Spellbinding...yet somewhat disappointing

Rating: 8/10 (29 July 2011)

Since the age of 6 I've gone to the cinema to see every one of the Harry Potter films and I have to say they have all been entertaining. And it was this foundation of previous movies that meant I was gripped when seeing this. However, I have to say I expected a little more.
Everything seemed a bit predictable. I wanted more twists in the story and although there were a few I felt that the plot was not as good as in some of the previous films. Perhaps this was down to the director Yates or maybe Rowling was at fault for writing a story which although fans wanted, could have been better. Yes, revealing Snape's past was interesting and there were a few other good things about the plot but the story seemed to come second to the visual aspects of the film. I have to say some things were even stupid; for instance sending the whole of slytherin to the dungeons didn't seem a reasonable thing for professor mcgonagall to do and I thought the seem with Dumbledore could have been a lot better.
My main criticism though is left for the end of the film. Harry's victory over Voldermort could have been a bit more impressive. As well as this, going 19 years into the future and seeing all their children going to Hogwarts for the first time was simply not good enough to conclude this great series of films. Giving Harry and Ron a beard did not make them look 40 and Hermoine and Ginny just looked the same!
However, enough of the criticism now... Although my rating of 8 may seem a bit generous after what I have said, I rated it 8 because it the film was spectacular. I was enthralled throughout the by the visual effects. The battle scenes were amazing and though I have had a dig at the plot, the fact that this is a Harry Potter film made up for that. This film could not have possibly been bad being what it was and I did leave the cinema with a smile on my face.
Finally, the acting which I has been slightly poor in the past (mainly because the children were young) reached is peak in the this film. As always Ralph Fiennes was the perfect villain and all the other adults were very good, I particularly thought Maggie Smith(Professor McGonagall)was very moving.
This film is definitely a must for all Potter fans.