Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a 2007 fantasy adven
ture film, based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. Directed by David Yates, produced by David Heyman's company Heyday Films, and written by Michael Goldenberg, it is the fifth film in the popular Harry Potter film series.Harry potter and the order of the Phoenix has been promoted through a number of different ways such as print, adverts,interviews, newspapers and products such as toys.
This film was seen in the Times newspaper in a review. Here is a glimpse at what the review was like:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: the first review With searchlights blazing hundreds of metres into the night sky, neon blistering everywhere and a battery of digital cameras capturing every second, the most ultra-modern city on earth seems a million miles from the forbidding stone walls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
But it was here last night in Tokyo that the world was led back – with a good dose of Hollywood razzmatazz – into the realm of magic and given its first glimpse of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: the film that sees the boy wizard growing up to face the dreadful truth of his destiny.
For it is in this latest – fifth – cinematic outing of J.K. Rowling’s saga that Harry painfully begins to understand the battles with evil that lie ahead. It is a film where the balance of narrative tips from action to intrigue and there are some that will find that tedious.
But why, with a cast full to the brim with British talent, a British author and Hollywood’s own brand of special effects magic, should the film have had its world premiere in the Japanese capital? The answer may lie with the movie’s producer, Warner Bros, and the grim commercial dynamics of the notorious “Narita Index” – the number of screaming fans who greet a given Hollywood star at Tokyo airport. When he last landed for a Japanese premiere five years ago, Daniel Radcliffe was greeted by a hysterical brigade of 2,300 fans. Wednesday’s arrival by the teenage actor – admittedly quite early in the morning – drew an emaciated platoon of only 30 autograph-seekers.
And it is this that most worries Warner Bros, Disney and the other tinseltown studios. Last year’s Japanese box office (the second-biggest in the world for Hollywood) saw domestic films narrowly out-gross Hollywood for the first time since 1985. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was the sole offering that prevented a total washout for Hollywood in 2006.
Collectively, Hollywood has decided that it may be time to treat its Japanese audiences with a little more respect. Hence, the latest Harry Potter film was the third Hollywood world premiere (after Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest) to be held in Tokyo in three months. Yesterday, with a lacklustre al fresco cavalcade of special effects and just a single beaming starlet, you could see that some effort was being made. For their part, a relatively sparse throng of Japan’s die-hard muggles pretended to take the tinseltown bait. The film itself is a solid, occasionally spectacular set-piece that struggles unsuccessfully to give us thrills and fun we have not already had in previous instalments.
It is far crueller than its predecessors and begins to introduce properly the idea that we are no longer in an amusing magical playground, but are en route to an epic confrontation with real victims.
The main story at this stage is the quest of Harry and Dumbledore to persuade an increasingly paranoid and uncomfortable wizarding world that its unspeakably vile nemesis, Voldemort (played by Ralph Fiennes), has returned.
The acting skills of Radcliffe (Harry), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) and Emma Watson (Hermione) have improved, but not enough to truly flesh out the characters and provide the narrative depth that this transitional, plot-advancing film needs. They have got “angry” and “determined” down pat at this point, but struggle somewhat on the more nuanced grimaces. Harry’s bellowing cod-psychoanalysis of Voldemort is jarringly awful.
There is also an interview with the cast about the film:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, London Interview
Almost the entire Harry Potter cast had turned up to be interview by the press at the County Hall in London. Look out for discussions on auditions, merchandise and playing ones self in the computer game.
Q: I’d first of all like to ask David Heyman something if I may. This is of course the fifth of what has been an extraordinary successful ‘Harry Potter’ series so far. Every new film we see, we expect more as an audience and as fans of the books. How do you rise to those challenges, David? How do you keep it fresh, so that we all walk away and we’re as excited as we hope to be?
David Heyman: Well, it happens quite easily in a strange sort of way. I mean making the films is never easy, but actually that aspect of trying to make a better film or to keep the standard high is something that comes organically. We have the gift of Jo Rowling’s books which obviously provide us with fantastic and rich source material. So that’s the starting point, then everybody involved in the films is ambitious and wants to make the very best film they and we can. The feeling is, because we’re all avid fans, if we can make a great film, or a film that we’re all pleased with then the fans will be too. Directors are quite competitive, even though they may not admit it and I know that Alfonso wanted to make a better film than Chris, and Mike wanted to make a better film than Chris and Alfonso, and I know, even though he may not admit it, David Yates wanted to make a better film than anybody who’d come before him. And I suspect that with the sixth film he’ll want to make a better film than this one. In fact I know he will. Also, I think that we learn from our mistakes or anything that we’ve done before and all of that helps, I hope, to make each film better, more mature than what’s come before.
Posters advertised to promote the film: http://www.impawards.com/2007/posters/harry_potter_and_the_order_of_the_phoenix_ver3.jpg
http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2007/04/26/harry-potter-phoenix-poster.jpg
These are some of the products that helped to promote the film:
http://gameworlduk.org/images/DS_Harry_Potter_and_the_Order_of_the_Phoenix_g.jpg
http://www.sylvanlaneshoppe.com/08NECA_HarryPotterOotPSeries3.jpg
