ith the fifth installment of the Harry Potter series, director David Yates (the fourth to lead this series) and screenwriter Michael Goldenberg (also new to the team) pack the door-stopping 900 pages of J.K. Rowling's wildly popular prose into a two-hour and 18-minute movie. This installment is darker, scarier and more intense than its predecessors, brimming with gritty performances and still manages to balance magical wonder with excitement.

Partly due to its intensity, the film is also better executed than the first four. But be forewarned; Order of the Phoenix doesn't waste any time recapping the long, involved Potter saga or the magical and muggle worlds, so this film isn't a good place to get your feet wet.

This time out, Harry (17-year Daniel Radcliffe, maturing into a performer of substance), after spending a long summer with his relatives back in the land of Muggles, returns for a new term at Hogwarts to discover his integrity in question. As he steps out of childhood and toward independence, he finds that his new teacher at Hogwart's doesn't trust him or his friends; he has been charged with using magic outside of school and is to be expelled from Hogwarts.

Worse, the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge (Robert Hardy), has appointed a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, the unforgiving, dictatorial Professor Dolores Umbridge (Vera Drake's Imelda Staunton), a pink-clad villain who rules with an iron fist.

Harry fears this will leave them unprepared to defend themselves against Lord Voldermort's (a superbly malevolent Ralph Fiennes) Dark forces gathering, so at the prompting of his friends, Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint), Harry takes matters into his own hands, leading a small, secret group of students calling themselves Dumbledore's Army. Harry teaches them defense techniques against the Dark Arts, preparing the young wizards for the wicked battle that lies ahead.

Apart from his old pals, about the only support Harry gets is from a clandestine cabal of wizards —among them his godfather, Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), and “Mad-Eye” Moody (Brendan Gleeson) — who help our boy make his way through the treacherous ways of wizardly deceit.

Harry has his first kiss with the lovely Cho Chang (played by Katie Leung), but this love interest is barely an afterthought; Harry's little romance is dispensed with in three waves of a wand.

Yates and Goldenberg have brought a fresh perspective to settings and characters, releasing to the masses a Harry Potter that is the darkest and most character-focused chapter yet. Based on the longest of the Potter books, "Phoenix" is also the shortest of the series, clocking in at two hours and 15 minutes. Rowling's sly wit is still in evidence, and there are plenty of clever, magical effects in the film. The "Potter" sage has ever so subtly matured, making this one disturbingly bleak and occasionally brilliant.