Review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) by James W — 22 Dec 2013

Hands down one of the best in the franchise, The Order Of The Phoenix is a special effects extravaganza with stronger character relationships and utterly fantastic cast performances, and it's great to see stars return with the likes of Oldman and Spall.

Imelda Staunton is definitely the highlight of this fifth instalment, as Dolores Umbridge, whose performance is superb as a picky, tolerant and seamingly perfect teacher whose colours soon show as the students start to fight back when the dark lord's return puts pressure on the Ministry of Magic.

So far this is the darkest entry to the series in my opinion, but with more emotion. Just simple looks of sadness or fear in characters translates to the viewer, when Hagrid's enormous Brother admires Hermione the look of loneliness on his face is haunting.

The great thing about director David Yates is that whilst the tone he creates is dark and filled with the feeling of loss, he still manages to create a magical world stuffed with wonder and awe and surprising moments of big laughs, the balance never strays thankfully.

I thoroughly enjoyed all the magic defence scenes where Harry teaches his small army of wizards and witches alike, the training, trial and error was fun to watch and you can tell just how strong the cast have bonded.

But I think my favourite scene of this movie, and probably nearly in the whole franchise so far, was the battle between Dumbledore and Voldemort in the Ministry hallway, the special effects of fire, sparks and beams of light are practically flawless, and the wind effects that bounce off the characters only makes it more realistic.

Harry Potter is now officially heating up to what looks like is going to be a fantastic showdown and then hopefully a mind blowing finale.