But if a kid starts watching 'Potter' movies with this film, would he guess they used to be a little more whimsical?īy now, if we know anything at all about the 'Potter' series, it's that nothing is as it seems, and the most unlikely characters have occult connections. Yes, I know time passes, and the actors are eight years older than when they started filming. Their plots, alas, seem more serious than the mischief Harry and friends would have thought up in earlier days. Hermione ( Emma Watson) and Ron ( Rupert Grint) join Harry in fomenting resistance to Umbridge (sounds like 'umbrage'), and soon they are mapping clandestine schemes to defend Dumbledore. Her enemies include Harry's protector Dumbledore ( Michael Gambon, looking as shabby as a homeless headmaster). The Ministry of Magic, like many a government agency, is hidebound in outdated convictions and considers Harry's warning to be heresy at Hogwarts, a fierce new professor of the dark arts, Dolores Umbridge ( Imelda Staunton), has been installed to whip Harry into line. As a wizard chosen in childhood for his special powers, he has reason to believe Voldemort has returned and will have to be dealt with. Harry ( Daniel Radcliffe) has reason to fear that playtime is long behind. When they eventually arrive at some apocalyptic crossroads, as I fear they will, can the series continue to live in PG-13 land? The archvillain Voldemort is shaping up as the star of nightmares. They weren't trained as magicians for fun. There will come a time, I fear, as we approach the end of the series (one book and two films to go), that Harry and his friends will grow up and smell the coffee. What is it, like a secret Masonic grip? When you're about to get your clock stopped by Dementors and you know the spell, what are you expected to do? Fall over passively and get Demented? But that earns the disapproval of his superiors at Hogwarts, and he is threatened with expulsion, because the spell is not to be used in public around Muggles.

Harry and his cousin Dudley are attacked by Dementors, and in desperation he uses a secret spell to defeat them.

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