Harried 'Potter' Overstuffed 'Order of the Phoenix' still dazzles - Hogwarts and all. (2024)

Byline: Dann Gire Daily Herald Film Critic

dgire@@dailyherald.com

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"

* * * out of four

Opens tonight

Starring As

Daniel Radcliffe Harry Potter

Rupert Grint Ron Weasley

Emma Watson Hermione Granger

Imelda Saunton Dolores Umbridge

With Fiona Shaw, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes, Robbie Coltrane, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson and Maggie Smith.

Written by Michael Goldenberg, based on the novel by J.K. Rowling. Produced by David Heyman and David Barron. Directed by David Yates. A Warner Bros. release. Rated PG-13 (violence) Running time: 139 minutes.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" ranks as the darkest, weakest, least satisfying and most confusing chapter in the popular "Harry Potter" film franchise so far.

But that might be praising with faint damnation, considering how remarkably well-made the series has been up to now, especially No. 3, Alfonso Cuaron's visually enthralling "The Prisoner of Azkaban."

Two key personnel changes probably account for the "Order of the Phoenix" being the slightest of the Potter sagas, despite its elaborate, impressive production values and bore-proof subject matter.

First, in-coming director David Yates, a British filmmaker known mostly for shorts and TV shows, has no experience painting on the broader canvass of special-effects-stuffed, Hollywood tent pole productions.

Second, and more significantly, screenwriter Steve Kloves, who has crafted four magnificent script adaptations of J.K. Rowling's wordy tomes, has been replaced by the less-experienced Michael Goldenberg.

This might explain why "Order of the Phoenix" - based on Rowling's lengthiest novel - feels as if all the story elements have been shoehorned into the narrative so tightly, they barely have room to breathe.

Consequently, the cramped "Order" rushes from one blurry story point to the next with little rhythm and not much rhyme.

At Hogwarts school for wizards, a maturing Harry Potter (reprised by Daniel Radcliffe, who now wears the character like his epidermis) gets tested in ways he could never imagine.

Harry has developed an inexplicable psychic link with the evil Lord Voldemort (reprised by the noseless Ralph Fiennes).

This might be good, because Harry can monitor You-Know-Who when he goes on the attack. This might be bad, too, because He Who Must Not Be Named could possibly enter Harry's mind and drive him insane.

Harry becomes convinced his parents' killer plans to return to Hogwarts. But the Ministry of Magic rejects his warnings, and launches a smear campaign against Harry and his mentor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), calling them liars and agitators.

Worse for Harry, but fun for us, Hogwarts gets a new professor to teach defense against the dark arts, an insidious, cheerily fascistic administrator named Dolores Umbridge, an inspired, pink- swaddled villain played with tuning-fork precision by a perpetually chirpy Imelda Staunton.

Dolores slowly assumes control of Hogwarts, suspending such things as freedom of expression and assembly. She recruits students - notably the brownshirt-esque Draco Malfoy - to spy on peers and report disloyalty and free thought.

When Umbridge's numerous restrictive proclamations finally cover an entire wall, Harry reluctantly goes into resistance-fighter mode, leading like-minded students to form an illegal campus group dubbed "Dumbledore's Army." This includes his loyal sidekicks Ron and Hermione (Rupert Grint and Emma Watson), the Weasley twins (James Phelps and Oliver Phelps) and the scarily luminous newcomer Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch).

The students' fight to save Hogwarts becomes the most fully realized part of "Order of the Phoenix." It packs a focus and a passion severely lacking in the story's other muddled segments.

It's as if screenwriter Goldenberg felt obligated to employ every subplot, character and detail in Rowling's novel for fear of frustrating the expectations of zillions of fervid book fans.

So, instead of deleting or compiling even more scenes and characters than he already has, Goldenberg scrunches, compresses and crams everything to fit, like a man trying to stuff way too much into a suitcase.

Still, "Order" counts as a solid entry in the Potter series. It provides the special effects/action buzz we've come to expect, and keeps its growing stable of returning characters (most played by big stars) consistent and intriguing.

Although this movie short-shrifts poor Hermione and Ron on screen time, Staunton's Dolores Umbridge -arguably cinema's most colorfully evil villainess since Cruella De Vil - more than compensates for their reduced presence.

Wait! We can't let a review of "Order of the Phoenix" pass without mentioning young Harry's first kiss, a major slobberfest that adds immeasurably to the film's already hefty running time.

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