HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX REVIEW

MOVIE: Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, based from the award-winning novel series written by J.K Rowling
DIRECTOR: David Yates
STARRING: Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter; Emma Watson as Hermione Granger; Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley; Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall; Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley; Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort; Katie Leung as Cho Chang amongst others.
RATING: PG-13

MY WARNING: This review contains spoilers. Sorry for those who dislike such things.






As we all know, the Harry Potter novel series has set the benchmark in the Fantasy Genre in books. J.K Rowling's writing adeptness was the forte of the aforementioned novel series. Plot twists and turns define the greatness of this novel series. Meanwhile, the Harry Potter movie adaptations have been so far impressive and breathtaking. It provides the movie viewer an exhilarating experience.

Now comes the fifth movie of the renowned Harry Potter franchise. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the thickest book and it also offers a very complex plot. I can say that some important events found in the book are not present in the movie. Some events are also misleading like that of Cho Chang betraying Dumbledore's Army.

The tagline of the movie is "The Rebellion Begins" and the movie executes that said tagline with some flair and grace. Director David Yates brought the best out of every actor and actress in the movie. As the Goblet of Fire ended, we all knew that Lord Voldemort was back and Cedric Diggory was victimized. In the Order of the Phoenix, Lord Voldemort's presence causes some uproar in the wizarding community. Truth is, Voldemort is getting stronger.

The Ministry of Magic, headed by Cornelius Fudge, simply refuses the fact that Voldemort is back. They simply think that Albus Dumbledore as a mischievous plotter and Harry Potter as a horrific liar. It slowly takes over Hogwarts by assigning Dolores Umbridge as an Inquisitor.

I can say that Imelda Staunton really played the role of Dolores Umbridge really well. She really got on my nerves. She was downright irritating. Kudos to her for a job well done.

The battle against Voldemort is slowly coming into action as both Harry and Dumbledore prepare for battle against the Dark Lord. Dumbledore forms the Order of the Phoenix, an organization that comprises of Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Mad-Eye Moody, Nymphadora Tonks and others, to stop Voldemort's existence. Meanwhile, Harry forms Dumbledore's Army, an organization formed because the Ministry simply doesn't like Defense Against The Dark Arts to be taught. Harry, with the persuasion of Hermione and Ron, then forms Dumbledore's Army to teach them some Defense Against The Dark Arts.

The movie also shows some teenage life elements like that of Harry kissing Cho Chang, which I say is quite impressive. Teenage affection, teenage angst, and other teenage emotions are simply shown in the movie due to the fact that Harry is already 15 years old in this movie.

The movie has its disappointments though. In this writer's opinion, some events like that of Ron and Hermione being Prefects, Ron becoming a Quidditch Keeper, the fake Galleons and Snape's memories should've been present and elaborated but maybe because of time constraints, the said events were not shown.

Being the fifth movie, David Yates was by far presented with the most complicated Harry Potter book and I can say that he executed it with style but still the movie was kinda disappointing.

What made the movie shine was that of the final showdown between Voldemort and Harry, with Dumbledore playing a vital role here. Also, Dolores Umbridge simply made things interesting. I advise you to read all the Harry Potter books for good measure. I tell you, they are a good read and they won't bore you at all.

For now, let's just wait on how the final installments will turn out. I hope that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be impressive.

The movie receives a rating of 4 out of 5.

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THE OVERRATED HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL

As any Disney devotee would know, High School Musical was a movie that is worth forgetting. Many people loved but still many people hated it. This movie came out in late July last year and was considered a smashing hit.

But I beg to differ from the people's view that it was one of the best movies ever produced by Disney. For me, it's simply overrated. The script sucks. The lines were cheesy! The storyline is typical and rehashed from previous Disney movies. The message presented in the movie which is to pursue your dreams no matter about the risks are is so damn awful considering the fact that no one in the film made a bold move to pursue their respective dreams.

I noticed that everyone in the film has this protagonist-attitude. In real life high school, there MUST BE ALWAYS that someone who is rude. In HSM, we only got Sharpay, who by the way has a very poor fashion sense. In real life, there are always LOTS of "antagonists."

Music-wise, I consider it as cheap and retarded. It is also laughable to say the very least. The lyrics of the songs are not inspiring, not suitable for the music industry and it degrades the music and movie industry. There is this song that is "Breaking Free" which sucked. Another song that sucked big time is the song "Start of Something New". IMO, the title shoud've been "Start of Something Bad."

Now the production numbers. A fan of HSM would surely practice and memorize the crappy song and dance numbers. The dance numbers are simply lame. The song numbers, as I've said earlier, degrade the music industry.

About the emotions of the actors this time, it was evident that both Troy Bolton(Zac Efron)and Gabriela(Vanessa Anne Hudgens) that they liked each other. The problem here is that they didn't kiss in the movie. In real life, they would've kissed each other in the movie.

THE BOTTOMLINE:
This movie is really over-hyped. Since it was over-hyped, I watched it and I was very disappointed. It's a Grease rip-off. FYI, Grease was also a musical with the same theme as that of HSM starring John Travolta and Ms. Olivia Newton-John. What's even worse is that there will be a CHEAPQUEL coming soon. Another worse thing is that there would be a Philippine live stage adaptation of it! It simply disintegrates the music and movie industry. Overall, this is a movie that sucked big time.
OVERALL: 4 out of 10