Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

2007 ***

Not much to say here. It's the usual review we all give to every Harry Potter movie, with the notable exception of the third one. Too much data to cram in there, the story seemed too rushed. It's not just the scenes they skip, but the way they zip through the scenes they keep. In any given scene, there's never enough attention paid to the mood or the setting or the tone. Alan Rickman comes off as a genius because his is the only character permitted the use of a dramatic pause.

There are decent performances and some good spectacles, although nothing as exciting as that dragon and Harry squaring off on the rooves of Hogwarts from the last movie. And since I love the books the fun of seeing them onscreen balances out the disappointment a little. I like those actors.

So I have this theory. I didn't like Chris Columbus's approach to his Harry Potter movies. But now we've had competent directors on movies 3-5 and both 4 and 5 have that same rushed quality as the first two. Based on the burden of information in each story, I'm willing to bet no director could have made the first one without hitting that rushy problem.

But the second one...I bet a good director could have nailed that movie. We'll never know, but that's the first part of my theory. The second part is this: after some time has gone by and they're wondering how to make more money off of this franchise, they should do a TV miniseries. Make it as long as they like, leave out nothing. Heck, add stuff.

God, I'm dying for that last book. Less than 24 hours!