Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix might very well be the least accessible of the Potter films to date. Casual viewers will probably be lost for some time if they don't come equipped with backstory substantial enough to understand what's been leading up to this fifth film. More or less, if you don't know what a Dementor or a Patronus is, the first 20 minutes or so will be a wash. There's some moments that recap the recent past, but it's clear that with each installment filmmakers assume more and more that people are approaching the text from a worldly Potter perspective. That being said, you won't find a connect-the-dots book adaptation here either. Of all the Potter films so far, this is probably the least religious to the original J.K. Rowling text. What is most similar between the book and film (besides the essential plot) is the comparable descent into darker and more twisted dramatic territory. Director David Yates has recrafted Potter here as a dejected, tortured teenager dealing with young love and post-pubescent surges of aggression (mystical in origin, of course). The photography is a moody shade of gray throughout nearly the entire film and there's hardly more than a second where the breakneck tension lightens up to remind us of the book's more frivolous charms. There's humor, but even the sidebars to the sidebars all play very intricately into the grander scheme of things, making this the most focused and cinematic of the Potter features yet.

Yates has found a way to condense and streamline the book's narrative, a feat of great difficulty when dealing with a novel so lavish in its detailed depictions of a complete year's worth of time. Potter-philes might wince at losses to their beloved novel, but the cuts make the leap to the screen go down smoothly. The tyranny of the corrupt Ministry of Magic and its Hogwarts representative, Dolores Umbridge, (Imelda Staunton) are front and center here as is the preparation of Harry and his friends for the coming battle with the evil Lord Voldemort. Most specifically, though, this is a character film following Potter's transformation from isolated and lonely problem child to full-fledged leader and diligent friend. It's the point of the fantasy epic in which a war begins and Harry steps up as more than just a very lucky boy who managed to survive a very dangerous curse.

Yates also has a great eye for mixing the fantastical with the mundane. The Order of the Phoenix is at once the most unglamorous and visually extravagant of the Potter films. Sets and characters are marked with the dirt and grime of a world on the brink of devastation and all the glory and beauty of the wizarding world gets snatched away by the coming peril. Despite the drab scenery though, the film still culminates in a massive mystical battle and the best special effects the series has seen so far. It's compelling, action packed, but also brutally, and refreshingly human. You'd be hard pressed to find more interesting and complete characters in any summer blockbuster this year.

Much of the credit for the integrity of the film's characters is due to the exquisite ensemble cast. Daniel Radcliffe delivers his first assured and rewardingly complex performance as Harry Potter in the film series so far. He's supported nicely if somewhat slightly this time around by Emma Watson and Rupert Grint as partners in crime Hermione and Ron with newcomer Evanna Lynch leaving a dreamy imprint as a new to the gang eccentric named Luna Lovegood who bonds nicely with Harry in his times of desperation. Michael Gambon makes an exceptionally likable and sympathetically world weary mentor out of Professor Albus Dumbledore. He also heads the titular defensive order of wizards which includes Gary Oldman as Harry's godfather Sirius as well the faculty of Hogwarts played by some of Britain's finest actors: Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson and more. The biggest reward of all, though, is Imelda Staunton delivering as eerie a performance as ever seen in the role of the smiling do-gooder menace Dolores Umbridge, a chirpy little lady who likes to make students bleed as part of her routine detention. She's such a phenomenal force of utter repression that she sends the whole film into a compelling, chilling overdrive as we play witness to the first signs of the Potter series' jubilant rebellion.

From start to finish, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is a perfectly calibrated thriller. It's by far the leanest and meanest of the Potter films yet and runs hand in hand with Alfonso Cuarón's Prisoner of Azkaban as the best of the bunch so far. Both stand as recreative works of genius that dredge out the dark heart of Rowling's children's books and reignite them with ingenuity of their own, taking a franchise known worldwide and giving it a fresh, exciting new pulse to keep us riveted. The Order of the Phoenix is not exclusively an extraordinary Harry Potter film. It's a satisfying work on the subject of government corruption, media manipulation, and the complicated lives of modern teenagers embattled with new and increasingly more perilous challenges (magical and otherwise).

Grade: A