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| Movie Review |
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- In theaters July 11th
- Rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy
violence and frightening images
violence and torture
- Run Time : 138 Min
- 3.5 out of 5
Review by Candi Summers for Mungleshow
Productions
Well, he's back. Harry Potter and crew
return for the FIFTH installment of the
franchise this Summer, Harry Potter and the
order of the Phoenix. I would count myself
as neither fan nor non-fan of Harry Potter,
which is probably pretty uncommon. Even
after having seen all the films I remain so.
I would start out by saying that if you
haven't seen the other movies, don't start
with this one. You will have no idea what is
going on. Harry Potter movies are made for
people who are familiar with Harry Potter
movies, which is a nice thing because they
don't spend too much time trying to catch
people up on what they missed. This Harry
Potter, like the others, portrays the events
of a single school year at Hogwarts School
for Wizardry and Magic.
Harry and his friends are starting to grow up
and facing some big changes. Harry is still
reeling from his encounter with
"You-Know-Who" in movie 4 and his claims
about the experience are causing a huge rift
in the community as the Ministry's official
stand is that he is lying. A new professor,
the seemingly sweet-as-candy Dolores
Umbridge, has been sent to the school by the
Ministry to weed out less-than-above-board
activities. This HP movie feels different
than the last one, which was much more
frenetically paced. OOTP moves in measured,
darting steps from it's first scenes of
seeming calm to it's last flickering moments.
The cinematography and editing style felt
more artistic while still maintaining the
feel of the other movies. While it is
dealing with dark times at Hogwarts, it has
many moments of humor and warmth. Whereas
Harry is usually all on his own, this time he
is surrounded by friends. The CGI is almost
flawless this time.
I usually judge CGI quality by whether it
pulls me out of the reality of the film and
that only happened one time. The acting
continues to be excellent, especially from
Daniel Radcliffe. The only acting that was
over the top came from Helena Bonham-Carter
playing villainous Bellatrix Lestrange.
Fortunately, her part wasn't big enough to
ruin an otherwise evenly acted film. All in
all, the film felt like what it was: a
chapter in the story that will continue with
movie 6. It was enjoyable and made me wonder
about what comes next. As a side note, I
took a rabid HP fan with me to see OOTP and
she was very very happy with the film, saying
it was true to the book for the most part and
is now her new favorite. I give Harry Potter
and The Order of The Phoenix 3 1/2 out of 5
nargles.
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Candi Summers is a full time mommy to Brynn,
Ryan, and Adrian. In her "spare" time she
loves to watch movies, mountain bike,
scrapbook, create short films on her Mac and
digitally restore old photographs. You can
see her work at homepage.mac.com/candisummers
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