Play the movie in as dark a room as possible and turn up the Dolby TrueHD.
What's more, there are the forever unresolved questions: How is it that after all these years, Dudley (Harry Melling) is still too stupid to know that he shouldn't purposely provoke Harry? How is it that after years of trying to become human, Voldemort still can't produce a nose? And how is it that with all the magic in the world at his disposal, to say nothing of muggle contact lens or laser surgery, Harry still has to wear glasses?
Nevertheless, I quibble. The movie continues to offer much in the way of insight and character development, for Harry at least. After all, we get to see Harry's first kiss, and that ought to be worth something. Furthermore, the film has one of the sweetest, most-affecting closing sequences of any of the "Potter" movies thus far, not just emphasizing the power of friendship but the sheer power of love. And there are the delights of Hogwarts itself, with all its fascinating passageways and secret chambers. And there's the look of the movie's special effects, always first rate. And there's the motion picture's superb visual qualities--the sharpness of its details and the distinction of its colors--which one can enjoy on any level.
Video:
Warner Bros. have always lavished their best efforts on the picture and sound quality of the "Potter" series, and for "The Order of the Phoenix" they have done nothing less. Not only does the movie look good in SD and HD, it looks as good as anything I've ever seen in a live-action release.
For the standard-definition version, the WB video engineers use a high-bit-rate, anamorphic transfer and obviously some careful attention to detail in getting reproduction so good. The widescreen, 2.40:1 ratio picture (showing up at about 2.27:1 across my screen, given a small degree of overscan) displays superb object delineation and fine, realistic colors. Set against a perfectly clean screen, free of grain or noise, and with the deepest possible black levels, "The Order of the Phoenix" achieves an order of excellence matched by few other optical discs at this resolution.
Nevertheless, as good as the standard-definition picture is, the high-def edition goes it one better. The HD colors are deeper and richer, and, of course, object delineation is sharper. Moreover, the image is never glassy, glossy, or overbright, always remaining natural in appearance, even in the most dimly lit scenes. OK, in a few opening shots in brilliant sunlight I thought facial hues were a mite too intense, but I assume this was a part of the director's intent because it doesn't happen again. Otherwise, I noticed no noise, edge enhancement, haloes, banding, blocking, or pixilation, with only a fine print grain to give the image some texture.
Audio:
Matching the disc's superior video quality, the three audio formats--regular Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Plus 5.1, and Dolby TrueHD 5.1--do everything one could expect of them. From the very beginning of the movie, the purity, the stereo spread, the dynamics, the impact, the surround information, and the bass make themselves manifestly apparent. When the massive stone doors open to the students' secret chamber at Hogwarts, you should feel the walls of your listening room rumble and shake in sympathy. Seldom do we find ourselves so totally immersed in the sound field as in this film. Although Rowling's story line did not particularly interest me this time out, its presentation both in the movie theater and now in the home impressed me greatly.
So, what do the Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD tracks do to improve upon the regular Dolby Digital's already fine sonics? The DD+ sounds clearer and cleaner to my ears than the regular DD, and the Dolby THD sounds a touch smoother and a tad punchier, especially in the bass.
My recommendation: Play the movie in as dark a room as possible and turn up the Dolby TrueHD. The audiovisual experience you'll have is well worth the effort.
Extras:
As this is an HD DVD and DVD Combo disc, you get the high-def movie on side one and the standard-def version on side two. However, since the SD side duplicates only the first disc in WB's two-disc set, there are no extras involved beyond the thirty-two scene selections; the English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; the English, French, and Spanish subtitles; and the English captions for the hearing impaired.
On the HD DVD side, you'll find the additional choices. The first and most important is the In-Movie Experience ("IME"), which comprises three sets of information. First, there are the picture-in-picture inserts of Dumbledore's Army (the young cast members) commenting on the film; second, there are twenty-eight separate "Focus Points" that take you to mini-featurettes about the making of the film; and third, there is a trivia track with further text facts about the film. These items are not constant throughout the "IME," but they are fun, at least for a while. If you don't want to interrupt the movie with the "Focus Points," by the way, you can choose to watch them apart from the film, either individually (they're a few minutes each) or all at once in a sixty-two-minute segment.
