Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Critic Reviews

Brought me straight back to one of the most enduring of childhood feelings: boredom.

We do get terrific work from the all-star British cast, and the special effects are as seamless as ever.

-Richard Roeper

Director David Yates, who is new to the Potter franchise, moves the story along briskly, at the expense of texture and nuance.

-Joanne KaufmanFull Review

Truth be told, it's the lad's many onscreen allies that prove the film franchise's richest draws. (Thank you, Alan Rickman, for your wonderfully embittered turn as Severus Snape.)

-Lisa KennedyFull Review

Yates, especially given the sinister subject matter on hand, does a rather workmanlike job of traffic-managing the action. But some of the magic effects are indeed magical.

-Peter RainerFull Review

This is the bleakest Potter installment to date, and under David Yates's choppy direction, Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson, Brendan Gleeson, and David Thewlis have little more than walk-ons.

-Andrea GronvallFull Review

The whole Hogwarts faculty is so beautifully cast, it reinforces the American impression that in Britain great actors must be piled up on the side of the road in heaps.

-Dana StevensFull Review

For all the action -- and there's plenty of it, even if it's only a portion of what was crammed into Rowling's 870 pages -- the most important stuff is what takes place in Harry's head.

-Lisa SchwarzbaumFull Review

This is a gangly, confusing sprawl, and yet there are enough patches of beauty scattered throughout that it's impossible to reject it wholesale.

-Stephanie ZacharekFull Review

It seems that love and friendship are qualities worth rattling your wand over. En route, we can once more ooh-and-aah at the franchise's impressive array of acting talent.

-Rick GroenFull Review

There's still enough suspense built into the saga to keep us watching, but after five installments, this dazzling box office wizard is slowly running out of tricks.

-Tom CharityFull Review

Whatever happened to the delight and, if you'll excuse the term, the magic in the Harry Potter series?

-Roger EbertFull Review

To their credit, new director David Yates and new screenwriter Michael Goldenberg never lose the heart of the tale. Even in the midst of an incredibly thrilling magical battle of whippeting wands, flashing light and furor, they focus on Harry's inner war.

-Nancy ChurninFull Review

[The filmmakers] have transformed J.K. Rowling's garrulous storytelling into something leaner, moodier and more compelling, that ticks with metronomic purpose as the story flits between psychological darkness and cartoonish slapstick.

-Desson ThomsonFull Review

Continuing the increasingly darker, more adult trend of the series, the film version is swiftly paced, engrossing and often thrilling.

-Moira MacDonaldFull Review

Yates lacks a steady grip on the shape and rhythm of the film.

-Carrie RickeyFull Review

It all feels a little safe. The movie's full of spells, all right. But where's the magic?

-Stephen WhittyFull Review

A fruitcake-of-a-movie dense with exposition and woefully short on payoff.

-Lou LumenickFull Review

While the film doesn't have the imaginative magic of The Prisoner of Azkaban or the chummy warmth of The Goblet of Fire, it's a serviceable bridge to the story's final chapters.

-Colin Covert

It's the familiar faces that help make Phoenix the best Potter movie yet. Director Yates, who is expected to return for the next installment, continues the shift away from set design and toward performance.

-Rene RodriguezFull Review

Yates is wise not to stuff too many characters into this yarn, and plays everybody well, if sparingly. He can't offer a sense of completion -- more movies to come, you know -- but he offers a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting transition.

-Tom LongFull Review

Partly due to its intensity, Order of the Phoenix is better than the first four in the series. Also credit a much tighter, meatier script and better acting.

-Louis B. ParksFull Review

There is a lot of story here, complex and compelling.

-Terry LawsonFull Review

A movie much more in the mode of a conventional thriller than previous Potter outings.

-Peter HowellFull Review

This series is growing up with moody blockbuster urgency. More emotionally wracked with each new entry, the Potter franchise has become a mainstream fantasy metaphor for adolescent crisis. It's Rebel Without a Curse.

-Ty BurrFull Review

This movie feels less like a plot-point checklist than the last one did, and there's enough visual razzle-dazzle to entertain those who haven't read the book and might miss a twist here or a turn there.

-Kerry LengelFull Review

There's a really good one-hour movie here, but you'll have to blast through 138 minutes to find it.

-Mick LaSalleFull Review

The special effects continue to be masterful, but villains are given a new twist, and Order of the Phoenix is all the more fun because of it.

-Claudia PuigFull Review

Although Order of the Phoenix is not a great movie, it is a pretty good one, in part because it does not strain to overwhelm the audience with noise and sensation.

-A.O. ScottFull Review

For all its gloominess, Order of the Phoenix is, in several ways, the best Potter picture yet.

-Bruce NewmanFull Review

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Critics

79%

Audience

82%

Critic Reviews