Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Directed by David Yates, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix follows Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson), and Ron (Rupert Grint) as they begin preparing for an all-out battle against Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and his legion of devoted acolytes. Filmmaker Yates, armed with Michael Goldenberg’s screenplay, delivers a slick and briskly-paced endeavor that fares about as well as one might’ve anticipated, as the movie boasts an assortment of positive attributes, including eye-catching production design and engrossing set-pieces, that effectively compensate for the narrative’s decidedly erratic bent – with the predictably overlong running time paving the way for a midsection riddled with padded-out and downright needless sequences. There’s nevertheless little doubt that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix generally captures the mood and tone of its source material to a predominantly satisfying degree, although, having said that, it’s hard to deny that Yates’ overuse of computer-generated special effects diminishes the impact of certain third-act happenings – with this particularly true of a pivotal death that essentially comes off as a minor aside during a larger-than-life climactic battle. The end result is a decent-enough adaptation that falls right in line with its watchable yet far-from-flawless predecessors, with the picture’s myriad of problems mostly (and ultimately) rendered moot by the first-class efforts of the often astonishingly impressive roster of periphery players. (This is to say nothing, of course, of the progressively enchanting work by the film’s three thoroughly charismatic stars.)

*** out of ****