HARRY POTTER has officially gone to the dark side.
In “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” – the fifth and latest flick based on author J.K. Rowling’s magical series – Harry and his Hogwarts pals deal with evildoers lurking in the shadows, murderous, fire-breathing dark wizards and cloaked creatures hoping to suck the souls out of enemies.
It may not compare to acne and one’s first menstrual cycle, but it’s scary stuff indeed. No, in the darkest installment of the series yet, the students at Hogwarts are definitely not kids anymore. They’re teens coping with ordinary ol’ teenage issues: war, danger and death.
OK, maybe not so ordinary (though, puberty is evident and young romance does blossom), but ordinary enough to indulge and relate to the many “Potter” fans who have grown up with the series.
After all, we all know how teenagers hate to be coddled and belittled. They’re out for blood, ready to flee the nest and thirsty for adventure.
“I think it’s generally a lot darker,” actress Katie Leung, who plays Harry’s crush Cho Chang, recently told the Basingstoke Gazette in England. “We’re all
growing up now. When I was portraying my character, she was always upset and depressed and that’s a big change from when I was filming the fourth one. Then,
she was just a normal teenager, happy-golucky and had a crush on Harry.” Harry himself is in a dark place after witnessing the return of evil Lord Voldemort and the brutal murder of classmate Cedric Diggory at the end of the fourth film.
Knowing Voldemort wants to kill him, he has nightmares and becomes increasingly paranoid. He feels isolated when friends and fellow Hogwarts students don’t believe him, and worries that he and Voldemort are somehow connected.
“Harry is going through a lot,” says Geri Broggy, managing editor of popular fansite HPANA.com who saw the film at a London screening. “This is sort of a turning point where Harry and his friends grow up and things get serious. There’s a lot of internal struggle, and that shows in the film.
There’s a part where Harry is worried that he’s like Voldemort, that he’s bad, and he’s letting all of that fear out. He’s scared. He’s not a kid anymore and he knows it.”
But with all the darkness, also comes worry about whether or not the film, in theaters Wednesday, is even appropriate for kids anymore. If, in fact, most of the fans have been fans from the start, and the film is catering to this now grown-up bunch, it may very well be too scary for their little brothers and sisters – eager to be just like their sibling, no doubt – to see.
Potter superfan La Shawn Barber – who runs a Harry Potter fansite for Christians and has not seen the film – loves the book “Order of the Phoenix,” but says, “Personally, I would be nervous about letting any kid of mine see the movie. ‘Order of the Phoenix’ really isn’t a children’s book at all. There are a lot of serious issues. It’s a bit dark. I don’t know that I’d feel comfortable letting a young child see it.”
But Matt Cummins, an editor at fansite Harry Potter Fan Zone who also saw the movie, called it “not so much scary as chilling,” and said he was only frightened” when two Dementors – cloaked, decaying creatures who guard the wizard prison Azkaban – attack Harry and his cousin Dudley “out of nowhere at the beginning of the film.”
Broggy also admits the movie is not kids stuff, but says parents shouldn’t be worried about letting young Potter fans see it.
“It’s dark and intense, but it’s not scary,” she says. “Kids should definitely go see it.
They won’t have nightmares. It’s more that the kids [in the movie] are more grown up; they’re dealing with serious issues and things get a bit intense. But it’s not at all scary. They can handle it, for sure.”
OK, so kids can handle the doom and gloom, but will parents be all right with the maturity, the young love and other perhaps more appropriately teenage, moments? There’s fun banter (perhaps sexual tension, even) between Ron and Hermione, as well as Harry’s first kiss with Cho Chang.
“There’s some interesting interaction in this one,” Broggy says. “Ron and Hermione were fighting like an old married couple, and of course Harry got his first kiss. It’s just another sign of them growing up.” She also points out that Bonnie Wright, who plays Ron’s sister and Harry’s future love interest, Ginny, gave Cho Chang and Harry several annoyed and jealous looks during the movie. “The fans will notice that,” she says. “The hormones are definitely [rising] in this one. I liked it. ”
But while it may make young fans giggle – and their parents squirm – the “teenage” issues aren’t super prominent.
The real story – based on the book that hit shelves in 2003 – focuses on high tensions in the wizarding world, which is bitterly torn in two over the return of evil wizard Voldemort, who at one time killed countless wizards and is getting stronger. “With each book, we witness Lord Voldemort becoming more and more powerful,” uberfan Cummins says. “Since he’s the embodiment of all that’s evil in the series, it’s only natural that things get darker.”
Hogwarts, meanwhile, is taken over by vile Ministry of Magic hack Dolores Umbridge, who during detention makes Harry write “I must not tell lies” with
a magical quill that cuts the words into his hand. Cummins calls actress Imelda Staunton’s performance as Umbridge “chilling yet fluffy” – adding to the dark
feel of the film.
In addition, Harry and his wizarding buds – who fear that the wizarding world is on the cusp of a bloody war – are forced to start a secret society to train themselves for an expected fight with Voldermort and his follower Death Eaters.
The film’s climactic ending features a huge – and deadly – battle, and Harry’s realization that the fate of the wizarding world is actually on his shoulders.
“Toward the end of the film … there’s not many laughs to be had,” actor Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry, admitted at the London premiere last Tuesday. “The feel is much darker and much, much more intense,” says Broggy. “The cinematography is much darker. They use darker tones.”
Many of the sets are physically darker than the first four films, too, from the creepy, cobwebbed headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, a secret order of witches and wizards looking to fight Voldemort, to the eerie Department of Mysteries at the London headquarters of the Ministry of Magic.
But the film’s mystery and suspense will only cast a spell over kids, according to director David Yates.
“Did you never enjoy being scared when you were a kid,” Yates recently asked reporters.
“I loved being scared. I think children love being taken to that territory. It makes them feel vital and alive. It’s a really important thing – and I also think it’s important that children aren’t patronized, that we give them story-telling and material where they have to stretch their fingertips, so to speak.”
Makes sense – but what would Professor Umbridge say?