There's a real discontinuity between the movies, as new Directors come on board with their own visions of the Harry Potter universe. Peter Yates directs the 5th installment, which many fans claim is the darkest of the series yet. Damn right it's dark. More on that later.
Daniel Radcliffe is 'First Kiss' Potter in this chapter. He hasn't become the "Horny" Potter of the 'Deathly Hallows' - Just discovering puberty, and the bewildering levitation spell that seems to linger in his loins. PRetty much everything else in the movie conveniently fits in a very repetitive cycle of events we have come to expect:
• Harry at home with his creepy Aunt & Uncle
• Harry makes a spell that angers the Aunt & Uncle
• Harry finds his friends Ron and Herimone
• Harry goes to Hogwarts
• Harry has a new teacher at Hogwarts
• There's something wrong with Harry
• There's a big magic battle for the climax
George Lucas said in an interview a few years ago that people like good storytelling in cycles... The familiarity of events that have preceded it. OK, there are new elements in "Order of Phoenix" , like the Ministry of Magic environment, and various funky illusions. Speaking of the magic spells - I finally found a word to describe the magic that shoots out of the wands: "Disco Spooge". It looks silly after a while, and wish there was more variety in the magic. Plus, magic users seem to have incredible powes one moment... then appear pathetic the next.
Going back to the beginning of this review, I mentioned that the Yates film is dark. Yes indeed it's dark. Bad lighting abounds in this movie. Everything seems dull and shadowy. There are many times you can't really see what's going on. Cuaron did a whole lot better in 'Prisoner of Azkaban', even though his movie occured at nighttime for the most part. At least his visuals always seemed crisp, and there was no doubt what was going on.
Yates also appears to take a coffee break occasionally, and forget to film whole parts of the story. Now I know 'Order of Phoenix' was a massive tome, but leaving out certain important parts for the sake of sight gags and silly horse creatures makes the end result a convuluted mess.
Now the Dementors...
I really liked these guys in 'Prisoner of Azkaban'. Quite scary in fact. We see them again in this film, but Yates make them look like Nicole Ritchie in a burlap sack. He also tries to scare us with Harry's nightmare dreams... But it only comes of as a hack job rapid fire editting mess.
With all this directing gone bad, I noticd many people in the theatre checking their watches and shifting in their seats. If I could read the audience's collective concsience with a 'mind read' spell - I'm pretty sure I would hear "Get on with it - Let's get on with the Voldemort battle!"
Voldemort pokes his head into the movie a few times. Since he's the major baddie in the series at this point, it always has to come down to a final battle to ed the movie. Not to spoil it or anything... But if you follow the cycle recipe of the previous chapters, you know someone close to Harry also has to die. Or did they did? I don't really know... Yates does such a crap job on these pivotal scenes, you're not sure what the hell happened.
As a footnote: I went to see this movie with my 8 year old neice. Her review: "Thumbs Up. Best movie ever!" Poor kid.