'Harry Potter' Sneak Peek Has Fans Salivating

ByABC News
March 7, 2007, 12:28 PM

March 7, 2007 — -- The cauldron of anticipation for the next "Harry Potter" movie due out this summer got vigorously stirred Saturday in Chicago when unsuspecting moviegoers were treated to the first test screening of Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the fifth installment in the series about the young wizard.

Carlos Amador, who was at the screening, gave it a thumbs up review.

"Great. Incredible. It was the best one yet," he said to ABC News. And he should know -- he's seen all the others in the series and calls himself a "critical fan."

Others who saw the "research screening" -- as Warner Bros. called it -- agreed with Amador. Positive accounts have begun to appear online, and Potter bloggers are salivating, peppering them with questions.

Reviewers were impressed with the special effects, even though some were unfinished. On the Web site Ain't It Cool News, one viewer said, "I loved the parts where [good wizard] Dumbledore's army is in training."

A post on the site Mugglenet called the flight through London "awe-inspiring." And Amador singled out a climactic scene of wizard warfare between Dumbledore and the evil Voldemort as the "most amazing."

Amador says strong performances were what really made this new "Potter" film better than the rest.

"The acting has improved dramatically. The kids are picking up the good habits of the great older English actors who are in these films," he said.

Online reviewers also gave the acting high marks. Of Daniel Radcliffe, who portrays Harry, the Ain't It Cool review gushed, "He seems like he knows what he's doing now. … He is kind of a badass."

No doubt, that fans and others welcomed Monday's announcement by Warner Bros. that Radcliffe had signed on for the final two Potter movies.

But newcomers to the cast also drew praise from those in on the screening. A reviewer on HarryPotterFanzone.com said Helena Bonham Carter played Bellatrix Lestrange "to a tee." Evanna Lynch "was perfectly cast" as the eccentric Luna Lovegood.