The film starts with Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) having to save his pudgy cousin from an attack of dementors, the result of which has Harry going on trial for using magic both outside of school and in front of a muggle. It is during the scene of Harry's trial where we not only get our first look at the Ministry of Magic, but also one of this film's main antagonists, Delores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), probably one of the scariest characters in the whole series, and that says something when you have people like Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) to be compared to.
I think one of the reasons Umbridge is so unsettling is because, while the evil wizards can be easily seen as such, Umbridge wears pink, has an office full of kittens and puts on a soft, sweet voice. In a way, it's like the Uncanny Valley effect where robots look too close to humans to be comfortable. Except here, Umbridge is just too nice to be real, and as her ugliness seeps out slowly throughout the film, you find her character more and more despicable. Needless to say, I feel like Staunton portrayed this character perfectly and really captured her essence.
Before the school year starts, Harry learns that Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) has reinstated a collection of witches and wizards who fought against Voldemort during his earlier rise to power. The Order of the Phoenix once contained many good people like Harry's parents, and while there are still some of the old fighters in the group, there are quite a few new ones as well.
As the school year starts and progresses, Harry begins to have dreams where he sees and hears what Voldemort is up to and soon realizes that whatever he is looking for is being protected by The Order. When Dumbledore learns of this ability, he quickly has Harry start taking lessons under Snape (Alan Rickman) in order to block his mind from being accessible to the Dark Lord. Of course, considering the relationship between Harry and Snape, this doesn't go as smoothly as Dumbledore hopes.
Meanwhile, with Umbridge's presence in Hogwarts only starting to be annoying as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) decide to have Harry teach his own defense classes. With some prodding and the discovery of the Room of Requirement, Harry takes on a class and starts teaching his fellow students what they really need to learn in order to survive in the real world.
All of these events start to build up as Harry's club, "Dumbledore's Army," is discovered and Dumbledore himself is accused of starting it. When Dumbledore is forced to flee custody, Umbridge takes on the role of Head Mistress, and things in Hogwarts goes from bad to worse.
Of course, this is all a preamble to the main event where Harry, Ron, Hermione and several DA members end up breaking into the Ministry of Magic in order to hopefully stop Voldemort from getting his hands on whatever weapon he is after. What ensues is one of the biggest magical fights in the series so far, as well as the death of someone close to Harry.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Ultimate Edition not only comes with a great looking and sounding high definition version of the film and all of the special features previously released, but also the next piece in the 8-part documentary, "Creating the World of Harry Potter." This one focuses on how the movies, actors and sets have changed since the first film was released. Not only does it touch on each director's hand in the shaping of the film, but it also talks about how handy it was for the studio to buy out an old, large, building during the first movie's filming so that they could simply leave massive sets like the Great Hall up all the time. This is definitely one of those documentary pieces that any aspiring filmmaker will want to sit down and watch.
Other special features include smaller featurettes placed throughout the film, with "In-Movie Experience" turned on that is, to give you some behind-the-scenes information on many of the locations and events in the film.
The older special features also include documentaries about the making of the film, about the thought that went into the feel of Order of the Phoenix and even one on the importance of editing as you get a chance to re-edit and score one of the movie's scenes in order to see how the various ways you can edit a scene really change the feel of it.
One aspect I was a bit disappointed in was the lack of an "Extended Version" of the film. Past Ultimate Edition releases included the film with the deleted scenes put back into the movie. As it is, the film itself is the same one that could have been previously purchased on Blu-ray. While all of the other extras really add a lot of value for most Harry Potter fans, it's a shame to have this one feature pushed off to the side.
On one hand, the Ultimate Edition does give you some good extras that any fan will want to go through, on the other, without an extended version of the film, it's kind of hard to recommend this one to anyone who has already purchased the movie. Of course, if you've already started collecting the Ultimate Edition releases, then it would be a shame to stop here since the new documentary seems to get better every time.
