Plot: What’s it about?
By the time that “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” came out, Mr. Potter and company were already a worldwide phenomenon. Come to think of it, that was probably true when the second book came out back in 1999. Still, when I saw this movie in the theaters in July 2007, I’d only seen one of the previous films (“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”), but having not seen any of the other films nor read any of the books, I was a bit lost. But 2007 was a big year for “Harry Potter” and just because of this film. It was also the year that the final novel came out, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” This is only now coming to theaters and unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve heard about the final part of the final movie. It was after I saw this movie that I decided that I’d see what all the fuss was about. So I went to my local Border’s and picked up copies of all of the books. That, I suppose, was the benefit of waiting until 2007 to start reading and not having to suffer the wait between the books and movies. I’ve now read them all. Twice. Suffice it to say that there was a lot that went on in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, the longest of all the novels nearing 900 pages from beginning to end. Here’s how the movie played out.
Fans of the series will know that at the end of the fourth book/movie, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, that Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) has returned. He’s been thought dead since the first book/movie, but he’s found a way to regain his human form. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) has survived an attack in public by the dementors, guardians of the wizard prison Azkaban, and was forced to use magic in the “muggle” (human) world. A serious offense. He’s no sooner put on trial for his actions than he’s dismissed. All of this happens over the summer and Harry and friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) are set to start their fifth year at Hogwarts. With Voldemort being back, this puts additional stress on Harry as the two share somewhat of a psychic rapport. Add to this Harry’s age, his interest in girls and the trials and tribulations of being, well, Harry Potter. We meet the “Order of the Phoenix” as a group of older wizards whose sole purpose is to fight the forces of Lord Voldemort. The group resurrects itself since the last time since Voldemort was thought dead. Led by Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), Harry’s godfather, the Order tries to find a way to rid the world of Voldemort while at the same time trying to convince the bureaucrats at the Ministry of Magic that he (Voldemort) has really returned. Will they be able to and how will Harry factor into everyone’s plans?
It’s a bit difficult to condense a 900 page book into one paragraph and the movie, running at nearly 140 minutes, isn’t even one of the longer ones. Most all of the “Harry Potter” movies have made plenty of money, with even the “least” successful raking in over $250 million and still garnering a spot on the Top 50 grossing movies of all-time. “Order of the Phoenix” was certainly no exception and, looking back on it, has become one of my favorite of the series. There was actually talk of making some of the “Harry Potter” films into two movies, but ultimately they decided to do this to the last book. If there was ever one that needed to be two movies, it’s this one. Still, they manage to get the nuts and bolts in there so even the most casual of fans will be able to keep up. Nothing I can say will really matter at this point. There are now 6 of the 8 “Ultimate Editions” available and if you’ve got them all now, will you really stop? I didn’t think so.
Video: How does it look?
The 2.40:1 VC-1 HD transfer appears to be the exact same one used in the previous Blu-ray release. That’s not an issue, however, as the original was fairly good-looking. As any “Potter” fan knows, the movies do get darker in both tone and nature. While “Order of the Phoenix” does have its share of darker scenes, the converse is that there are some lighter ones to balance it out. Take the opening scene, for example, we see the yellowish/brown wheat in England, the detail of Harry’s scar and the texture on the CGI ice (when Harry encounters the dementors). I’d previously watched this film on HD DVD when it originally came out and this Blu-ray is certainly a cut above that. This Blu-ray looks great and there was no need to re-invent the wheel here because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Audio: How does it sound?
What is different is the new DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack. The previous Blu-ray featured a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack, but this one feels like its opened up a bit more. Vocals sound about the same, but the surround effects do seem to have more depth to them. The ending scene where Voldemort and Dumbledore battle is among the best I’ve heard in the “Harry Potter” series and the score sounds amazing as well. The front speakers take the brunt of the mix, but it all seems to flow and sound very natural. This mix is certainly a step up from the original, so if you’re on the fence about upgrading to this “Ultimate Edition”, this might coax you in that direction.
Supplements: What are the extras?
As with all of the other “Ultimate Editions”, this two disc set is packed (literally) to the gills with supplements. The first disc contains the picture-in-picture “In-Movie Experience” with the focus points that play throughout the film. These can be watched individually if you like, though I find it’s a bit more relevant to watch them while watching the film itself. Moving onto the second disc, we find the major supplement and the major draw of all of these “Ultimate Editions.” This is part five in the series of “Creating the World of Harry Potter” and this installment is called “Evolution.” We get some insight on the production design, costumes and art direction of the series. Admittedly, though interesting, this wasn’t my favorite of the ones I’ve seen so far, but that’s just me. When all is said and done we’ll have 8 hours of these features, so that’s a good thing. The remainder of the supplements are what we’ve already seen before, with “Behind the Magic: The Sets of Harry Potter”, “Fulfilling a Prophecy”, “The Rebellion Begins” and we follow Natalia Tena (who plays “Tonks” in the movie) through a day in her life. We do get a little segment on film editing and we can edit our own scene. Cool! Also included are the teaser and theatrical trailers. Lastly, since this is an “Ultimate Edition” we get a bound book with production photos, a very robust keepcase for the discs and two cards (Luna Lovegood and Dolores Umbridge). There’s also a link for a downloadable digital copy of the film (valid for nearly a year).
