After the stopgap episode that was The Goblet Of Fire, which seemed like a longwinded excuse to get 'you know who' back in action and momentarily halted the huge steps forward Alfonso Cuaron made with The Prisoner Of Azkaban, Harry Potter returns with a bang in The Order Of the Phoenix - the most assured, confident and visually impressive episode yet, which is really saying something five movies into a franchise. When Harry (Radcliffe) uses a spell in front of a Muggle, he is brought before the Ministry Of Magic to determine his fate and only the last-minute intervention from Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) prevents Harry's expulsion from Hogwarts. However, the damage is done, and when Dolores Umbridge (Staunton) is appointed teacher of Defence Against the Dark Arts, her first step is banning the use of magic, turning Hogwarts into a school of theoretical wizardry. With the Dark Lord's (Fiennes) return imminent, Harry and his classmates - along with the help of a clandestine band of wizards called The Order Of The Phoenix - hone their skills in secret, but will that be enough? There are a couple of things that make this Potter stand out from the rest. The 'look' of the movie is one, as there is a major shift towards darkness with TV director David Yates concentrating on moodiness and gloom, draining the screen of colour. Maybe dumping series writer Steve Kloves for Contact scribe Michael Goldenberg was the injection it needed, as this feels and sounds like a different film: the jokes are given some polishing and rely more on black humour than your standard English one-liners, the proceedings move with pace (the 138mins just fly by) and there's room for some serious character development as the main man himself is given a lot more depth. The cast rise to the bait: Radcliffe looks more convincing and confident in himself but the pick of the bunch has to be Imelda Staunton, almost hijacking the whole movie with her smiling eyes and bile tongue. Forget what you know about Harry Potter, this is something different entirely.
