world of good.
That feeling of isolation persists for much of the story, and is
coupled with Harry's increasing confusion over some kind of link he
shares with the Noseless One. It doesn't help Harry to be threatened
with expulsion, or being persistently ignored and avoided by
Dumbledore, the one old guy he thought he could trust. It especially
doesn't help when the other Hogwarts students treating him like he is
covered in cooties.
In a move which I think indicates how frustrated J.K Rowling herself
is with the tabloid press of our world, the machinations and impact of
the skewed lies and propaganda in the Daily Prophet turns even more
people against Harry. A goofy Irish student even says, specifically,
that Harry must be mad and a liar, because his mum told him so, based
on the tabloid rag.
He's alone, oh so alone, the loneliest alone person in Lonelyville.
Of course, it's not going to stay that way for too long. Hermione
(Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) aren't about to let Harry wallow
in self-pity for too long. Even better, like the best friends any
person can ever hope to have, they force him to become a better person
by reinforcing his connection with the people around him.
The Ministry of Magic, however, either out of Evilness or out of
stupidity, decides to make the lives of the denizens of Hogwarts a
living hell by imposing their will upon the hallowed institution. A
new overseer in the form of the monstrous and always pink Dolores
Umbridge (Imelda Staunton) arrives at the school under the guise of
enforcing the dictates and regulations of the Ministry. She is the
epitome of the evil bureaucrat who uses the irresistible power of
bureaucracy to smother the life out of the students and faculty.
As the teachers become progressively more powerless, and Dumbledore
inexplicably allows Umbridge to do whatever the hell she wants
throughout the school, Harry and his fellow students face a very real
danger. Umbridge, through one of her thousands of edicts, changes the
curriculum for the subject of Protection Against the Dark Arts so that
the students don't learn **** about how to actually fight and protect
themselves from the minions of the Dark Underpanted One. So it's up to
Hermione and Ron to convince Harry that there's an incredibly
im****tant role he needs to now accept if they're not to be overwhelmed
by the gathering darkness: that of leader.
I have to admit, it really feels like they got it right for this one.
The last two flicks have worked in such a way that I really didn't
like the movies for their first halves, and then had to be won over by
the end. This one, better paced, with a more engaging and interesting
story (for me), had me from much earlier on. Radcliffe, Watson and
Grint have matured as actors as their characters have matured, and
give a little bit more with each flick.
Radcliffe especially continues to impress with Harry, showing an
increasing range with each outing, and definitely carries the epic
story on those ever-broadening shoulders. He even gets to kiss a girl
for the first time, which, in the scheme of things shouldn't seem so
surprising. Boys his age shouldn't have to be saving the world all the
time; he's at an age where the highest priority in a teenage boy's
life would be finding secluded places to masturbate frenetically or
desperately trying to whine his way into girl's panties. It's about
time they indicated he was hetero***ual by having him kiss Cho (Katie
Leung), breaking the hearts of all those slash Ron/Harry, Harry/
Hagrid, Harry/Snape, Harry/Voldemort fanfic writers everywhere.
If you don't understand what was written in the above sentence,
please, do yourself a favour, don't try to find out. It's a disturbing
and strange world out there.
The film culminates in an epic battle between the Order of the
Phoenix, Harry's sup****ters and the bastard Deatheaters who obey No-
Nose. It looks absolutely phenomenal, and that's not just because I
saw the flick at the gigantic IMAX cinema screen in 3D. The only part
of the long, long flick in 3D is the ending, which looks great
regardless of the trickery on display, and in fact is a bit
distracting. The fighting between the Light and Dark looked great, and
was well structured and edited, but it culminates in a battle between
two old veterans which is probably the best battle of its kind I've
seen thus far.
There's aren't kiddie flicks anymore, if they ever really were. Each
flick gets nastier and darker, each flick depicts a world becoming
progressively more corrupt and horrifying, and each flick puts Our
Heroes in more difficult cir***stances for which there aren't easy
solutions. The baddies aren't baddies just because they look funny and
dress in black (just like in real life); they're baddies because they
do great evil to our hero and the people that he loves.
