Movie review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

LA, AREA, and I saw the latest (5th) Harry Potter movie today, the day after buying the 7th book in the store. LA has only 50 pages left of the 700-so pages, probably a 24-hour record for him, but AREA is lagging behind because she has been riding instead of reading. Plus they have to take turns.

Back to movie - I am not sure I read the 5th book, but I have read all previous ones. There are some things I remember, but not the general story, so I don't think I read it. But the movie was great - a 4 on a scale of 1-5. The acting was very good, much better than in some of the earlier movies, and it is more serious too, as in seriously scary and depressing. No big monsters though, this time it is more mind boggling and emotional turmoil inside Harry. I liked some of the special effects, they were less Disneyesque than before, and the scenery was definitely not prettified, rather coarse instead. But detailed and well-made. Of course there was a steam train too! So the movie is worth seeing, but you will be confused in the beginning if you haven't seen the previous ones. There is no summary first about what is going on, so read the books, read a summary of all the stories, or something like that so you are a bit familiar with the characters and the places. Or you will be confused.

But what really got me was how political the movie was, since the Ministry of Magic is trying to rule over education and throw innocent people in jail, how they curb free speech and people's right to gather. These days some of this reminds me too much of some of the things going on in America. Not that Lord Voldemort is in the White House, but I guess there is this culture of fear that has been fueled by bad journalism (it isn't even journalism when they just copy and paste from White House press releases and don't think and investigate themselves).