Thoughts on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The first time I see a Harry Potter movie I'm continually distracted by what's different from the book – all the things they added, deleted, or changed. So I have to go a second time in order to really see it. This time around, I enjoyed Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix both times: I wasn't riled by the changes, and the film itself is pretty good, if not especially stirring.

The alterations are mostly in the service of efficiency. In the book Harry spends a lot of time boiling over at his friends and everyone else around him, but here Harry's stubborn anger is more suggested than demonstrated, playing nicely off his sense of isolation even from Dumbledore. As we have come to expect the art direction and special effects continue to top the successes of the previous round, and the dour (even occasionally outright bleak) cinematography is a deliberate contrast to the brighter palette of the fourth film. The performances range from, yes, better than expected (Daniel Radcliffe, whose middle name these days is "He's getting better") to the delicious (Alan Rickman once again steals the film while further refining Snape's enigmatic presence).

Still, I came out of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix feeling much as I had after seeing The Two Towers: curiously unfulfilled. It was well done and had many delightful moments, and yet because nothing is resolved those delightful moments play in my mind as a string of vignettes rather than as a progression of scenes building toward a rousing climax. Considering that this film has a rousing climax, in the form of a big special effects battle at the Ministry of Magic, this is strange indeed.

I suspect that this disquiet is a function of the fifth film's self-conscious place in the larger, overarching story of Harry's looming confrontation with Voldemort. Contrast this with what is still my favorite film in the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: that film was more self-contained and so it was able to develop toward a satisfying resolution. Here, we're left with yet another wait – this time, for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which isn’t due out until November 2008. At least with Two Towers, we knew it was only a year 'til Return of the King.