For a story and a flick that you'd think, being part of a seven book
series, is essentially a placeholder or a timekiller, Order of the
Phoenix is surprisingly rewarding and enjoyable on its own. It's also
different enough from the other flicks to be enjoyed on its own,
despite the lack of that awful goddamned word 'closure'. Even so, it
has an appropriate ending, with Harry having the last word, which is
spot-on, in my book.
The visuals improve as well with each flick, even to the extent of
making Hogwarts look like a more real and solid place. The action
climax looks better than anything shown previous, with 3D or without
it. Thematically the story is stronger (I say that knowing fans of the
books can point to a million subplots that weren't fleshed out
properly or dozens of character moments that should have been
elaborated upon), and some of the other characters apart from the key
ones are given time to ****ne. Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis), long
a joke character, is given more background and developed in an
appreciable way.
The depiction of the corruption of the press, the cru****ng juggernaut
this is a powerful bureaucracy, the rise of Dolores Umbridge and her
takeover of the school, the recruiting of inquisitors to do her dirty
work (unsurprisingly, Malfoy and his odious hangers-on join eagerly),
the revelation that Harry's dad was a bit of a bully, the Room of
Requirement and the training that goes on there, and the exploration
of the link between our hero and his nemesis, all add up to an
entertaining and meaty story, above and beyond all the fantasy fun on
display.
Another new character (from my point of view) is introduced in the
form of the ethereal and strange Luna (Evanna Lynch), who I really
liked and who really seemed to play an im****tant role. Whenever there
are scenes with Cho and Harry tentatively mooning over each other,
with Ron's sister Ginny (Bonnie Wright) seething with jealousy in the
background, I couldn't help but think Harry and Luna were a better
match.
Imelda Staunton is pure evil as the sugar coated bureaucrat, even
scarier than the real villain. Her perpetual smiles and rule quoting
cast a thin veneer over a deeply disturbed and sadistic character.
Through her machinations we see the particularly ugly punishment she
perpetrates on the children by use of a cursed quill that engraves the
flesh of the writer with the words they write. Ugly stuff. It's a
reminder of the deep roots the Rowling story has in the uglier
recesses of the British public school system, and the lingering
glimmers of the days of rugby, cor****al punishment and routine sodomy
that forms the basis of the school experience she was going for.
Perhaps without the last element I mentioned.
Ron and Hermione continue their goofy court****p, with the dorky Ron
getting possessive and jealous every time any guy, especially bigger
guys, put their hands on Hermione. And Hermione is her usual haughty,
sarcastic, occasionally vulnerable self. Their rivalry is but a thin
disguise for the passion that lurks beneath these jailbait chests.
For all the things that they get right (this outing is directed by
David Yates, whose previous experience is all in television), there's
a bunch of stuff that just came across as pretty piss-weak. There were
elements and bits of dialogue I did not understand at all, and was
none the wiser even when the film ended (padfoots and narguls and,
hell, I'm none the wiser). The Room of Requirement itself is awfully
convenient, and smacks of the weak multiple and arbitrary deus ex
machina that permeate Rowling's books. I didn't adequately understand
why Umbridge was allowed to so radically change everything at the
school so easily, especially by Dumbledore, who is absent for most of
the flick's duration. Umbridge's fate in the end is pretty murky. All
this and more could probably be answered by reading the books, but, to
be honest, I'd rather shoot myself in the head.
I had a blast all the same, probably more so than any of the other
flicks in this series. I'm popping my cherry here, since this is the
first flick of the series that I've reviewed, so I hope you Potter
tragics appreciate this. If the next two flicks continue this trend of
enhancing and deepening the story and the relation****ps between the
characters and their crazy world, then it bodes well for the future.
And I can honestly say that, for the first time, I'm actually looking
forward to it.
Sandro - 8 reasons why Harry Potter grows up and marries you, young
muggle, out of 10
--
"You're a fool, Harry Potter, and you will lose everything." - Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
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