Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix starts off promisingly enough for fans of horror and dark fantasy with a brutal attack by terrifying, soul-snatching Dementors who do their darnedest to kill our hero Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), forcing the young man to use his magical thwarting powers in front of muggles in the everyday world.

This is a very serious offense, putting the lad on trial by the Ministry of Magic and jeopardizing his continued enrollment in Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry. Compounding the problem is the fact that Potter is accusing of lying about even seeing the minions of Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) in the first place. Harry winds up having to form a secret army to help not only clear his name, but attempt to defeat He Who Must Not Be Named once and for all.

The Dementors are scary and the scene is quite exciting, but until the climax — during which a ferocious fight takes place — the rest of the story falls flat with far too much sitting around and talking; an assembly-line introduction to some new characters; and "the big kiss" between Harry and Cho Chang (Katie Leung) is merely shoehorned in before she quickly disappears from the adventure.

Fitting a nearly 900-page novel into a palatable 2+ hour movie is no easy task, and unfortunately it seems that the latest director on the Harry Potter broom ride wasn't up to it. Best-known for his work in series television in the U.K., David Yates takes a tumultuous tale from the page and turns it into endless exposition on the big screen. The new screenwriter, Michael Goldenberg, is no doubt also partly to blame for this decidedly bland turn in the series, desperately filling every silence with mind-numbing chatter.

The presence of a seemingly uninspired cinematographer, Harry Potter newbie Slawomir Idziak, is also sorely noted in the movie's lackluster, blanched look and feel. However, I hasten to add that the design and decoration is as magical, layered, and breathtaking as ever (set decorator Stephanie McMillan is back, as is regular production designer Stuart Craig).

While the story is serious, heavy, and largely humorless (not to mention the least "horror"), it's not all doom and gloom: the addition of Imelda Staunton as the sly Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is a dastardly delight, as is the small role embodied by a tangle-haired Helena Bonham Carter (obviously just getting riled up for next year's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). Welcome returnees include  the core cast of course, plus Michael Gambon as Hogwart's magician-in-chief, Dumbledore; Gary Oldman as Harry's godfather, Sirius Black; and Brendan Gleeson as 'Mad-Eye' Moody, to name just a few.

In my experience, the Harry Potter series has been a mixed bag. Today my favorites remain as they were: 2002's The Chamber of Secrets and 2004's The Prisoner of Azkaban — and my hopes remain low for Yates' second crack, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince due out in '08.

That said, I don't discourage anyone from seeing The Order of the Phoenix; it's an important cog in the wheel of Harry's mission to save the world from Voldemort's vileness, and who knows? You might even enjoy the fireworks, fizzled though they are.

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