Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Movie Review

Let me start by saying that this post will not contain any spoilers for those who haven't read the books yet and really don't know the story until they watch the movie, although I will make the assumption that you've at least watched the four previous movies.

On Sunday morning, I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (OOTP) at 9:30 a.m., the first show of the day. Unfortunately, we were in a relatively small, and surprisingly packed (for a Sunday morning) movie theater.

I anxiously awaited the commencement of the movie as we watched the previews. Then, the theater turned black and the movie started in the typical, ominous Harry Potter fashion. The opening scene did the book justice in portraying a dark mood, and it made improvements to some of the scary creatures we saw in the previous movies.

As I watched the movie with the eyes of someone who has read all the books multiple times, I often found myself complimenting the casting of characters and accurate depiction of places we haven't seen in the previous movies. Considering that OOTP is the longest book, and the shortest movie so far, the movie flowed pretty smoothly.

However, as the movie ended and I walked out of the theater, all I could think was, "ehhh." With the previous movies, I felt really excited about how great a job they did with the characters, sets, effects, and story (even though I felt that Azkaban was a bit choppy and left some gaps), and I was ready to go buy another ticket and watch the movie all over again right then and there. OOTP left me a bit disappointed. Because I promised I wouldn't post spoilers, I won't be specific, but while they touched on most of the main storylines of the book, that was it -- just one touch and *poof*, it was gone as soon as it arrived. Surely they could've spared an extra 10-20 minutes to provide a little more depth to some of the stories?

Sure, the effects were great, and I really enjoyed some of the individual scenes like the flying and the climax toward the end of the movie, but the movie as a whole didn't do it for me. Will I go see it again? Sure. But instead of having that feeling of exhilaration and want to remember more of the details, I am finding myself thinking of the next time I view the movie, which will probably be on Friday night as I await the midnight release of the 7th book, as more of something to do to kill time.