In the fourth Harry Potter film, the big takeaway is that the fears of many are realized when Lord Voldemort returns and plans to wreak havoc on the wizarding world. However, the fourth installment also serves as a pivot in tone for the story and its characters, one for more serious conflicts and issues among the main characters. With their growth and development in the last half of the series of books, adapting the fifth one (titled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) would be a challenge.

What is notable about the film is the shift within the members of the creative team. Michael Goldenberg (Contact) took over the task of adapting J.K. Rowling's work (replacing Steve Kloves, who had adapted the first four). David Yates became the fourth director for the series (following Mike Newell's work on Goblet of Fire), and was primarily known for directing British television. When we run into Harry this time, he is still dealing with the realization of Voldemort's return and the death of a friend during the Triwizard Tournament. When death eaters attempt to take him and his cousin, Harry is forced to use magic to defend them both, something that is frowned upon by the Ministry of Magic, who puts him on trial for it. He is eventually exonerated, but his views on Voldemort's return clash with the Ministry, the primary legal body for the wizard community. This clash stays with us through the duration of the film, mainly with the appearance of Hogwarts' new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher. Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton, Another Year). Umbridge is very close to the Ministry and is convinced Voldemort's return is a myth, and her method of instruction reflects this, with much theological teaching of spells rather than practical exercises. While Umbridge exudes a perky exterior that could be described as a tad excessive, behind the smiles and laughs is a calculating, manipulative personality, one that forces teachers (and their headmaster, Professor Dumbledore) from Hogwarts to gain power for the Ministry. Harry ignores this grab for power and Umbridge's teachings and covertly brings in Hogwarts students willing to be part of a group that will defend themselves against Voldemort's troops should they be confronted.

The action is not limited to Hogwarts though. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) spend a bit more time outside of Hogwarts and in England proper, with Harry understandably getting the bulk of this screen time. The trio still manage to retain the chemistry that has made their films entertaining, though a portion of Harry's other interactions are with his Godfather Sirius Black (Gary Oldman, reprising his role from the third film) and to a lesser extent with Mad-eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson), the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher from the past year. But for all of these interactions, there is still something lacking from the core story, despite its more serious shift in demeanor.

Radcliffe still drives the story along nicely, and his reluctant leading of Hogwarts' students in practicing spells is convincing. He seems to not want much connection or personal interest to others in his battle with Voldemort, and wants to do battle with the Dark Lord on his own. This is largely due to those around him being killed and leaving Harry without a family to call his own. Hermione and Ron provide valued contribution when called upon in the story, and while Sirius and Mad-eye help replace Dumbledore in Harry's life to some degree, they have not given him as much emotion and caring as perhaps Dumbledore might have shown. As far as Voldemort goes (great casting choice in Ralph Fiennes, by the way), the viewer knows that he's returned and those around Harry realize it well, but making the conflict a sensationalized "denying" argument between the Ministry and Harry would seem to sell the qualities of the film short. Harry seems to be doing a lot of mulling over of his prospects in the film, thus making pacing slower despite Yates' attempt to advance plotlines with a series of newspaper headlines from The Daily Prophet. Notable events in Harry's life such as his first kiss have a dull feeling to them and feel more like sensationalism than anything else.

Ultimately, while Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire served to strip away some of the magical elements and mass the proverbial troops on the border in the installments leading to the finale, I can't help but think that's all that Yates, Goldenberg and company do through the course of this two-plus hour film. The characters are marking time and picking up a potential life lesson or two along the way, but nothing that could not have been solved by what Rowling sought to do in subsequent books. There is a fine line in being transitional and being shallow and I think Order of the Phoenix flirts more with the latter.

