Wow.

Just: “Wow.”

I really can’t think of anything else to say, having just gotten home from the 10:40pm showing of “Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix” at Regal Hunt Valley. My first impression, after looking at the time, was “Holy shit, that was only two hours?” I mean, shit, there were at least twenty minutes of movie trailers, most of which looked like vague knock-offs of Harry Potter and Narnia and the Chronicles of Prydain (Wikipedia says the film has a running time of 138 minutes, so maybe the trailers started early …)

Anyway, this is, to my mind, the best Harry Potter movie. For a film that is almost certainly the shortest of the five, yet the adaptation of the book that is by about four hundred pages the longest of them all, I was almost certain I was going to walk out of the theater feeling let down. However …

… with the exception of a few key moments (the attack on McGonagall, the visit to St. Mungo’s), the movie captures the book in a way much more satisfying than how Goblet of Fire captured that book. In addition, the movie feels like it’s four hours — this isn’t a bad thing, I don’t think, the movie moves at such a pace and with so much content that it’s hard to believe you’ve only been in the theater for under two and a half hours.

There are always things that are disappointing. The characters who get a short shrift or almost completely ignored beyond a cameo. The character development cut for plot points. The movie isn’t perfect, of course it isn’t, but I have to say I think its probably the best of the five so far.

Neat Point: The Room of Requirment look familar to you? It should — it’s a redress of the Trophy Room in Goblet of Fire.