Potter film receives lukewarm reviews

The new Harry Potter movie has drawn lukewarm reviews, but millions of muggles are expected to ignore the critics and turn out in droves for the widest release ever for Warner Brothers studio.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth film in the series based on the best-selling novels about a British boy wizard, opens on Wednesday in 46 markets around the world.

The studio is shipping out 22,000 copies globally, Warner Brothers said on Tuesday.

For Warner Brothers, Phoenix nearly double its previous wide release of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 24 markets.

In total, the first four Potter movies raked in $US3.5 billion ($4 billion) in theatres.

Reviews

So far major critics have been less than joyous about the latest Potter film.

Phoenix finds Harry, portrayed again by Daniel Radcliffe, having to defend his use of magic in his recent confrontation with the evil Lord Voldemort. His protector, Professor Dumbledore, is strangely distant.

The New York Times says, "Although [it] is not a great movie, it is a pretty good one."

The Los Angeles Times calls it "no more than a way station in an epic journey," referring to the fact a total of seven films are planned.

In London, The Times newspaper gave Phoenix three stars out of five after its Tokyo premier and said, "It is a film where the balance of narrative tips from action to intrigue, and there are some that will find that tedious."

Website rottentomatoes.com, which compiles reviews, gives the movie a 74 per cent favourable rating.

Box office watchers call the Potter movies "review-proof" because their legions of fans and other muggles - the term for normal humans in the wizard world - typically ignore critics. © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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