Excellent Thriller *May contain Spoilers*

Rating: 9/10 (28 November 2005)

What a wonderful film. As someone who HAS read all the books, I do not nit-pick and complain about what was left out. It is patently obvious that a book of this length is not easily adaptable into a film in the first place.
Mike Newell's direction was fantastic - the film had pace as well as character development and all the important bits were retained. Some people here have complained about the lack of elves - I am probably quite pleased about that, as I found it to be one of the only tedious sub-plots in the whole series. I agree that perhaps a little bit of background on Barty Crouch, as well as the revelation that Barty Crouch Jr was the murderer of Barty Crouch Senior would not have gone amiss. Also, a brief explanation that Neville's parents who had both been aurors (Dark Wizard hunters) had been tortured until they went mad - using the Crucio Curse - would have made it a lot clearer as to why Neville was SO upset during Mad-Eye Moody's lesson on forbidden curses. Apart from that, I thought that the important plot elements were very well dealt with. I thought that the casting was universally excellent. The three leads have definitely matured and improved their range and I agree that Daniel Radcliffe is the most improved. Rupert Grint is a wonderful natural actor and Emma Watson just needs to lose a little of her "drama school" mannerisms and be a little more natural to be even better. The adult cast are uniformly excellent and despite the cameo nature of their roles, Maggi Smith as McGonaggal and Alan Rickman as Snape added great interest and humour to the mix. The raging hormones on show were very amusing and very well described. Mike Newell has managed to pin down teenage angst without any cliché ridden sentimentality. Trust a British Director to finally get rid of the schmaltz! Excellent. The main flaw with the first two films were too many scenes with the three leads grinning at each other and giving long looks to camera. This has all gone (thankfully). Also, the plot was a lot more coherent, and well put-together. The PoA, even though very enjoyable, had SERIOUS plot holes (no explanation as to the identities of "Moony (Lupin), Wormtail (well we know that one now), Padfoot (Sirius Black) and Prongs (James Potter, Harry's Dad) or of why they had these nicknames (they were all animaguses (animagi?) apart from Lupin and had all trained to become one out of deep friendship so that Lupin would not be alone when he was in his werewolf stage) and these were descriptions of their animal identities - Prongs was a stag padfoot the black dog and wormtail the rat) and, consequently, no explanation as to why Harry's Patronus was a stag (like James Potter as Prongs) or why this was the main reason he thought his dad had summoned the patronus to save them). This was the worst plot hole imaginable in what was otherwise an excellent third film. There is nothing nearly so bad in this one. I too missed the Dursleys (especially the excellent Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon)) but can fully understand why they were sacrificed. Also, why no Mrs Weasley? She SHOULD have definitely have been there. These quibbles aside - a truly excellent film and very faithful to the book. I only wish Mike Newell were on board for the next one!!