Trailer: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The fifth Harry Potter fantasy adventure, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is far and away the best so far.

In glorious contrast to the previous film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - the one mis-step in the series - Phoenix is a breathlessly paced, dramatically rich, plot-driven thrill ride of spectacle and pathos.

Directed by David Yates, Phoenix completes Harry's transformation from nervous schoolboy to rebel leader, and sets the effects-crammed cinematic stage for the apocalyptic duel between good and evil that is to come.

Phoenix finds Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) at a critical point in his odyssey. His noseless nemesis Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is back on the scene, preparing to raise an army so he can literally raise hell. Having murdered Harry's parents, Voldemort is keen to finish the job in as public and violent a fashion as possible.

And Harry is ready for him. No longer the timid, round-faced boy wizard from The Philosopher's Stone (2001) and Chamber of Secrets (2002), the rebellious spirit we saw emerge in the outstanding Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) is now in full flourish.

Harry won't be pushed around any more, not even by Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), his long-time enemy at the impressively located Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In Phoenix, Harry stands up for himself, for others, repeatedly defies authority and talks back to teachers. He doesn't even seem to respect the school's dress code much any more.

This puts Harry in conflict with the story's other evil, Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton, in a scene-stealing turn), the new teacher at Hogwarts sent by the interfering bureaucrats at the Ministry of Magic. A lover of tea, pink dresses, meowing cats and firm discipline, her purpose is to usurp the authority of headmaster Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) by introducing ever stricter rules on the students.

Harry finds the road of the rebel tough going, though. His close encounters with Voldemort have made him susceptible to mind control, so as Harry trains his army, Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) trains Harry to deal with his inner demons, which he must learn to control lest his behaviour be driven by pure impulse, which can lead to the dark side of human nature.

If this sounds familiar, it should. The "battle of the self" has become the dramatic theme of choice for blockbuster franchises. We saw it in the early Superman films, it runs throughout the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it's the conceptual pivot of Star Wars (of course) and it even got a big spin in Spider-Man 3. Now, it seems, it's Harry's turn to get introspective. It's as though Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins and Peter Parker are cousins. Or members of the same group therapy session.

Phoenix has a few light touches early on, but the humour that laced previous Potter films has been replaced with a darker, more brooding tone. Indeed, Phoenix is similar in feel to Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith, which is appropriate as both are essentially about gear shifts of the soul.

One presumes that children who were about the same age as Radcliffe when the first film came out will be able to handle the effects-laden horror imagery served up in massive doses by Phoenix. That said, parents are advised to take the M rating seriously. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is definitely not a film for children or sensitive tweens. If you have doubts, please see it first or wait for the DVD. Some of the sequences are intense, even for grown-ups.

And - yes - somebody close to Harry does die, and Yates manages to stage the death in the middle of a swirling special effects set-piece with considerable dramatic force. Reminiscent of the killing of Michael Corleone's daughter at the end of Godfather III, it ranks as the most heart-stopping dramatic moment in the saga thus far.

Source : The Age