Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Starring:
Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Jason Isaacs,
Imelda Staunton, Jamie Waylett, Julie Walters, George Harris, Robbie
Jarvis
Director:
David Yates
U.S. Opening Date: 13 July 2007
They say
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,
Harry returns for his fifth year of study at Hogwarts and discovers that
much of the wizarding community is in denial about the teenager's recent
encounter with the evil Lord Voldemort, preferring to turn a blind eye to
the news that Voldemort has returned. Fearing that Hogwarts' venerable
Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is lying about Voldemort's return in order
to undermine his power and take his job, the Minister for Magic, Cornelius
Fudge, appoints a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to keep watch
over Dumbledore and the Hogwarts students. But Professor Dolores
Umbridge's Ministry-approved course of defensive magic leaves the young
wizards woefully unprepared to defend themselves against the dark forces
threatening them and the entire wizarding community, so at the prompting
of his friends Hermione and Ron, Harry takes matters into his own hands.
Meeting secretly with a small group of students who name themselves
"Dumbledore's Army," Harry teaches them how to defend themselves against
the Dark Arts, preparing the courageous young wizards for the
extraordinary battle that lies ahead.
—
Some sources:
Amazon.com
We say
Another year, another Harry
Potter movie.
Harry Potter and the Order
of the Phoenix is the fifth Potter movie adaptation thus far. The previous
ones were: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (or Sorcerer’s
Stone in the States, in 2001), Chamber of Secrets (2002),
Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and
Goblet of Fire (2005).
Five down, and two to go:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is scheduled for release next year
and the final book in the series, the as-yet-to-be-published Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows, will see the light of cinema projectors in 2010. Of
course the big story right now isn’t the Order of the Phoenix movie
adaptation, but the final Potter book, due to be released on 21 July of this
year.
From the start author JK
Rowling has intended the Harry Potter series to be limited to seven books
—
one book for each year Harry spends at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry. After all, as she has stated in many interviews, we’re talking about
Harry Potter – the Boy Wizard here. What is she supposed to write about
one day then? Harry Potter and the Mid-Life Crisis? Of course, one way to
make sure that a franchise dies —
and stays dead —
is to kill off the lead character. And this has led to mass speculation whether
Harry Potter will actually survive the ending of the upcoming Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows. Will this be the end for Harry Potter? Will he
survive his next confrontation with Lord Voldemort? One thing is sure though,
this sort of hype can’t be bad for book sales . . .
Authors often become bored with
their most famous literary creations. Most famously Arthur Conan Doyle wanted
arch villain Moriarity to kill off Sherlock Holmes in Hound of the Baskervilles,
but couldn’t get it over his heart. But this sort of thing doesn’t always depend
on the author. In Stephen King’s Misery, a deranged fan kidnapped a
famous writer of best-sellers and forced him to write a book in which the
heroine of a beloved series is brought back to life again. Death also isn’t what
it used to be, and didn’t prove to be the end of the likes of Superman, Spock
and the Spice Girls. Like a bad cheque they all bounced back . . .
Only time will tell if the
literary Harry Potter will survive to make it to any superfluous sequels years
from now when author JK Rowling will probably discover that all the world wants
from her is another Harry Potter book, and not any other literary property she
might dream up —
pretty much in the way that TV stars discover that people aren’t really
interested in what they do outside that particular television show (which is why
rumours are rife about David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson both wanting to do
another X-Files big screen movie
—
even though Duchovny famously left the franchise years ago to let them wobble on
without FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder).
Except for a few
minor changes, the key creative personnel responsible for the previous four
films in the franchise are pretty much on board for this sequel (Richard Harris,
the original Dumbledore, is still sadly missed though).
Let’s face up to it: the
Harry Potter movie franchise has thus far been quite blessed in that it
had been of a consistently high quality throughout its six years existence thus
far. Most movie franchises seldom survive this long without an obvious dip in
quality and interest. Think of how the whole Planet of
the Apes series for instance had pretty much gone ape shit by the second
film already (Beneath the Planet of the Apes) never
mind all five of them! Or what about the Nightmare on Elm Street,
Halloween and Friday the 13th movies? By the fifth film in the big
screen Star Trek series, poor Trek fans had to
cope with the abomination that was Star Trek V: The Final
Frontier. Potter fans
have had it lucky thus far and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
continues the trend . . . mostly.
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