Review of Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix (HD DVD)

Introduction

With David Yates taking the reins (and maintaining a level of consistency seen throughout the films), and featuring the usual who`s who of British acting, it`s business as usual in the fifth instalment in the much loved series. The story continues to grow ever darker (will there be a light at the end of the tunnel?), and the goings on more sinister.

Lord Voldemort has returned, but the Ministry of Magic does all it can to keep the wizarding world from knowing the truth - including appointing Dolores Umbridge as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts. When Umbridge refuses to teach practical defensive magic, Ron and Hermione convince Harry to secretly train a select group of students for the wizarding war ahead.

As much as a fan I am of cinema, and as much as I support the British film industry, I`m not really a fan of Harry Potter. In fact, I`ve never read a book in the series, even though I did once try. On every occasion that a new film, based on JK Rowling`s books, is released, I watch with much anticipation. Not because I`ve liked what I`ve seen before, but because I`m hoping I can find that `magic` that seems to elude me, and that entertains many others. It`s not that I don`t want to like the adventures of Master Potter, but I just can`t really engage with the films, for one reason or another. Maybe I`ve subconsciously programmed myself to dislike them - because of all the furor and hype that surrounds every new book or theatrical release.

So I didn`t watch the film wanting to hate it, but instead I had an open mind and clinged onto the vain hope of realizing the wonderment that has so far escaped me. If you`re interested in reading a review of someone who does generally enjoy the films, then Stuart McLean`s look at the SD version might be worth checking out as well. But I`ve reviewed this without taking too much notice of general consensus, so I`d like to think I`ve given a balanced overview of what to expect. It does look spectacular in High Definition, and for Harry Potter fans with the option, I`d say this was a no-brainer. But for the non Harry Potter fans? Read on…

Video

As you would expect of a new film, with a budget as big as this, it has a sharp detailed print that really demonstrates the power of HD. It`s not perfect; darker scenes suffer from an small amount of noise, but day and well lit scenes really shine. It`s been given a 1080p/VC-1 encode, which is more or less common for HD DVD at the moment, and mirrors the Blu Ray version. It`s also letterboxed slightly due to the films original aspect ratio.

Audio

Featuring a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround sound track, it`s a fantastic demo for your home theatre. The mix is as good as you`d want from a big budget release, and you are totally drawn into the film thanks to the fantastic sound design. You also wouldn`t know the score wasn`t a John Williams original, and again it equals with the high level of consistency seen throughout.

In comparison to the Blade Runner re-release, I was happy to see that there was no element of volume tinkering, thanks to levels and a great amount of clarity all round. Once the disc was in, you could sit through and embed yourself into the world of Harry Potter.

Features

The disc does share some of the same features as the SD disc, as well as an abundance of exclusives. This is a features rich HD DVD release that debuts a new interactive feature, `Live Community Screening`. Before talking about that more, I`ll cover the Standard features (which are supplied all in SD also):

Behind the Story: Trailing Tonks - A 19 minute feature that follows one of more minor characters. It`s well done, and is a good insight to the movie sets and the experiences of the cast.

Harry Potter: The Magic of Editing - Director David Yates and his Editor Mark Day talk us through the basics of editing, and then allow the viewer to cut their own short scene. A nice little introduction for the young `uns.

Additional Scenes - A small number of deleted scenes, some good, some bad. Nothing in there really that would`ve justified a longer running time though.


The following features are exclusive to HD DVD:

Behind the Story: Focus Points - A series of featurettes, which cover (albeit in short segments) many part of the making of and the story of Harry Potter. The quality is HD, and it looks great; the entire set of features run in excess of an hour.

Live Community Screening - In a first for home cinema, the HD DVD brings "Live Community Screening", where fans with the same film can watch together "from their own internet-accessed players and text with (their) remote, PC or phone. When you host an invitation-only viewing, you control the film by pausing and playing the feature on everyone`s machine. You can chat live with your friends as you watch." Sounds a good idea, especially for a film with like this, with a big fan-base. I wasn`t able to try the feature out, and didn`t actually know anyone else with the disc. But I`d be interested in hearing from anybody who has tried it, to see how worthwhile it is.

