We went to see The Order of the Phoenix movie at a preview showing yesterday, before the crowds starting arriving. We were thrilled and moved to tears by it.

I'm not someone who found the book a mess, or bloated. Because I've experienced the utter crulety of people and organisations who smile and simper while they try to destroy you, I shared Harry's frustration, doubt and anger immediately, and read through the book a second time immediately. So I was thrilled and moved to see how superb an actor Daniel Radcliffe is becoming, and how movingly he conveyed all of this, and how tender his scenes with his godfather and real-life pal Gary Oldman were. Immelda Staunton also increased the visibility of Umbridge's inner darkness step by step, better than the book does.

David Yates and his crew have done a marvellous job of rendering the world a dark, fearful place, full of denial and lies. It was almost Matrix-dark! And we all knew many sub-plots would have to be jettisoned with the bigger books - the only one I really missed here was Jo Rowling's brilliant - nay, profound - exposition of prophecy and how it operates in human lives. This meant the final great scene between Harry and Dumbledore was slightly empty of its full meaning.

But in the absence of many sub-plots, we had a really tightly scripted, fast-paced and subtle drama, where CGI was so well rendered as not to be noticed (Grawp excepted, I suppose). The battles in the Ministry were sensationally well plotted and rendered. Because Yates has only directed TV film dramas before I had expected the CGI and action to be a bit tame - but not at all.

And praise, surely, for Michael Goldenberg's screenplay - re-writing many details and adding visual jokes all over the place that always made sense and simplified the many storylines without diminishing the overall arc of story, like Umbridge torturing many students, not just Harry, or Cho betraying the Army, unwillingly. Wasn't the white cat on the plate running to tell 'mummy' that Harry, Hermione and Ron were about to use her fireplace so brilliant? And without Peeves being mentioned in any of the films, George and Fred couldn't leave while shouting "Give her hell from us, Peeves!" ..... but their exit was still an explosion of joy and liberation.

Loved it.