Only two more days to go, muggles! And with nearly 20 reviews already calculated, Harry Potter’s latest filmic adventure, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," gets off to a fresh (but not as fresh as the previous installments) start with a 76 percent Tomatometer.
Continuing the PG-13 tradition started with the previous "Goblet of Fire," critics are calling "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," for better or worse, a relentlessly ominous film. Among the positive review camp is Mark Adams of the Sunday Mirror, who writes it’s "a deliciously dark affair, brimming with impressively gritty performances but still managing to balance magical wonder with breathless excitement."
Variety’s Todd McCarthy, contributing to "Order"’s fresh Cream of the Crop Tomatometer, agrees. He’s takes delight in the film’s moody atmospherics, which "contribute to the feeling of nervousness and unease creeping into the series."
David Edelstein of New York Magazine claims that the film, "in some ways, improves on J. K. Rowling’s novel, which is punishingly protracted and builds to a climactic wand-off better seen than read." David Ansen of Newsweek disagrees. He argues that the "touch of film magic never surfaces. There’s fireworks and action and much swooshing about, but this interim installment seems stuck in one nightmarish gear."
Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt’s review, among the first ones published, epitomizes the general "Order" criticism: "There is the fact that this [movie] is a watershed of backstory, revelations and plot clarifications before heading into the two remaining chapters. So while ‘Phoenix’ is a necessary film, it’s quite possibly the least enjoyable of the lot so far."
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" will be out in theaters this Wednesday. The final hardcover tome, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," will hit bookstores ten days later on July 21.
