For the past four years, the boy who lived faced demanding challenges against him with the imminent return of Who You Know. Having just faced a gravely reunion with Voldemort, which resulted in the terrible loss of fellow Hogwarts student Cedric Diggory, it was a prized curiosity to wonder how J.K. Rowling would handle her young wizard hero entering puberty. Printed at a winded 864 pages, Order of the Phoenix at its center maneuvers through Potter entering that disasterly-maturing period: teenagerdom.
During his fifth year as a student of Hogwarts, there are more dangerous villains we come to face with outside of Voldemort. As Harry faces the reality that his lightning bolt shaped scar - though an iconic symbol in the muggle and wizarding world as something fantastically courageous and important, serves as a mortal warning that Voldemort can penetrate Potter's mind, allow him to see his next move of attack and manipulate Potter's emotions/and intentions. Evil just doesn't tread external but also internally. This is the book that makes that fruitful notion passed along the internet come alive: we are what we choose to be.
On the surface of the magical world, there doesn't seem to be much going on except wizards facing their ordinary lives. Except Voldemort is on the hunt for his greatest weapon yet - something he didn't have during the first wizarding world. Standing up against the Dark Lord is an underground movement called the Order of the Phoenix. Ultimately led by Dumbledore, this group of wizarding folk reunites members like Remus Lupin and the Weasley family to intercept political missions at the Ministry of Magic and try to stay one step ahead the wizarding world's greatest enemy.
Several emotional catastrophes are rumpled up for our heroic Gryffindor student as Potter navigates teenagerly angst, his occupational future in the wizarding world, and slithering dreams that serve as mortal warnings to his dearest friends and family. Throughout the novel, Potter is seething with anger and frustration yet dutifully balanced with boyish confusion over budding female affection. He really has no way to navigate the riles of a young girl's heart let alone the war against Voldemort.
Almost stronger than any other Potter novel Rowling published before Order of the Phoenix, she creates a superb balancing act with his emotions. Her strongest suit - I felt - was creating a sense of community with characters we are familiar with, new characters that add a bit of fresh atmosphere, and the sense that danger comes in more forms other than Voldemort; but power, greed, ignorance. While we have so many different storylines and mysteries outside of Potter, she reigns it all in with his individual connections. Though he may seem and we may feel he is alone, he isn't. Hogwarts has been our home, but we also come to learn how people can be our homes and keep us grounded as well.
After reading this installment, I'm sure I come away liking it more and more - if only one part of me would've liked for it to be a wee bit shorter. Part of me feels like no matter how much I love to immerse myself with Rowling's writing, sometimes she needed the courage to edit.
On top of background information involving Voldemort and how he is building up his army by using the Ministry of Magic, we also have Potter's connecting psyche to the Dark Lord and his prophetic dreams of mortal danger, Potter's defense army, his romance with Cho Chang, Dolores Umbridge's hostage take-over of Hogwarts, the Order of the Phoenix scattered mission to keep Harry safe, and Hagrid's brother who he brings back from a long tenuous meeting with fellow giants. It's a tall order for anyone's brains to take in, and I find it unfathomable right now to keep track of everything.
Unlike her first four novels, where I thought the suspense over a few hundred pages mounted to epic conclusions, Order of the Phoenix idly creates mysteries without the urgency to know what happens next.A wide range of new characters such as a trio of feminine characters, new locations, and a peek inside the childhood of Severus Snape, were my most favorite aspects. However, I feel like the act of reading didn't entirely reach an satisfying emotional finale until the last few chapters.
Directed by David Yates, the fifth movie is not as exciting as I thought it could've been. Much like a biopic that completely rewrites history, it's very much the same for fictional novels. When known characters and essential information are excluded, the film experience for readers can abnormally force us to concentrate on what the film lacks rather than contributes.
One of the greater disservices of the film is that it doesn't risk very much to explore outside of Potters' awkward stage in life. As someone who has seen the movies first before reading the books, there are moments throughout the later part of the series that I just don't understand. Such as cameo characters such as Mundungus Fletcher who appears out of nowhere in the seventh film. I never would've guessed he made his first appearance in the fifth novel until I read it - which might serve as how non-reading fans may be confused with some of the plotlines and characters that come out of nowhere.
The details in the film series are sketchy when it comes to delivering more insight on the supporting characters; such as and maybe especially for Neville Longbottom and Ron Weasley. I think these are two amazing supporting characters who weren't given the time of day.
For the former, I never would've guessed the actual background history to Neville's parents having been put into a mental institution. It wasn't until reading my favorite chapter of the book where we come to discover that his parents were tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange and ended up in a mental institute with barely any stable memory of their lives. This scene - though actually shot for the film - was unfortunately excluded - which I thought could've added more layers to the affect of Voldemort's reign on other characters outside of Harry - as it does in the novels.
Despite the great comedic timing by Rupert Grint, for Ron Weasley he never seems to escape the sidekick role of being chummy and dim-witted. Quidditch is gravely excluded entirely from the fifth film, where Potter and the Weasley twins are banned for life after attacking Malfoy for some disparaging remarks about their parents. Stepping in for them, Ron Weasley joins the Gryffindor team, where after a few failing losses, wins a victory where he becomes a king - if only for a little while. Only the second portion of this is saved for the sixth film - where Weasley once again becomes that budding head-in-the-clouds sidekick.
Locations also lose their luster like 12 Grimmauld Place. Serving as a house to the Black pureblood maniac clan, every corner oozes hatred towards muggles and half-bloods. The walls are decked out in family paintings that screech and howl and plaques with shrunken house elves' heads are displayed. It's so derelict you wonder how Black barely manages to stay sane while hiding away from the Ministry of Magic...and yet it's all but a friendly dark abode used as a gathering placed for Order of the Phoenix. What could've have been an exciting cinema achievement with set design is all and all a bit disappointing.
As such when watching the movie it's almost as if Warner Bros. Studios didn't know entirely how to handle the massive backdrops of the wizarding world outside the grand finale. Transition of scenes take grand pauses, and I'm afraid the structure of the story doesn't seem to find its footing except in the theming that through all of Harrys' suffering, he is not alone. Remembering the impressively colossal text that was the fifth novel, I have to say this film could've used much more organization.
The film is also significantly and beautifully casted with (then) fresh talent. Making their first appearances in the book, we have a range of new female characters; Helena Bonham Carter as the torturous and unhinged Bellatrix Lestrange, Imelda Staunton as power-hungry spy Dolores Umbridge, and Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood. The actress' portrayal are quite literally copies of their fictional characters. Both on-screen and in the books, the characters hold such a wide range of allure. Carter is at her series best with the palpitating danger of Lestrange. Staunton is brilliant at innocently misdirecting us from her menacing reign of political dominance. And, Lynch is a scene-stealer with her portrayal of individualistic flightyness and whimsical innocence.
In very different ways, the novel and its film adaptation seem to suffer from middle chapter syndrome. Having just returned from Cedric Diggory's dramatic death and Voldemort's terrifying return in the fourth installment, the book serves as a lead-way of connecting how Harry is Voldemort's most dangerous weapon. At their center, both versions deliver on showing that Harry is not alone. The book and the film go about expressing this in scattered and not entirely fulfilling directions.
In A Giffy:  | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Hermione Granger & Rupert Grint Directed by: David Yates Rating: 2 1/2 out of 4 stars |