Main plot suffers thanks to time constraints

Rating: 6/10 (1 December 2005)

Being tasked with creating Harry Potter 4 cannot be easy. One has to out-do movies 1, 2 and 3 just to meet public expectation. Many of the scenes that work well in the book simply can't be filmed - a lot of book 4 was the thoughts running through Harry's head - and you can't suddenly add voice overs to a sequel when the last 3 movies didn't have them. In these respects, the way the film was adapted from the book was excellent. Other highlights for me were the underwater scene and the dragon chase.
Thats about where it ends though. I did not like the new Dumbledore - I don't think this actor has even read the book or he'd realize that Dumbledore is a quiet, humble, respected man who doesn't have to shout or push people around to get things done. He also looks more like a recovering alcoholic than a kind lovable old man.
The cinematography also sucked. Too many close-up shots with blurred backgrounds. This is cheating - the previous movies always had interesting, often humorous magic stuff going on behind the characters, adding depth and the ability to watch the movie a second time and still notice new things. This one was filmed like some kind of low-budget adult drama. The score lacked depth and did nothing for me either.
And lastly, I can understand that there was a lot to get into a 2.5 hour film and they had to drop certain sub-plots, but I really felt the movie was too rushed, the main plot was squeezed to its bare minimum at the expense of scenes like the Yule Ball, which could've probably been cut out along with the others to allow more time to develop the characters and story (so that it makes sense to people who haven't read the book) and to add back in that touch of humor which makes the potter books so much fun to read.