Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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86 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
DVD 2-Disc Special Features:, 25 Oct 2007
Rather than just add yet another review of the film (like we haven't had enuff of those already!), I thought I'd actually talk about this particular product, the DVD set itself!
So here's a list of the special features included in this 2-disc set that you can look forward to:
Additional Scenes - 17 minutes of never-before-seen footage.
Trailing Tonks - Spend a day with Actress Nat Tena and receive a very personal and often wacky tour of the Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix stages.
Harry Potter: The Magic of Editing - Director David Yates and Editor Mark Day show what a difference a good edit makes to allow the viewers to edit a scene.
A&E Documentary: The Hidden Secrets of Harry Potter - Viewers take a thrilling look back at the past Harry Potter films in search of clues to the mysteries of the upcoming Harry Potter saga.
ROM - Includes a timeline, a link to sneaks of HP6, along with other materials.
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112 of 132 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant...but so much changed and missing, 10 Sep 2007
'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' is the fifth film in the series based on magical books by JK Rowling. Following straight on from the events at the end of The Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermoine Granger begin their next year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Most of the wizarding community doesn't believe Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore's news that Lord Volemort has returned and has been restored to full power along with his army of Death Eaters. The news is seen as a lie due to The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge who doesn't want to believe that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back. Fudge feeds false information about Harry and Dumbledore to the Daily Prophet, the main newspaper that is read by most wizarding folk, which makes them believe that Harry and Dumbledore are liars and their stories cannot be trusted.
Fudge also appoints a new Hogwarts Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher, Delores Umbridge, who steadily begins to take over Hogwarts through the support of the Ministry. Harry, Ron and Hermione immediately dislike Umbridge as she refuses to allow them to discuss the return of Lord Voldemort, and teaches them with no practical lessons. In rebellion of this, and for personal safety against Lord Voldermort and his Death Eaters, Harry begins his own, secret Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons with other Hogwarts students, calling themselves Dumbledore's Army.
The film is an extremely good attempt at capturing the story from the book...for the first half at least. Up until the point where the Room of Requirement is discovered nearly everything is spot-on to the book, then the scriptwriter has seemingly gone off on his own storylines, missing out important plot pieces and characters that are essential to the next book(s). There are way too many differences to list here.
If, like me, you are a big fan of the Harry Potter books and know the "real" storyline well, this film may come of a bit of a let-down and it will have you commenting "why did they cut that out?" and "why did they change that?" for pretty much the whole second half of the film. Don't get me wrong, this is a very, very good film, maybe the best in the series even and a fantastic addition to the movie saga with some top quality acting, action, sets, comedy and special effects but there is just way too many changes to be able to say it is as good as the book but still a very good attempt at fitting a massive book into two and a half hours. For anyone who has seen the other Harry Potter films and not read the books, this film will probably seem like the best yet.
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Longest Book but Shortest Film, 27 Jan 2008
Longest Book but Shortest Film, or How To Turn a 766 page Phoenix into a 128 minute Turkey.
Yes, the film, including credits, actually runs 138 minutes. But the book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is 766 wonderful pages long, from perhaps the best, certainly the most popular writer to bridge the gap between children's writing and adult writing, J.K. Rowling,
A pity that the same cannot be said for the poor wretch Michael Goldenberg who took this wonderful book, cut out almost all the supporting characterisation, and turned in a script which concentrates exclusively on Harry Potter in the least satisfying of the films so far. Where was Steve Cloves, who did such a fine job with the first four screenplays? One wonders why J.K. Rowling let this script pass. Perhaps she gave up the right of script approval. Perhaps she no longer cares, now that the series of books is finished, and she is wealthier than the Queen.
Brilliant, flashing, but hokey special effects dazzle the viewer, but waste so much of the film's running time, that all the supporting characters get short shrift. Hagrid is almost absent. The little brat Malfoy has almost disappeared. Hogwarts itself doesn't look the same as it has in most previous films. Even the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix don't live up to the book: the screaming portrait is gone, and Kreatcher, the Black house elf gets so little screen time he might as well not be there. Tonks has about two lines.
The Ministry of Magic scenes which feature so prominently in the book are minimal in the film.
The whole film has also been printed so dark that one needs to turn up the brightness control to see any of the details of the sets. Maybe Warners couldn't afford to build sets with enough detail to be seen with proper lighting. Maybe Warners doesn't care any more, as long as the money keeps rolling in.
Director David Yates did the best he could with a sorry travesty of a screenplay, but even he couldn't pull this one out of a hat. One hopes for better results with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which he is directing for release later this year, 2008. Good news though, Steve Cloves has written the screenplay.
Too bad that Chris Columbus has bowed out of the production. Too bad that Director of Photography Roger Pratt, who so brilliantly photographed the second and fourth films didn't do this one.
The bottom line: rent this one, don't waste your money buying it. Read the book, if you haven't already.
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