Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Today the fifth Harry Potter movie opened and of course I had to see it first thing. I was going to go to a midnight showing, then a 9:45am showing, then 1:30pm showing.. but things kept popping up and delaying us, but we were finally able see the 4:30 showing. We got there two hour early to get in line. We were about seven people back from the front.. it was super hot and we were dying. But after an hour and a half they let us in and we managed to get some of the best seats in the theater.

Now for the movie... As you all know I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. I have read and listened to all the six of the books many many times and highly anticipating the seventh and final book... anyways back to the movie. In short I LOVED IT... this was my favorite of the five movies so far, but I tend to say that with each new movie. This one was much darker and very story driven. This is the longest novel and yet the shortest movie and it just flies by. The SFX are awesome of course and the acting continues to improve. I think the managed to capture the essence of the story but they did cut a huge amount of the book from the movie.. but this was expected. This movie starts off with a bang and continues move fast forward up to the last 25 minute final battle, which is unbelievable. This movie is the most adult of the five. The new characters are fantastic, both Umbridge and Luna are played perfectly. I am seeing this again Friday night at Mann's Chinese theater with some friends and then again with my Dad on Sunday. Some Harry Potter fans will be disappointed at all the cuts, that just the way it is. But this Harry Potter fan enjoys the books as one version of Harry Potter and the movies as another version of Harry Potter. Can't wait to see it again.