Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Movie vs. Book

I just saw the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth installment of the highly popular, and addictive, wizard coming of age series. This is the longest of all the books, coming in at a meek 870 pages. Yet the filmmakers chose to make Order of the Phoenix the shortest film in the series, weighing in at only two hours and eighteen minutes. By now, most of you have already read and heard the main complaint from Harry Potter fanatics - It was too short. Like me, many of these fans would have gladly sat through a four hour (or more) movie, just to see their favorite scenes. But why? What is it about the Order of the Phoenix that fans needed a much longer movie? Well, let us take a look some of the major differences, and some minor ones, that irked me as I sat in the theater.

Something trivial that I missed in Order of the Phoenix and Goblet of Fire alike, is S.P.E.W. The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare (S.P.E.W.), was a movement started by Harry Potter's friend, Hermione Granger, in their fourth year at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hermione started this movement to raise awareness for the plight of the house elf, whose fate it is to be a house servant to the more prominent wizarding families for their entire life. The only way to 'save' a house elf is for their master to present them with a piece of clothing other than the dirty rags they wear. Miss Granger tries to trick the house elves into accidentally picking up clothing she hand makes for them, in order to 'save' them and set them free. Nothing important to the story at all, but house elves are featured somewhat often in the books, even getting drunk off butterbeer at times. The problem with featuring more house elves in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, or any of the movies for that matter, is that they are all computer generated and probably not cheap. So, in order to cut costs on an already CG effects heavy series, and to save time, these entertaining, and helpful, magical creatures have been shut out of the Hollywood limelight.

What about one of the most surprising events in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix? That's right, I'm talking about Ron Weasley becoming a Gryffindor prefect. A house prefect at Hogwart's School is a student that is chosen by the current headmaster, in this case Dumbledore, and is a great honor for ambitious students. In the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix book, a pleasant surprise comes when Ron Weasley receives his booklist from Hogwart's School, and a prefect badge is enclosed. The surprise here is that Ron has always felt, and sometimes come off as, Harry Potter's sidekick; chilling in his shadow through the whole series, not to mention the fact that everybody expected Mr. Potter to be the Gryffindor prefect. The pride you feel when Ron Weasley opens his letter and realizes he is a prefect is akin to seeing your best friend win a nice lottery jackpot. Hermione Granger also becomes a prefect for Gryffindor, while Draco Malfoy is a prefect for Slytherin house. This causes some entertaining scenes and threats between the kids in the books, but there is absolutely no mention of prefects at all in the Order of the Phoenix movie.

Speaking of prefects, you found out in year two (Chamber of Secrets), that Percy Weasley, one of Ron's brothers, was a prefect. Although he is graduated from Hogwart's School, Percy Weasley still plays a small role in the Order of the Phoenix book. This is mostly done by being a git, as he has sided with the Ministry of Magic, so he could get a promotion, and basically separate himself from the Weasley family and turn against Harry Potter and the rest of the Order of the Phoenix. He's even at Harry's trial in the book, but doesn't pop up until Dumbledore's Army is discovered. The biggest loss to the big picture? Stress on the Weasley parents. You just feel for them through the book, whereas you don't even realize Percy and his family don't talk in the movie.

One scene I was especially looking forward to in the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie was St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. In the book, after Arthur Weasley is attacked at the Ministry of Magic, he is sent to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. While visiting him, Harry Potter and the gang get to meet Neville Longbottom's parents, who were tortured into insanity by Bellatrix LeStrange the first time Lord Voldemort came to power. Neville Longbottom's role in the series as whole is much more predominate than in any of the movies. Another reason I was hoping to see the St. Mungo's visit was for the reappearance of Gilderoy Lockhart, Harry Potter's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher from year two (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). Again, no important news or events really happened during that exchange, which is most likely why it was cut, but I enjoyed Gilderoy Lockhart's appearance in the second movie.

As far as discovering the prophecy and the final battle at the Ministry of Magic between the Order of the Phoenix and Lord Voldemort's Death Eaters, there are just too many things wrong to really go into detail, but I will run down what I noticed and can remember off the top of my head:

-First off, when Harry Potter and the gang show up at the Ministry of Magic, they get off the elevator and pretty much walk straight into the Prophecy Room. In the book, there are several rooms, which are each pretty magical and would be great to see on the big screen.

-Then there is Neville Longbottom, yet again. In the book, Neville is injured in the huge battle and gets tortured by the Death Eaters. Movie? Notta! No injuries, no torturing, and almost no sign of Neville until Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort are finished battling.

-Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger had scenes cut from the book during this ending, also. Hermione does get hurt during the battle, and Ron has brain-type creatures attacking him in one of the rooms that were cut from the Ministry of Magic.

-Without going into great detail, and plagiarizing J.K. Rowling, let it suffice to say that the Archway Room is almost completely wrong.

Finally, after all the fighting and drama goes down at the Ministry of Magic in the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter talks to Dumbledore in his office about everything that has been going on and how Dumbledore has been treating him all year. Harry is very upset and is not exactly calm in the book, and rightly so. Dumbledore also shows Harry his pensieve again, which is where Dumbledore stores the thoughts and memories that he just can't fit into his head. This shows more realization on Harry's end, while showing that Dumbledore does still trust Harry with information about the past. The movie shows a nice little sit down between Harry and Dumbledore, with no anger in any way, shape, or form.

Most of these scenes don't add a lot to the story necessarily, but they add immense enjoyment to the journey all Harry Potter fans have been on with J.K. Rowling since Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (the original UK title of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), was published on June 30, 1997. The cutting of these 'not important to the story' scenes is not something new to the Harry Potter franchise, but as the series goes on, more and more scenes are being cut just to fit into this nice little package of a movie that is almost all action, with key plot points thrown in wherever the filmmakers feel fit.

I understand that this short list is, by no means, a complete list of the numerous errors and re-writing in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I welcome, heck, urge, all Harry Potter fans to post their comments on what they wanted to see in the movie, but were let down, once again.