The VC-1 encode Warner gives Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix looks excellent. Presented in 2.40:1 1080p high-definition, black levels are deep and consistent through the feature, providing for a solid contrast. Skin tones are accurate and image detail is abundant both in the foreground and background, providing for an almost multidimensional feel when viewing. Film grain is present when viewing and there does not appear to be visible DNR through the picture. I have not seen the original Blu-ray disc but if I had the choice between this or the standard definition disc, I'm picking this every night of the week.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless surround track is another in a good line of Warner audio releases (and a change from the previous Blu-ray edition's PCM track). Dialogue is consistent in the center channel, explosions and other sound effects possess subwoofer activity when required and sound remarkably clear on the soundstage. Channel panning is evident when watching the film and the overall sonic experience is immersive without requiring a lot of adjustment during viewing. The balance is strong and might be the better Potter sound material yet.

Warner has taken the supplements from the the previous Blu-ray version and added others for this now two-disc Ultimate Edition. Prior editions had been three and even four discs, kudos to Warner for cutting down on Volume while retaining things. Getting the easy ones out of the way, you've got the usual lenticular card on the front of the cover, along with two character cards (Umbridge and Luna Lovegood), a 44-page booklet loaded with pictures and art from the film and a code for downloading a digital copy of the film for your consumption. The In-Movie Experience that runs concurrent to the film features recollections from the children as they discuss the changes and where they are in their lives when they made the feature. Previsualization and animatic footage is included to vary things up a bit, along with showing some of the puppetry work the film employed. The kids also chime in with thoughts and impressions on the new characters. Along with these IME, the Focus Points that are included as additional nuggets of production goodness include more production-specific discussion and recollections by the new grown-up cast and crewmembers (1:03:10). Everything from Stuart Craig's production design to Grint's 'corpsing' on stage is given a minute or two to play out, and the visual effects also get a lot of time within this section. Both combine for a fairly comprehensive look at the film.

Those in and of themselves do not make for an Ultimate Edition though, and the fifth part of the recurring making-of features on these UE Blu-rays titled "Creating the World of Harry Potter" might be the best of the bunch. Titled "Evolution" (57:36), all of the franchise's directors discuss their individual intents and their approaches when tackling the material. Producer David Heyman discusses some of their departures but it's done in the nicest possible manner. Rowling shares her first impressions on the director of the first two films in Chris Columbus and on working with Kloves on the scripts. A higher level overview at Craig's production designs and the computer effects is given longer time to be discussed, and the cast share their opinions as to how things have changed through the years. On its own it's an excellent look at the films and worth the time in watching. From there, "Behind The Magic" (46:46) appears to be a look at the film produced for British television where we see the story and characters giving more attention and interview time. Its inclusion into the disc is nice, but a little redundant.

Things get a little more stale from there rather quickly, but "Building the Magic" (20:22) shows us the labor and attention to detail in getting the sets for the film right and the intent for some of them. Things like Umbridge's 'office' were highlighted in the Focus Points, but it's nice to see it here. "The Rebellion Begins" (23:13) is where the stars talk about the story and I've got to say, they really have their talking points down, Rasheed Wallace style. The new cast members share their thoughts on the production and the opportunity to work in the franchise and the established performers talk about the newbies. "Fulfilling a Prophecy" (13:02) is the most EPK-ish of the bunch, to the point where my wife and I started guessing what the kids would say next and be right most of the time. "Trailing Tonks" (19:25) is where the woman who plays Nymphadora Tonks (a member of the Order of the Phoenix) in the film walks around the sets and meets with some of the lesser-recognized areas such as sound effects and hair and makeup and gives them a moment or two in the sun. The actress (Natalia Tena) is active and outgoing, but at 20 minutes this is way too long. "The Magic of Editing" is where you get the chance to edit a scene (with sound) to your choosing. Nine deleted scenes follow (10:57), and they're forgettable with the exception of a hilarious improvisation by Emma Thompson, and the teaser and trailer complete the package.

Knowing what I know of the films (and to a degree, the books) that followed it, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix cautiously dots the I's and crosses the T's in their characters arcs before the heavy lifting gets done. The performances are decent (Staunton's is outstanding), the story is okay, but technically this is outstanding, and worth buying if you've grabbed the first four already.