Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

(Sue me. It's not a book. But it's only the second movie I've seen this year!)

(And sorry for this very late post--I saw the movie about 3 weeks ago but just didn't have the energy to write about anything.)

I had very low expectations of this movie since I'd heard it was relatively short, and the writers had been ruthless in the cuts they made.

First, I have to give props for the brevity of the film. In spite of my overall disappointment with the film, I think the choices the writers & director made were fair. NOT fantastic, but fair.

Second, the film is great enough for non-readers--it convinced one of my dearest friends, the one person who turned me on to Harry Potter in the first place but gave up the series because she couldn't make it thought the 5th book, to go back to reading the books. (She actually managed to read books 6 & 7 in the 3 weeks we didn't manage to talk to each other on the phone, and she's considering giving book 5 a second go.)

But I was actually disappointed in Imelda Staunton--everyone went on and on about how brilliant she was, but I didn't think she was all that.

The biggest disappointment for me was how the DA was discovered. It just didn't make sense. Why would Cho have been the one to betray them, when all the students were being interrogated by Umbridge with the use of veritaserum??? Why did it take so long, then?

Plus the portrayal of the Room of Requirement was a letdown too--it didn't live up enough to its name.

And while I got annoyed at times with the books and how Harry took forever to understand his power over Voldemort, I thought that was a necessary process. So I didn't appreciate the scene that includes Harry telling Voldemort, "You don't even have any friends" (or was it "You don't know how to love"?).

Feh! I just hope the next movies are much better!!!