Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

So the Dursley-introduction is for once relevant and dark, instead of just annoying. Could this be a good omen? Richard Griffiths squeal of joy should indicate so. As should Harry's lingering dark dreams. Not to mention a most welcome reunion with Mad-Eye and Sirius. Generally the first half hour builds a very good premise for the rest of the film. There's conspiracy, secret meeting, darkness afoot and speak of war as things seem to take a political turn.

But alas. It soon takes a plunge. For some inconceivable reason they've decided to make the centre of the entire development Dolores Umbridge. A walking parody. A putrid character. Perhaps even worse than Jar Jar Binks. If you want Kafkaesque persecution, and resistance movement after model of the series V, that's fine. But you can not build around a five foot villain with a constant daft "drunk aunt" smile and a love for cats and pink. Her techniques are actually rather dire and evil, but it has no believability in her hands. I have no idea if she was this daft in the books, but the movie takes a devastating blow as a consequence.

Where they get it right is the growing connection between Potter and Voldemort. Whereas there were only little drops earlier, Harry is now struggling with Voldemort entering his dreams, and his insomnia creates fatigue with the following paranoia. All perfectly built up.

Oldman is amazing here. His whole face shines with pride of Potter. and he shifts between playful and menacing in the blink of an eye. Radcliffe and Watson shine, and without the stacked stupidity of the former instalment, Grint is also good. They really start to come together both on their own, but even more as a team, and some of their best scenes together are in this flick. Rickman is still a scene-stealer of dimensions, and Isaac's arrogant calm and high-pitched end to his dialogue a treat. Bellatrix is another miss though. Bonham-Carter simply overdoes it and makes Lestrange more of an annoyance than anything useful.

So the end game is as usual magnificent, perhaps the best so far (the falling of the prophecies a sight to behold), there are a lot of things done right. And the author certainly has the ability to give a film the ending it needs, rather than the one that makes people feel brilliant. Unfortunately, the massive amount of screen-time (and key to the story) awarded to Umbridge is a spectacular fail that no kind of magic can save. And the match between Voldemort and Dumbledore, surely is that, even more so the cutting of scenes as Potter struggles with the former. But with a run-time of over two hours, you can't make an hours worth of a great adventure.

5/10