Rising from the Ashes

The Harry Potter film series is turning into the new Star Trek. Like the film adventures of the crew of the starship Enterprise, Harry and the Hogwarts gang have turned out a good movie every other time.

The first in the immensely popular series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), was a feast for the senses as this new world was introduced. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), however, was a nice little adventure, yet hardly advanced the plot. Following Chris Columbus as director, Alfonso Cuaron picked up the reins for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, leading the series down a dark, twisty path that thrilled non-readers of the books yet alienated the die-hard Potter-philes. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (directed by Mike Newell) was an undercooked hodgepodge that almost made me write off any future installments. (Click here for the Toon Talk review of Goblet of Fire.)

Thankfully, I didn’t, for the fifth film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (in theaters now), is exciting and even a bit rebellious as it places our hero front and center in an all-out war pitting good versus evil.