3 Short Paragraphs: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

2007, David Yates -- download

This movie begins the part of the series where I began screaming at the screen like an old man telling it to get off my lawn.  No, not the kids turning into annoying teenagers but at the lunacy of the Ministry of Magic.  This is the story where the powers that be are in Harry (or is it Big V?) denial.  That plot element, while I completely get it from the bad guys seed-dissent idea, frustrated the hell out of me.  The series has spent the first couple of movies establishing a destiny, a prophecy that everyone is buying into.  And with this one fell swoop, it all seems dissembled.  "If you bunch of magical wizardly types all believe in prophecies and the like, why do you need to suddenly discount this one?!?!" screams the old man in the bathrobe.

Then, of course, we also cannot dismiss the overt Dark activities of Dolores Umbridge. From her scratching lies into Harry's hand to her interrogation of Cho, she is going far beyond political evils and into the realms of pure darkness.  The fact that this steels Harry and the kids into creating Dumbledore's Army, which in the long run helps the lot out, always made me wonder whether there were further machinations I was not aware of.  She is maneuvering to take control of Hogwarts but I never got whether she was doing it for personal gain or Big V manipulating or just to lend more political power to the Ministry.  Whatever the motivations, it confounded me that she got away with her obvious tactics while  the wizardly newspaper smeared Harry for acts in a prophecy completely out of his hands.  More cane waving.

This is the ramp up of the dark nature in the films, in the story.  The Death Eaters, introduced in the previous, escaping from Azkaban are no longer questionable.  Harry, and his slithery connection to Voldemort, is all Dark Side of the Force with him fighting to control it lest it control him. But anger seeps through affecting his relationships.  Umbridge's acts were just horrendous, especially when she forces Cho to betray her friends. Strange that all the darkness leads to a definitive reveal of Voldemort, which gives Harry back his credibility and the support of the Ministry.  The world is a darker place, now that everyone admits Voldemort is doing his best to return.