EggAndBean

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Ralph Fiennes, Gary Oldman
Directed by: David Yates
Running Time: 2 hours and 18 minutes.
Release Date: July 11th, 2007

Just back in the door from seeing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in the local cinema…three words, and a bit of punctuation: phew, pretty good!

As the fifth book is my favourite (seventh book as yet unreleased at time of writing), I was pretty apprehensive about this movie - especially so, given the fourth movie was such a disappointment for me. While I really enjoyed Prisoner of Azkhaban, Goblet of Fire seemed stilted and lacking in any kind of atmosphere. Of course, I may be biased, seeing as the fourth book didnt really do it for me either.

Order of the Phoenix corrects this - its got a lot more substance to it. Visually, the movie is closer to Azkhaban than Goblet, with dark lighting and clever camera shots adding to the suspense.

Given that the book is the longest so far, they really did a good job getting the thrust of the story into the movie. While some bits were cut that surprised me (Petunia getting the letter at the start), other bits were left in that were a nice bonus, such as Ginny occasionally gazing lovingly at Harry. If you hadn’t read the book, you would have missed it, and a lot of other references too.

The scene stealer has to be Luna Lovegood, played by Evanna Lynch. You get the impression this girl is the same on camera as she is off! She played Luna really well, and had the place in stitches in almost every scene.

The movie builds towards a definite conclusion, and when it comes, its breathtaking. The attention to detail throughout the movie is spot on, and there’s so much going on the movie has definite re-watchability.

Go see!