Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

When I had read “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” it easily became my least favorite in the series. For those of you who have read the book, you would know how the book drags on with the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, Dolores Umbridge, making Hogwarts into unbridle anarchy. She basically rises to power, making all the bad kids her pawns to abuse the good kids, and Harry is a wimp that he doesn’t even go to Dumbledore for any help. This must be liked by those who love to delve into the mind of a crazed being that will fight dirty to climb to the top, like how Umbridge did. I know that Umbridge scarred Harry mentally, emotionally, and psychologically, but still, Harry should not have been this weak.

But what can be said about the film adaptation that came out in 2007? Sadly, like how they did with “Prisoner of Azkaban,” they botched up this film. Here’s how:

Harry in this one doesn’t have what we liked about from the earlier films. Instead, he seems to be getting much more serious and cold, but then again, one of his fellow Hogwarts classmate died just before his very eyes by Voldemort’s hand. In the beginning, Harry uses the Patronus spell that he learned to save Dudley from the Death-Eaters, which he has to go up against the Ministry of Magic in order to save himself from getting expelled from Hogwarts. He broke the decree of underage witchcraft or wizardry, but shouldn’t there be an exception to that rule? I don’t think Rowling had made that exception when she wrote the book. He was able to get out of Snape’s grasp when Ron and Harry were spotted in the flying car and Cornelius Fudge said that they don’t send young wizards to Azkaban because of “blowing up their aunts,” so what happened here?

At school, Harry has to face the same sort of issues he faced when Dumbledore saved him from the Ministry expelling him: everyone calling him a liar and that Voldemort isn’t back. This is very problematic from Umbridge, played by Imelda Staunton, who to her credit plays the part very well. You can easily see how her nose is up in the air and that she is so power-hungry that you would hate her as a teacher as well. Sure, we’ve all had those teachers that we didn’t get along with, and this is a teacher that Harry does not get along with one bit. She is so stuck-up and obnoxious to a point that you just want to hit her with a “Protego” spell. Along with Harry, she has a major gripe with Dumbledore, and even gets him thrown out momentarily to Azkaban, making her in control.

Because of Umbridge not teaching him anything remotely useful in the Defense against the Dark Arts, Harry assembles the class to teach them in the Room of Requirement. This is what the film should be showing us, the kids learning these new spells. Harry should be a Defense against the Dark Arts teacher when he graduates from Hogwarts.

One of the stuff that director David Yates left out in the movie is that Dumbledore made Hermione and Ron Prefects in this book. What is a Prefect you ask? It’s a student that Dumbledore sees that is responsible to take care of other students, and will make sure that they follow the rules and all that. Ron’s brother, Percy, was a Prefect until he graduated. He didn’t make Harry a Prefect because he didn’t want Harry to feel special in any way. In the movie, Yates didn’t put that in. We do see Ron use that power, like when he stands up to Harry when Seamus Finnigan calls Harry a liar about Voldemort.

Yates does show that Voldemort gets into Harry’s mind and that he is using Harry to mind control him or Harry seeing what is Voldemort’s next move, so Harry has to learn from Snape how to close his mind. Another thing that Yates doesn’t show is that Harry at one point does close his mind, uses a counter spell on Snape, still has trouble after that and Snape leaves the room for a while. When Snape leaves, Harry sees one of Snape’s memories of him being bullied by Harry’s dad, James, during their student years at Hogwarts. Snape stops teaching him the lessons as a result of seeing the memory. Harry is distressed by it that he talks to Sirius and Lupin about the memory via the Floo Powder. They explain to him what happened, and he is fine over that. In the movie, Harry sees that memory when he uses the counter spell, Snape kicks him out, and they never show Harry talking to Sirius and Lupin about the memory. Instead, they show that he is mad, but then is fine a few seconds later when he has to fight Voldemort’s army. Why are you botching this up so bad Yates?

All of this aside, this film does have some really good moments in it as well. It is dark, gets really serious and scary, and I’ll bet that Harry Potter fans will enjoy this one a lot. Much like the James Bond series, there was never a bad movie, so the Harry Potter series is like that. Even though the book and the movie have its flaws, both can be enjoyable at certain moments. Like seeing Harry teach his friends in the Room of Requirement, which they call themselves “Dumbledore’s Army.” Or the epic fight near the end of the movie between the good wizards and Voldemort’s army in the Ministry of Magic. That last action sequence does show how dark and scary the series is getting, especially when they show Voldemort in Harry's mind. I will give Yates credit for taking out those long, brooding moments from the book showing Umbridge rising to power. Those moments, I was going, “I get it now Rowling. Umbridge is a power-hungry witch, can we move on now to something else?” Also, Harry gets his first kiss from Cho Chang in this film.

Helena Bonham Carter is in this movie now playing the dastardly Bellatrix Lastrange, who you would think is either related to or the embodiment of the three witch sisters from the Shakespeare play Macbeth.

Spoiler alert: Sirius dies at the fight, and once again, they play Harry feeling sad over the loss very well. Everyone around Harry is dying now in the second half of the series, so it would come as no surprise why Harry is feeling so cold.

Well, with this entry in the series not being so very well done because of a lot of parts left out, what will Yates do for the reminder of the series? Will he make it good, or will he botch it up as much as he did with this one? Find out tomorrow while I continue “Harry Potter-a-thon.”