I’d attribute this to two main factors: that OotP was the sole HP film written by Michael Goldenberg, and also that several of the performances in this film get very campy at times, which is completely at odds with the overall darkening tone and serious plot of the movie. Re-watching after having seen the whole series, it fares better, though it’s still disappointing. Coming into this film after my favorite in the series, The Order of the Phoenix, I was massively disappointed when I first watched it in the cinema.