Following the "IME" we get several items that were on disc two of the two-disc SD set. These include a number of additional scenes totaling a little over ten minutes, all in SD anamorphic widescreen. Then, there is a nineteen-minute featurette called "Trailing Tonks," in which we follow Natalia Tena, who plays Tonks, through a typical day on the "Potter" set. And after that there is an interactive segment, "Harry Potter: The Magic of Editing." After a five-minute introduction to film editing, you get to edit your own scene. You choose a camera angle, add music and sound effects to it, and watch it.
Into the bargain, the HD DVD side contains three Web-enabled features, which I did not access because I don't have my player connected to the Internet. So, I'll quote from the booklet insert: (1) "Pick Your Favorite Scenes from the movie, send the list to your buddies and if they have their own HD DVD, they will be able to review and rate your scene list." (2) "Live Community Screening: Create, organize and invite buddies to your very own 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' HD DVD screening party. When you host an invitation-only viewing, you control the film by pausing and playing the feature on everyone's machine. You can also chat live with friends as you watch." (3) "Purchase Mobile Downloads: Scan and purchase cool wallpaper images and ringtones that can be sent directly to your mobile phone." We'll take WB's word for this material, none of which appealed to me, in any case.
As always, the HD side contains the same scene selections and language options as the SD side, and there's an informational booklet insert that chatters on about everything else but provides no chapter titles. And also as always on a WB HD DVD, there are pop-up menus, bookmarks, a video zoom-and-pan feature, a guide to elapsed time, and an Elite Red HD case.
Parting Thoughts:
OK, maybe I went into this film with a bias, not having liked Rowling's book very much. Guilty as charged. Yet it doesn't change my overall assessment that without a solid narrative, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is little more than a steppingstone in the context of the "Potter" series as a whole. Fortunately, the movie looks and sounds great in high-definition picture and sound. And now that we've gotten this installment out of the way, we can get on to what should be a much better proposition in episode six, "The Half-Blood Prince."
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" on HD DVD is available individually or in the five-disc, limited-edition gift set that contains all five of the "Potter" movies released thus far.
Nevertheless, I quibble. The movie continues to offer much in the way of insight and character development, for Harry at least. After all, we get to see Harry's first kiss, and that ought to be worth something. Furthermore, the film has one of the sweetest, most-affecting closing sequences of any of the "Potter" movies thus far, not just emphasizing the power of friendship but the sheer power of love. And there are the delights of Hogwarts itself, with all its fascinating passageways and secret chambers. And there's the look of the movie's special effects, always first rate. And there's the motion picture's superb visual qualities--the sharpness of its details and the distinction of its colors--which one can enjoy on any level.
Video:
Warner Bros. have always lavished their best efforts on the picture and sound quality of the "Potter" series, and for "The Order of the Phoenix" they have done nothing less. Not only does the movie look good in SD and HD, it looks as good as anything I've ever seen in a live-action release.
For the standard-definition version, the WB video engineers use a high-bit-rate, anamorphic transfer and obviously some careful attention to detail in getting reproduction so good. The widescreen, 2.40:1 ratio picture (showing up at about 2.27:1 across my screen, given a small degree of overscan) displays superb object delineation and fine, realistic colors. Set against a perfectly clean screen, free of grain or noise, and with the deepest possible black levels, "The Order of the Phoenix" achieves an order of excellence matched by few other optical discs at this resolution.
Nevertheless, as good as the standard-definition picture is, the high-def edition goes it one better. The HD colors are deeper and richer, and, of course, object delineation is sharper. Moreover, the image is never glassy, glossy, or overbright, always remaining natural in appearance, even in the most dimly lit scenes. OK, in a few opening shots in brilliant sunlight I thought facial hues were a mite too intense, but I assume this was a part of the director's intent because it doesn't happen again. Otherwise, I noticed no noise, edge enhancement, haloes, banding, blocking, or pixilation, with only a fine print grain to give the image some texture.
