I went to see the midnight showing of Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix last night. I don't see many movies in the theater anymore, but I was determined to see this one as soon as it was released. Rather surprising, considering how angry I was after reading the fifth book. I guess I've had time to recover from the death of my favorite character -- and Rowling is an amazingly gifted writer. I keep hoping that at some point they'll get one of these movies right.

See, I haven't been completely happy with the movie versions of the books in the past. I thought the first two (Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets) were junk. The third (Prisoner of Azkaban) was good -- but how could it not be with introduction of Serius Black? *wink* The fourth (Goblet of Fire) was decent, but relied too heavily on easy laughs and visual thrills. Like the first two films, it skimmed many of the deeper points of the story.

I thought this fifth installment was the most true to its book. It focused on Harry's emotional struggle and didn't distract us with crazy CGI -- although the scene in the Department of Mysteries was pretty cool.

If you're a fan of the series, I think you'll like it.

Now the wait for Book 7 (Deathly Hallows). I always get the book on CD, in addition to a hardback copy. I LOVE listening to Jim Dale read these stories. I would recommend the audio versions of the Harry Potter books over the movies, any day.