Espresso cup of flicker

Rating: 6/10 (10 December 2005)

As a major fan of the Harry Potter books and the first two movies, I have to say that this, like Azkaban disappoints. This movie lacks the energy and enthusiasm of its predecessors.
Enormous chunks were cut out of the book, including major characters, sub-plots and parts of the main plot. The bare bones of the book plot were left in and even then there was quite a lot of disconnection. A few new story threads were added to make some sense of the overall story post its radical surgery. There was no understanding of time and pacing through the movie; for example the Quidditch World Cup being held in the summer holidays; the fact that the Triwizard champions were supposed to have one task per term. Other characters were cut back to a cameo at best: Sirius, Snape to name but two. I appreciate that a novel needs editing to take it to the big screen - I loved the treatment of the first two movies - but this seemed like butchery.
My other criticisms: 1. what was going on with Dumbledore's (Michael Gambon's) accent? One minute he was from South East England, the next from Yorkshire, the next from Ireland. At one point I thought he was trying to impersonate Richard Harris! 2. Daniel Radcliffe really needs acting lessons. He is getting worse with each movie. He seems to struggle with expressing any subtleties of emotion
Things I enjoyed: 1. The special effects are superlative, especially the scenes with the dragon. Harry's interaction with the dragon was excellent: very creative and entertaining. 2. Rupert Grint is getting better and better as Ron, managing more subtle humour with his very expressive face. 3. Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort and the whole scene in the graveyard. I felt that this was very true to the spirit of the book and the portrayal was suitably sinister.
If you are an avid Potter fan, you still *have* to see this movie. Just don't hope for too much or you may be disappointed.