I saw Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix last night. I won't spoil anything, although I really think that anyone who cares has probably already read the fifth book.
And I understand and appreciate what Rowling was doing. Harry's a teenager and one who's had a ton of bad happen to him. He deserves to become petulant and sullen at some point. But appreciating the attempt and thinking that it works are two different things.
(I want to take a moment hear to plug like crazy Creative Screenwriting magazine's podcasts. They're a how do and how come of how movie scripts come together and how they come to film. They did a podcast on Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Men's Chest, which while I liked okay, it just didn't click for me after I saw it. When I heard the podcast from the writers, I had a new appreciation for what they did, or at least tried to do. I still don't think it succeeded, but that's okay. It's always better to attempt to reach too far rather than not far enough.)
So, having said that, I really liked the movie of Order of the Phoenix. Paring down the script as much as they needed to make it a two hour film helped get rid of the characters-not-talking issue I had. There's a lot of story that got lost or just a brief nod, admittedly, but it holds together nicely. And, I have to say, I think the music really stepped up a notch, being the first one since the John Williams score to stay with me after we left. The military-esque march as they're flying over London sounds great, and heralds the beginning of a war, too.
I think the Potter films leave a fair amount of room for the director, too. The first Chris Columbus film was pretty well just shooting the book, and with the warm gold fill light and loving pans, and worked pretty well. The second got a little too Chris Columbus-y (how many shots of kids screaming at the camera can we have?). But the third felt like a Potter story and yet Alfonso Cuaron brought a new flavor to it. The fifth one had the same "still Potter, but with different seasoning" to it.
The fourth movie? It felt like it was just going through the motions (…walking through the part…) and had no character to it. It was kind of stale. So I was glad to find I liked the fifth as much as I did.
Being the fifth movie in a series, I probably don't need to recommend it much. Either you're on board or you're not. But, if you are a fan, I think the fifth installment will do right by you.