They have all finally grown up. You can now lock up all those painful memories of the babies in their first Potter movie and throw them in the river. With Order of the Phoenix, the characters, the story and, more importantly, the filmmaking have matured. David Yates be praised.

Within minutes of the film’s beginning, you realise that this is serious business. The movie is fast and crisp — which is exactly how any good movie should be. Being the only one who’s seen Voldemort (Fiennes) resurrect, Harry (Radcliffe) finds it hard to convince the rest of the world that You Know Who is back.

To quieten him, the Ministry puts a horribly-annoying and constricting teacher Dolores Umbridge (Staunton) in Hogwarts. But she is the least of his problems. After a bizarre connection between his mind and Voldemort’s, Harry realises that the evil wizard is after something he didn’t have last time, and gets the help of his friends Ron (Grint) and Hermione (Watson) to stop him.

Technically, the film is 100% true to the book, down to the last detail.

Kudos goes to the brilliant special effects by Framestore CFC, MPC and Double Negative. Look out for Grawp — Image Metrics brought the character to life with a breakthrough in film technology, which allowed a computer to map actor Tony Maudsley’s performance onto a virtual human figure. The effect is fantastic; the skin on Grawp’s face, even his happiness on seeing Hermione, is as real as can be.

Plotwise, the film deviates from the book a lot. Potter loyalists may cry foul, but give the screenplay by Michael Goldenberg a chance. He improvises in many places, but remains true to JKR’s style. At the end, that is what makes Order... a better movie than the earlier ones.

The CGI-generated action clasps arms with poetic cinematography to even out the pace of the film. The duelling scenes are breathtaking, and are interspersed with slow-motion and sepia-toned close-ups where emotions kick in. A thoroughly well-researched move by director Yates.

Dan Radcliffe deserves a special mention for giving a power-packed performance. He clearly stands out above the rest, even the cruel Bellatrix (Bonham-Carter) and the whiny Staunton. Plus, his newly-developed jawline is sure to set many teenage hearts aflutter.

An absolute must-watch, even if you have to stand in line for tickets.