The Order of the Phoenix: Through the Pensieve to 2007

Whoah! Why did no one tell me how awesome this movie was? I remember it coming out, and I remember people going to see it and coming back to my apartment where I was most likely planted at the table staring intensely at Plutarch's Life of Antony and surrounded by Greek lexicons, my eyes glazed over and soulless, and I remember those people uttering ambiguous "It was good" statements. But I don't remember anyone ever saying, "Acree, seriously, you need to get up and see this movie RIGHT NOW."

"But I have to--"

"NO! SEE IT!"

"But Octavia--"

"I don't care! This is not like the other Harry Potter adaptations, which were really just masterbatory wish-fulfillments meant to sustain our fan fever until the next installment was released, and which might as well have been called Harry Potter Does Hollywood. This is an actual MOVIE. Like, with a director."

"We're serious."

I will probably come down off my high in a couple of days and get some perspective on The Order of the Phoenix, but right now I'm still on my broomstick with Fred and George (who I knew all along were secretly hot!) watching Dolores Umbridge's wall of decrees come toppling down with her dignity.

Director David Yates (and/or Michael Goldenberg, who wrote the screenplay) thankfully did away with many J.K. Rowlingisms that weighed down Book V (especially for haters like Shoshi): Harry being constantly berated by classmates; Harry brooding over his dead parents; Harry taking six million trips to Umbridge's office to undergo minor torture. In the book, Umbridge became too oppressive and Harry too downtrodden, so that they nearly sucked the enjoyability out of the awesome parts: the Order of the Phoenix, Sirius Black's family mansion, Snape's ever-increasing complexity. But Yates insinuates these longer trends with short, effective scenes, rather than beating us over the head and wasting precious minutes of screen time.

I thought this installment managed Harry's flashbacks better than any of the others. For the first time, his smiling parents actually lent poignancy, rather than cheese. (Who else thought Lily Potter looked an awful lot like Pam from The Office?) I was worried that [as if anyone doesn't already know] SPOILER ALERT Sirius's death would result in the typical swelling music and "NOOOOOOOO!" of the past four movies, but the moment manages some real gravity without halting the action. (Harry still has to face Voldemort!)

To a non-film buff it seems like David Yates came out of nowhere. Does anyone have the 411 on him?

Some regrets:

--Too bad they didn't show the Quibbler acting as the alternative newspaper to the Ministry-controlled Prophet. Could have been a nice political element. (Or was that later in the books?)

--I wish there could have been more scenes in the Order of the Phoenix headquarters. I remember that place seeming so badass.

--What about Creecher's betrayal? And Hermione's speech about house elves are people too?

--What was with Kingsley Shacklebolt's "comedic" line, "Dumbledore's got style"? Um, yeah, he's a black wizard... we get it.

--I guess a couple of kids can just walk right into the Hall of Mysteries?

Elements of general awesomeness:

--The Ministry of Magic! I couldn't find any good pictures, but my google image search did return about a dozen picasa photos of kids in British phone booths with captions like, "Calling the Ministry of Magic."

--"Ellie" from About a Boy plays Tonks!

--I rented this movie for $1 because that's how much my video store charges for "kids' movies."

Final thought: Is there anyone left in the free world who still pretends they're too refined to like Harry Potter?