Ending not up to standard.

Rating: 5/10 (17 December 2005)

While I realize the impossibility of including the entire book, the ending of the movie left much to be desired. It seemed as if once Harry took the port-key back to Hogwarts it went completely downhill. Much detail from the book was not explained or eliminated. Unless one had read the book, some of the movie's ending was unclear and confusing. Not showing the ministry's elimination of Barty Crouch, Jr., their subsequent denial that Voldemort had returned, and the enmity developing between the Minister of Magic and Dumbledore leaves a great deal to the viewer's imagination. Not showing Dumbledore's steps taken to reinstate the Order means that the next movie will have a lot of explaining to do before it can initiate the plot for that book. The groundwork for The Order of the Phoenix was not formulated and begs the question as to whether the movie will be a complete hatchet job of the book. The previous movies did a much better job of converting the books to the silver screen.