Latest Harry Potter movie is a gloomy disappointment

I saw the new Harry Potter movie today but was rather disappointed. I had seen the earlier movies and found them interesting and entertaining and had high hopes that this one would offer similar escapist entertainment. Alas, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was a real letdown. I left the theater feeling that I hadn't gotten two hours of entertainment.

The tricks and special effects would be  interesting if you hadn't seen the earlier movies, but there simply wasn't enough of the earlier movies' "magic" in the story itself to carry the movie.

Apparently, the movie is supposed to be rather dark and gloomy and with older characters, but it just don't work as either entertainment or serious drama.

Maybe they were simply trying too hard to make the movie a little more "real." Whatever, they did a real mash of it.

Overall, it simply felt as if something was missing. Maybe the moviemakers have gotten tired of the franchise and simply didn't care enough to give the movie a real sense of enchantment. Maybe they actually wanted to kill off the Potter franchise and give people a reason not to want to see yet another Harry Potter movie. Alas, there were at least a couple of hints of the need for a sequel to achieve closure of some of the many fractured story lines in this movie.

I just realized that I hadn't seen a trailer for the movie in recent months. That's odd, but maybe it was a deliberate defensive move seeing how little of the movie could be stitched into an appealing come-on.

-- Jack Krupansky