2007, UK/USA
Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Thriller
If you face the ultimate embodiment of evil and no one is there as witness, will anyone trust you? As Harry Potter returns for his fifth year at Hogwarts, he faces scorn from the nonbelievers.
Needless to say, this time around the kids have truly matured. Shocked into adulthood by the death of a classmate the previous year, Potter and company arrive at school under clouded circumstances. The truth about his encounter with Lord Voldemort has been publicly questioned by Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, resulting in a shattered reputation that follows Potter to class.
It would be easy to dismiss Potter’s feelings of rejection and misunderstanding as comparable to any teenager’s confusion during this period of growth. Moody, distant and hormonal, he alienates himself from even his closest friends, Ron and Hermione. Perhaps author J.K. Rowling intended to create an identifiable connection to the audience, but this association is quickly dissolved when the students stand on the brink of war. Then again, maybe some metaphors are not so distant.
There is no quidditch match, no playful classroom teasing, no physical comedy involving newly learned magical skills. As the school falls under dictatorial rule by the latest Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Dolores Umbridge, all light is vanquished from what are usually quirkily cheery and curious grounds. Previously, gloom lurked in the corners -- now it breathes heavily over every shoulder.
Whereas prior storylines dealt with knowledge unearthed from the past, the students must now look forward towards a dismal future. With Umbridge cutting short their education, Hogwarts attendees must seek alternative methods for gaining knowledge in order to prepare themselves for impending doom, and the threesome helm Dumbledore's Army as a students’ version of the titular Order of the Phoenix.
Violence is not softened and blood and bruises are left to heal in real time. Death has become an abrupt option for thinning the opposition. Whereas once the delight of random magic held great surprises on screen, now every scene is scanned for the possibility of an unsuspected assault. Choosing sides and ready to fight, the students have come a long way from the innocence of wizard's chess and chocolate frogs.
The story is so thick with characters that even adored regulars such as Hagrid receive merely a cameo. New individuals, such as the morphing Nymphadora Tonks, are intriguing but undeveloped. As the world of witches and wizards is forced to split into armies of good and evil, every character is accounted for in order to do battle.
With all hands on deck, Potter slowly acknowledges that it is not necessary for him to struggle alone. Though his personal conflict with Voldemort never loses significance, Potter realizes the outcome is not solely his fate but that of the entire magical world.
Just as mesmerizing as the series’ films before it, fantastic visual effects support a story that retains the initial originality and intelligence. Director David Yates has created a dark film of serious consequences, and it will only get darker.