Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Compared to previous adaptations of the world acclaimed book series Harry Potter, Order of the Phoenix was quite a bit darker and definitely a tiny bit sadder. With the return of the dark lord, Voldemort, in the previous installment of the series, many a fan who had yet to read the book series that the movies are based upon, did not know quite what to expect.

The return of Voldemort, or He who shall not be named, brought to question what would happen to Harry, the only person to ever survive an attack from the dark lord. In the latest installment, many questions are answered and several more are posed. Voldemort returns full force with many of his followers, known as death eaters, returning as well including a character we all know from previous installments, Lucius Malfoy, father of Potters rival Draco Malfoy.

One little note, someone very close to Harry does die in this installment. I will not tell you who, you will have to see the movie to find out.

Special Effects: Top Notch

The special effects in this movie are definitely top notch. The spells and various magical beings depicted in the movie are exquisite, to say the least. The men behind the special effects spared no expense when it came to bringing the world of Harry Potter to life on the screen. Centaurs, dementors, and one giant half-brother of an old friend of Harry and crew are just a few of the magnificent creatures that the effects crew brought to life for this movie.

No Spoilers

There are not any spoilers in this review, so if you have yet to see this movie, what are you doing, get to the theater and see it. There have already been countless fans buying out theaters worldwide to see this movie. On opening day, the local theater sold out of tickets hours before the first showing was scheduled. The same thing happened Thursday and again on Friday. It began to calm down a little bit on Saturday, but with monumental opening ticket sells, Order of the Phoenix is bound to be a box office smash.

Who is J.K. Rowling?

When the first Harry Potter book was published, many people believed the author to be a male, imagine their amazement to find out that the author of these stories was actually a female. Her reason for using the initials J.K. for her books, was because that the publisher of the first book in the series believed that boys would be biased to a book written by a woman. Being that she only had one given name, Joanne, the publisher told her to make up a middle initial. She chose to the K from her favorite grandmother, Kathleen.

Joanne Rowling was born in Yate, near Bristol, England, just a few miles south of a town called Dursley, the same name she would later give to the the muggle family that Harry lives with. In 1971, her family moved to the nearby village of Winterbourne, where her and her sister were friends with neighborhood children named Ian and Vikki Potter.

Joanne Rowling began her life after leaving Exeter University as an English teacher. One day, however, while stuck on a delayed train for 4 hours between Manchester and London, she dreamed up a boy named "Harry Potter." That was in 1990. Six years later, she had finished writing the first book. After finishing the book, she sent it to two agents and one publisher. One of the agents she picked randomly based on the fact that she liked his name, Christopher Little, instantly fell in love with the story and signed her as a client within three days. From 1995 and 1996, 9 different publishers turned the manuscripts down, but then in 1996, Bloomsbury agreed to purchase it, and Harry Potter was born to the world.

The day that she signed her contract for the first book to be published, the publishing representative told her she would not make any money selling children's literature. By November of 2002, her books had sold more than 175 million copies and been printed in over 200 different languages world wide to become the biggest fastest selling novels ever.

She claims that though several of the characters from her book have traits based on people she knows, only one of the characters is actually based on someone, "Gilderoy Lockhart", the Defense against the dark arts teacher from the second book. One other character in the book is based closely on someone, Rowling says that she based the lead female character, Hermione Granger, on herself.

Among Rowlings many fans world wide, one fan in particular is someone that everyone knows about or at least has heard about. The horror/thriller writer from New England, Stephen King has stated many times over, that he is one of Rowlings biggest fans.

The Deathly Hollows

On January 11th, 2007, Rowling completed the7th and final book in the series titles Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. This final installment is set for a June 21st release and is sure to rap things up in the world of Hogwarts and Harry Potter with extensive finality. With rumors abounding and flying all across the internet, it is hard to say what can be expected in this final release.

What is there to look forward to in the future?

With the release of the7th and final book in the series, many fans are left questioning, what is there to look forward to in the future? In December of 2005, Rowling began working on a new book aimed at younger readers. What this book is about is still yet to be seen, but rest assured, she will not let her fans down.