Share Your Favorite Scenes - A bookmarking feature, so you can share favourite scenes with friends. I didn`t try this feature, and I can`t say it would necessarily appeal to me either. But I`m sure some Harry Potter fans might get some use out of it.

In-Movie Experience - Using a Picture in Picture format for the films commentary, many of the cast members give facts and personal stories, whilst the main feature plays out. Much of it is good, but it`s clearly geared towards children, although you can access more in depth explanations of how scenes were put together when a yellow disc in the top corner of the screen glows yellow. It`s quite a fun way to watch the film, especially when you are able to see immediately how a set was built, or an effect was produced, with the click of a button, as the scene plays out.

Conclusion

A film usually has a good measure of peaks and troughs - knowing exactly when to thrill the audience and exactly when to drop you back down again. The Order of the Phoenix tends to just drift along, with barely any major set pieces (in comparison to the previous films) and a story that just about keeps things going. Harry Potter enthusiasts will still enjoy it immensely, and although the films tend to cater for a wider audience as well, this is much less of a crowd pleaser. There`s not so much magic (pun hardly intended) and wonder this time around, and for all the developments in the characters, the story barely picks up any great pace until the third act.

It starts well, with some nice CGI spooks immediately trying to set the tone for the fifth Harry Potter film. We also have a nice flyby of London that again, could and should be a good trend setter for what it is to follow. Imelda Staunton, who plays Dolores Umbridge marvellously, is then soon thrown into the mix as we enter another term at Hogwarts. However, whereas major additions to the cast haven`t had to carry the film on previous occasions, here we have the controlling teacher from hell resting a majority of the story on her pink coated shoulders. This is where the film manages to fall flat. Umbridge`s maniacal treatment of the school and its children just isn`t that interesting. There`s subplots as usual, and surprises galore (that won`t surprise if you`ve read the books of course), although you can`t help but feeling that it`s just bridging the gap for the two concluding films.

Production values are great, as you would expect, and it seems no expense has been spared in realising JK Rowling`s vision. You can`t argue that the Harry Potter films don`t look great, and it`s great that the British have such a high quality product to export. It helps that the fan-base is enormous, that it`s been put together by a great crew (and helmed by quality directors), and that the cast hasn`t changed (Dumbledore excluded). In Order of the Phoenix Rupert Grint is further sidelined, and Emma Watson balances on the right side of irritating once more. So what of Mr. Radcliffe, who - now clothed after spending time with a horse on a stage in the West End - finally gets his first (horribly awkward) screen kiss?

The often stern faced Radcliffe has lost the innocent joy altogether now, that was at least was a mainstay in the (much lighter) first two Columbus produced films. As the series has gone on, he`s become more angry, more rebellious, and more keen to fight for the truth. You could argue in many respects that he`s just being a teenager. Even so, as a viewer I was willing him to just have fun, even if we are now seeing a much more genuine performance from the young actor.

Where the film does improve on the others in the series, is the running time. Although it`s only 3 minutes shorter than the Goblet of Fire, it`s still almost 25 minutes shorter than the very first in the series. If they keep it up, by the time we get to the final film we might actually have a sensible running time, for what is essentially a kid`s film*. Okay, so the source book is huge and a large amount of compression is undertaken in order to ready the film for the big screen, but I can never understand why children`s features need to run as long as 120 minutes or more.

I wouldn`t dissuade any Harry Potter fans from seeing the film, although at this late stage I doubt that there`s many who haven`t. Pott-head`s (as I choose to call them) will find much to love - and complain about - in this latest instalment, and it really is a fan pleaser as much as anything. For the viewer with only a passing interest in the series then, I would be a little bit more cautious in my recommendation. If you`ve seen the previous films, then there isn`t a good reason not to see this. It ticks all the boxes, looks great, and continues the series in a fairly decent manner. But it won`t wow, and it`s just missing a few important elements from the potion, that would`ve made it a great mix. Instead it`s just a film that doesn`t really rise above or below the previous instalments in a way that makes it stand out. For newcomer David Yates that`s a good thing, and does at least bode well for the Half-Blood Prince in 2008.


*Come on more grown up readers, you know it`s true.