Audio:
Matching the disc's superior video quality, the three audio formats--regular Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Plus 5.1, and Dolby TrueHD 5.1--do everything one could expect of them. From the very beginning of the movie, the purity, the stereo spread, the dynamics, the impact, the surround information, and the bass make themselves manifestly apparent. When the massive stone doors open to the students' secret chamber at Hogwarts, you should feel the walls of your listening room rumble and shake in sympathy. Seldom do we find ourselves so totally immersed in the sound field as in this film. Although Rowling's story line did not particularly interest me this time out, its presentation both in the movie theater and now in the home impressed me greatly.
So, what do the Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD tracks do to improve upon the regular Dolby Digital's already fine sonics? The DD+ sounds clearer and cleaner to my ears than the regular DD, and the Dolby THD sounds a touch smoother and a tad punchier, especially in the bass.
My recommendation: Play the movie in as dark a room as possible and turn up the Dolby TrueHD. The audiovisual experience you'll have is well worth the effort.
Extras:
As this is an HD DVD and DVD Combo disc, you get the high-def movie on side one and the standard-def version on side two. However, since the SD side duplicates only the first disc in WB's two-disc set, there are no extras involved beyond the thirty-two scene selections; the English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; the English, French, and Spanish subtitles; and the English captions for the hearing impaired.
On the HD DVD side, you'll find the additional choices. The first and most important is the In-Movie Experience ("IME"), which comprises three sets of information. First, there are the picture-in-picture inserts of Dumbledore's Army (the young cast members) commenting on the film; second, there are twenty-eight separate "Focus Points" that take you to mini-featurettes about the making of the film; and third, there is a trivia track with further text facts about the film. These items are not constant throughout the "IME," but they are fun, at least for a while. If you don't want to interrupt the movie with the "Focus Points," by the way, you can choose to watch them apart from the film, either individually (they're a few minutes each) or all at once in a sixty-two-minute segment.
Following the "IME" we get several items that were on disc two of the two-disc SD set. These include a number of additional scenes totaling a little over ten minutes, all in SD anamorphic widescreen. Then, there is a nineteen-minute featurette called "Trailing Tonks," in which we follow Natalia Tena, who plays Tonks, through a typical day on the "Potter" set. And after that there is an interactive segment, "Harry Potter: The Magic of Editing." After a five-minute introduction to film editing, you get to edit your own scene. You choose a camera angle, add music and sound effects to it, and watch it.
Into the bargain, the HD DVD side contains three Web-enabled features, which I did not access because I don't have my player connected to the Internet. So, I'll quote from the booklet insert: (1) "Pick Your Favorite Scenes from the movie, send the list to your buddies and if they have their own HD DVD, they will be able to review and rate your scene list." (2) "Live Community Screening: Create, organize and invite buddies to your very own 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' HD DVD screening party. When you host an invitation-only viewing, you control the film by pausing and playing the feature on everyone's machine. You can also chat live with friends as you watch." (3) "Purchase Mobile Downloads: Scan and purchase cool wallpaper images and ringtones that can be sent directly to your mobile phone." We'll take WB's word for this material, none of which appealed to me, in any case.
As always, the HD side contains the same scene selections and language options as the SD side, and there's an informational booklet insert that chatters on about everything else but provides no chapter titles. And also as always on a WB HD DVD, there are pop-up menus, bookmarks, a video zoom-and-pan feature, a guide to elapsed time, and an Elite Red HD case.
Parting Thoughts:
OK, maybe I went into this film with a bias, not having liked Rowling's book very much. Guilty as charged. Yet it doesn't change my overall assessment that without a solid narrative, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is little more than a steppingstone in the context of the "Potter" series as a whole. Fortunately, the movie looks and sounds great in high-definition picture and sound. And now that we've gotten this installment out of the way, we can get on to what should be a much better proposition in episode six, "The Half-Blood Prince."
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" on HD DVD is available individually or in the five-disc, limited-edition gift set that contains all five of the "Potter" movies released thus far.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]22123[/release]