Our hero gets his first real kiss and yet another person he dearly loves dies in the fifth cinematic adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s modern kid lit phenomenon about a magical young dude known as Harry Potter.
But for true fans, these headlines from the movie based on the author’s “The Order of the Phoenix” are old news. Today’s multiplex indulgence really only serves as an anticlimactic appetizer to anyone who is following the larger story. Because the main course, the only scoop that matters, finally arrives in 10 days when the seventh and last installment of the fantasy book series “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” arrives. That’s when aficionados find out whether everybody’s favorite bespectacled teen wizard lives or dies.
Indeed, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” is where we definitively learn that one or the other, either Harry (improved talent Daniel Radcliffe) or the no-nosed embodiment of evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), will croak in the end. So this chapter picks up where Movie Four left off as the threatened protagonist became increasingly angry and intense. It adheres closely to the tonal trend of the novels and is thus the most dark and sinister of the pictures yet.
There’s very little whimsy at Hogwarts now, no Quidditch matches or prankster fun to temper the main plot and spooky special effects-laden adventure action. Voldemort and his wicked allies must be defeated. We find out here that a secret society to do that called the Order of the Phoenix was organized years ago by the epic’s good guys including Harry’s late parents and his beloved godfather and current guardian angel Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), among others.
Now the job is being passedon to the next generation.
Harry is still struggling with his own dark tendencies, provoked by a kind of Voldemort mind meld. But he is convinced by his best mates Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) to start training a junior team of good guys to defeat the villain. Meanwhile, Voldemort has his own would-be new cronies —— such as Black’s sadistically insane cousin (played with relish by Helena Bonham Carter) and the prim dowager fascist Dolores Umbridge (a hilarious yet frightening Imelda Staunton), who tries to take over the school from iconic headmaster Dumbledore (Michael Gambon).
The cast keeps expanding. Thus, familiar old Hogwarts characters like Hagrid, McGonagall and Snape appear only in cameos. The computer imagery is elaborate enough under debuting director David Yates. And franchise admirers will likely by moved by a third act revelation about the true nature of the hero’s soul.
But does “Order of the Phoenix” stand well alone if you haven’t seen any of the other films? No. The casual “Potter” dabbler probably needn’t harry — er, I mean — hurry out to see it.
‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’
3/5 stars
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Imelda Staunton, Gary Oldman, Michael Gambon, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson
Director: David Yates
Rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images
