With the prospect of the seventh and last Potter book to hit the shelves in less than ten days and the increasingly dark tone of the previous four films of the franchise, The Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling’s heftiest Potter instalment yet and fifth film in the series, promised something special. Many consider the 800 page book the weakest in the series, when it is, in fact, one that best showed off Rowling’s talent for character development and wit. It would not be fair claiming every Potter film has so many familiar faces no one is granted the opportunity to truly shine. The Order of the Phoenix can best be described as The Fellowship of the Potter series, since it officiates as part one of a three movie finale.

With the death of a fellow student engraved on his retinas, Harry Potter as well as Hogwart’s headmaster Dumbledore, thoroughly try to convince the wizarding world – and the Ministry of Magic in particular – of the return of Lord Voldemort. Harry must stand trial for having used magic outside Hogwarts after scaring off a bunch of soul-sucking Dementors. At the Wizengamot, the High Court of wizards, he first gets acquainted with one Dolores Umbridge (an exquisitely pink Imelda Staunton). This shrew looks like cotton candy but is, in fact, a true fascist in disguise.

At first, Umbridge is assigned as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts (DADA) teacher, since for the past couple of years the school for witchcraft and wizardry has never managed to keep a teacher on this post for longer than a year. When the Ministry is facing more turmoil and resistance from Dumbledore and his Order of the Phoenix (basically a herd of witches and wizards fighting against the dark side), its leader, Cornelius Fudge, decides to appoint Umbridge as a teacher when she basically is an inspector. This soon leads to promotion as inquisitor and, eventually, headmistress of Hogwarts. Determined to break this dictatorship and due to deprivation of DADA classes, Harry founds ‘Dumbledore’s Army’, a group of Hogwarts students he teaches DADA himself.

The producers of the Potter franchise took quite a risk with attracting David Yates as the director of Potter 5. Yates, mainly known for his TV work for the BBC and the film The Girl in the Café, was quite inexperienced in the field of blockbuster films such as a Potter. On the other hand, however, Yates seemed perfectly capable of focusing on character development and portrayal and this was a crucial aspect of The Order of the Phoenix. And story is what Yates brings, because apart from the occasional action scene (mainly placed at the beginning and the end of the film), Yates takes his time to deepen his characters and storylines.

This is the first film in the series not penned down by Stephen Kloves and one might assume that leaving the writing job to someone other than Kloves would not only lead to a different tone, but Kloves obviously knows the wizarding world of Rowling better than Michael Goldenberg. Fortunately this shift of screenwright turns out pretty refreshing and although accents may differ (just as was the case with the novel), Goldenberg deserves kudos for translating such a bulky novel into a dense and emotionally challenging screenplay. Nearly all the subplots have been removed and Goldenberg stuck to the most important storyline: Harry’s relation to Voldemort.

Goldenberg starts ‘his’ story in stifling hot suburbia, thereby linking the wizardy world to our Muggle world much more effectively than in Kloves’ scripts. Somehow the Dursleys are more useful than we thought in creating contrast between real and wizarding world (this will be much more important in the last two books). Subsequently, the acting is of a much higher level compared to the previous films. Goblet of Fire already had us convinced of Emma Watson’s acting skills, but even lead Daniel Radcliffe seems to have put his teen millions in acting classes (and that was even before he began beating horses naked on a stage), which surely paid off. Staunton’s portrayal of Umbridge starts off very kitsch, leads to amusing and ends in absolutely horror.

Technically things are close to top notch. The pixeling of giant Grawp and the centaurs are so-so, but the final battles are absolutely breathtaking. So is the art-direction, because everything looks just plain wonderful. Nicholas Hooper’s score is the best in the series and his catchy tunes support the story very effectively, but also carry the more dramatic scenes with Trelawney (Emma Thompson) and near the finale. For the first time the magic seems to serve the story in stead of the other way around, and this is surely the craftmanship of Yates. This is a relief, considering the risk involved.

This fifth instalment is the most rich storywise, does not just rely on action and CGI and has the best acting performances so far (although I wouldn’t have minded a little bit more Snape, Trelawney and Bellatrix – Helena Bonham Carter mimicking an evil version of Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack). Yates also has been signed for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, that even more relies on (back)story. This wise choice of the producers is very very promising. Hopefully film 6 and 7 won’t be this dark you have to bring along night goggles to be able to see them.

Directed by: David Yates
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Imelda Staunton, Evanna Lynch, Emma Thompson, Gary Oldman, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Gambon
Runtime: 138′
Release Dates: US: July 11, UK: July 12, The Netherlands: July 11
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