Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

(Doug, chime on in because I know you saw this, too.)

Overall, an okay movie. I wouldn't see it again. The special effects are as good as they've ever been and hey, who doesn't love a wall full of meowing cat plates? Harry, Ron, Hermione and even Neville look OLD. Worse, though, they look BORED.

Harry doesn't seem all that excited about wizardry or even life in general; neither do the others at Hogwarts. When Harry ends up secretly teaching spells to an army of his friends, they all look tired, annoyed and worn out, like waving their wands is draining them of all their emotional and physical energy. This film was Das Boot compared to the magic and enchantment of, say, Chamber of Secrets.

Neville is still inept with his wand. It would seem to me that he should have flunked out of Hogwarts by this point since he can't do even the simplest of spells; am I missing something?

He Who Shall Not Be Named has a lot of screen time; his interactions with Harry pave the way to a sequel even darker than this one. This film was pretty violent compared to the others. Snape isn't onscreen near enough and Sirius is there too much (understandably so; watch the movie.) Hagrid hauls up yet another oversized beast for Harry and his friends to contend with. Draco and his dad continue to cause problems... the usual issues. Like I said, it was just kind of routine and mechanical.

The one interesting facet of this movie to me was the issue of memory and how others can use it to control you. Did anyone else find this thought-provoking besides me? It was also a little bizarre to me that for a lot of the Hogwarts clan, their happiest memories revolved around animals.

Your thoughts?