Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix

Last weekend, I went an saw the much-talked-about Harry Potter 5. After seeing it, I should now call it the 'much-ado-about-nothing Harry Potter movie 5.' I have thought a lot about what I should say about the film, and this is essentially what it boils down to: why can't they let a real Harry Potter fan direct the films? A true HP fan would know what is important to the audience. They'd know what the audience expects, because it would be what was important to and expected by them. They would understand certain nuances of the books, what's important and what is brilliant but extraneous to the main plot. They'd know how to keep the magic alive and thrilling because the books are alive to them. This director...not a very good HP fan. Within the first five minutes, I was already disappointed. I'm glad they cut out most of Harry's hot-headedness and misunderstood angst, but the emotionless Arabella Figg nullified that move. They cut things I didn't think should be cut, emphasized things that shouldn't have been, and bungled the scenes that were mildly important to the plot. I know it's a big book to fit into a tiny movie, but did all the dialogue have to be so rushed? Did so many good characters have to be introduced by garbled lines and brief glimpses? The movie lacked the magic that made the first one so ...magical. This one is like old-news, informative, mildly-entertaining, but nothing that would ever thrill you. Don't the actors realize that they're acting out Harry Potter? We're supposed to see things through Harry's eyes, but where is the surprise when we first see the Ministry of Magic, the Fountain of Magical Brethren, the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, the evil of Dolores Umbridge, and so on and so forth? It's not there, or it's in such disguising-garb as to be completely unrecognizable. All that aside, I'm glad I saw it. The movie did have its good points - Luna, Grawp, Thestrals, Voldemort, Bellatrix Lestrange, and The final battle, to name a few. I loved Harry's battle with Voldemort at the end - well, I loved Harry's response to Voldemort- it embodies the entire theme of JK Rowling's work in my opinion. But then there was the end, with those newspaper headlines that speak of vindication and investigation into Umbridge and Fudge - completely not in the book and completely at odds with the book - there was no vindication, no apology - and Umbridge never lost anything but some dignity when she left the school. Here's to hoping that the seventh book cancels out this particular film.