Great for the book fan, mediocre for the movie fan - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Reviews

I've seen the movie twice in the last eighteen hours and I tried to get a different perspective each time. The midnight show was the first run, and my reaction overall was positive. The directing and camera work is vastly different from the other chapters in a fantastic way. The young actors are only now starting to be truly believable (though I'm not sure why Hermione always seemed to be out of breath). The adults were as fantastic as ever, I'll never get sick of Alan Rickman or Maggie Smith. Imelda Staunton could not have portrayed Umbridge in a more beautifully evil way; I never imagined anyone would have been that impressive. Without her talent, the movie would not have been as powerful. My favorite aspect of seeing the Harry Potter movies is to help me to visualize what I know so well in the book. This was a fantastic movie for that. Though, as a fan, I must lament about the increased speed of dialogue in the scene where Dumbledore fled with Fawkes. They could have made that more moving, though I can understand their not spending the time. Things must be cut, and I was happy to see that Umbridge was not rescued from the forest. Fred and George's farewell scene was fantastic and visually stunning, and they chose the perfect combination of scenes from the book to pull it off. It took the end of the second time around for me to realize the biggest problem. I'm all for cutting the books up for the movies, as I said above. If anything, there are too many story lines here. My problem is that the climax of the main conflict has no explanation. Why does Voldemort want this prophecy? He obviously knew why he attacked Harry, so Lucius' questioning Harry does not answer what Voldemort's obsession is. As an avid book lover, I didn't even realize the first time through the movie that they didn't mention it. My movie accomplice was very confused about the prophecies (having not read the books) and I was getting frustrated trying to explain them to him. But the movie gave no information on where they come from, how they are recorded, or why they are such a hot item to hunt this summer. We heard Emma Thompson's voice though the prophecy recording, but they did not mention it was her. This is going to come back as a problem when they make the Half Blood Prince movie because Snape's innocence is based on the scene when Trelawney made her first prediction. (As a side note to the above, I must mention that this is at least slightly the fault of the Prisoner of Azkaban movie for glossing over Trelawney's second prophecy with no explanation or information). As far as the plot holes go, that's the only important one (Cho's kiss seemed a bit random, and how Luna, Ginny, and Neville found their ways in to Umbridge's office with no explanation has me thinking, but we can get past that). But the prophecy is so big it can't be forgiven easily. Movie goers who have not read the books and are not attending the film with book loving friends will be confused and disappointed at the lack of explanation. I am going to give this an B+ overall because I truly enjoyed the time I spent in the theatre, and I strongly encourage others to go see it. Though it may be a good idea, now more than ever, to take the time and read the books.