Review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) by Mattb — 15 Jul 2007

This movie was a horrible addition to the series. We are not talking about minor adjustments to plot, which is, as I think all of us can agree, a neccessary evil for transforming a 900pg book into a 100-200pg script.

I am by no means a die-hard fan, but felt that the director over-emphasized the smallest of scenes in an effort to make the more more appealing to the usual "dumb movie-goer" audience. Take the Harry/Cho kiss.

This wasn't even talked about in the book, yet was by far the longest single shot of the movie. It was the the rush rush rush of the movie was suddenly slowed-down for this one really unimportant moment.

I wouldn't complain if that was an addition to an already true-to-the-story film. Changing the plot, as well, for unnecessary reasons is just pompus. I felt that by-far the acting in this movie was the worst, and that falls entirely on the director, not the actors, as we know they have done better.

The young actors said they liked this director the best, which means he was probably the most laid back, which is obviously shown on screen in their portrayal. Evanna Lynch's pausing in between phrases was something that could have easily been fixed by building confidence with the character and the lines, another job that lies solely on the director.

I have been told that the movie was easy to follow for someone who did not read the books, but I'm not sure how it's possible as I just read the book a few days ago, so it is fresh in my mind, and I could barely follow it myself.

A waste of time and money.