Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I actually hate the harry potter books - I 've always found it difficult to get past the first chapter! However, I am always partial to watching the films - and yesterday I saw The Order of the Phoenix. I was warned by everyone that a lot of the film was left out, but I did in fact "get it"(!), although with the previous film, I had no idea what was going on. For someone going to see the films without reading the books, I was quite happily entertained for 2 hours, however even I could tell many things seemed to be left unspoken for - for example I thought only Harry and Luna could see the dinosaur creatures (sorry i don't know their name!) yet when they needed to fly to London the others were happily clambering on their backs for the ride, and also Jo seemed to disappear after half way through the film! However, even because of these minor discrepencies, a non-Harry Potter fan could still appreciate the visual effects and general storyline of the film, which is certainly an improvement from previous films in this series.