Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Artistic Genius or Major Flop?

I recently attended "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", and by "recently attended" I mean I sat in line for hours to watch the midnight showing. I will admit that I am a big fan of the Harry Potter books, but how do the movies compare? I really enjoy the movies. I think they are entertaining and are somewhat true to the story.

I absolutely loved the books and the detail that went into making them. However, the movies started going wrong when they decided to have a different director for every movie. Not only does that take away from the consistency, but it makes it feel like you have to get used to it all over again. The next step in this backslide is that the fifth movie came out before the seventh book. There are portions of the fifth book that might be important to know that were completely left out of the movies to save time. Will they be able to recover from that? This was the shortest movie of them all, but it was the longest book in the series through the fifth book.

Now, I am not saying that the movies are bad; I really enjoy them. In fact, one of my favorite things about the movies is that you don't have to read the books to understand what's going on. They cover all the bases to make sure that everyone is up-to-date. This fifth movie in the series (which is one of the longest movie series based off of a series of books) is a rollercoaster. It is so fast paced to make sure everything fits in. Never did I find myself looking at my watch to see how much longer it would take.

The acting was amazing, but the casting could have been better for the role of Umbridge. The cinematography was great, different from the first four, but not unwelcome. The special effects were spectacular, it never ceases to amaze how a giant and a centaur can have roles in a movie. I paid almost $10 to see this movie, and it was completely worth it. I plan on seeing it again in theatres. It was very good and definitely worth seeing at least once in theatres. Was it the blockbuster of the summer? Probably not, but it is still a must-see.