Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Critic Reviews

Darker, leaner, less expansive , and meaner, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is all business, and it casts a spell utterly unlike the first four films.Read the full review

Whatever happened to the delight and, if you'll excuse the term, the magic in the "Harry Potter" series? As the characters grow up, the stories grow, too, leaving the innocence behind and confusing us with plots so labyrinthine that it takes a Ph.D from Hogwarts to figure them out.Read the full review

The flourishes don't answer the question most on Potterites' minds -- who lives, who dies? -- but they briefly stupefy.Read the full review

It finally can't transcend the limitations inherent in being no more than a way station in an epic journey, a journey whose cinematic conclusion is several years away.Read the full review

For those who have gotten their Harry Potter fix entirely through the cinematic incarnation, the script is lucid and fast-moving.Read the full review

It will hook you good and keep you riveted.Read the full review

Taken as a motion picture, the new "Harry" comes up short. But taken as a visual aid to the experience of reading a book, the new "Harry" does its job.Read the full review

The movie is brisk and lively, if not exactly action-packed.Read the full review

"Phoenix" might go down as the problematic film, full of plot but little fun.Read the full review