Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

With five films, featuring the same cast, continually in production for seven years, the Harry Potter movies are a landmark achievement.

As a fan of the books, I hadn't expected much from the films. So much of the charm of the books resides in it's Englishness, which I expected would be jettisoned in favour of spectacle. In fact, I thought the only thing stopping the whole story being transplanted to America was JK Rowlings clout.

I was wrong. The whole production was set in England, the cast was English and the producers announced they were going to remain faithful to the book. I even liked the choice of Director and Producer for the first film-Chris Columbus. He had written Gremlins, one of my favourite films, which had a very dark sensibility I thought perfect for Harry Potter.

I was wrong. I found the first and the second Harry Potter to be very bland. Columbus treated the books with far too much reverence and he seemed terrified of Amercanising the films. The films look harshly lit, the sets stagey and the performances Star-Wars wooden. Columbus had translated the books not to films but to MacMovies.

Oh well, I thought. There is always the books. I resolved not to see any more Potter films after the second installment, believing they were all going to be empty spectacles.

I was wrong. Columbus bowed out after the second film, and the producers signed Mexican Director Alfonso Cuarón, and I got very, very excited. At that point, Cuaron was known for his startling frank and very adult "Y Tu Mama Tambien", and there was talk about the suitability of such a director making a children's film. I had no such doubts after having seen his adaptation of "The Little Princess" a book for kids by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was a sublime film about a girl who loses her father. The film uses the story of Prince Rama and Princess Sita from the Hindu epic Ramayana, as a metaphor the little girl's relationship with her father. Cuaron's understanding of something as culturally foreign as the Ramayana convinced me that he would have no problems with the Englishness of Harry Potter.

The third Harry Potter is a marvelous film as good as the book. It captures all the spirit, playfulness and wonder of the the Harry Potter books, missing from the movies. I also acquired a great deal of respect for Warner Brothers and the producers, for allowing the film to be infused with Cuaron's spirit. Gone was the glossy bubble gum look, wooden acting and the stagey sets. The colours of the film are muted. Hogwarts no longer looks like a series of overlit movie sets, with Cuaron taking pains to pan from one part of the Hogwarts landscape to another to ensure that we see that they are connected. I also saw flashes of the two boys, one girl dynamic "Y Tu Mama Tambien" in the third Harry Potter, proof that Cuaron was given full creative control.

The fourth film directed by Mike Newell is also very good. Again, the studio and the producers backed Newell fully. In particular, Newell makes the condensation of a 734 page book into a two and a half hour film effortless.

It struck me watching the new Harry Potter, that while Harry Potter represents the ultimate Hollywood franchise, costing astounding sums of money to make, and generating even bigger revenues, how non-Hollywood this franchise has turned out to be- particularly so with the latest. This Harry Potter is almost a kitchen sink drama by director David Yates. Again, kudos to Warner Brothers and the Producers for allowing a radical new approach.

Critics have been lukewarm about the latest Potter, accusing it of being humdrum, and a necessary but slightly tedious step towards book/film seven. They point out that the drama replaces the action sequences and set pieces. This is simply not the case. One of the most exhilarating sequences in the film is Harry flying over London with his friends to Sirius Black's house. We see skyscrapers, the Thames and the Parliament House and is as exhilarating as any game of quidditch.

David Yates brings a greater sense of veracity to Potters world by paying extra attention to the look of it's characters. People like Umbride and Mrs Weasly are very plump. Mr Dursley is very blotchy and very fat. Sirius Black looks very careworn. Even the house-elf is more real looking.

Much of the film is shot as a straightforward drama, that's made to work on the strength of script, performance, direction and editing with no star turns for visual effects.

I have mixed feelings about the Fifth Harry Potter Book. While very long, it doesn't further the story very much, and Harry himself, became monotonous with his constant whining. In fact, I prefer the film version over the book, a complete turn around from the first film, where the film was grossly inferior to the book.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the sixth film based on Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I was disappointed in it, since it seemed to be more a story about young Voldemort told in a series of flashbacks, than Harry Potter. Flashbacks can be deadly, killing dramatic tension and suspense. Reading it, I felt the sixth book would have functioned better as a prequel to the first book, a kind like The Hobbit is to Lord of the Rings. But with Phoenix turning out so well, I have high hopes for the Half Blood Prince and the final chapter in the saga- Deathly Hallows.