Enjoyed it, but slightly disappointed due to missing elements

Rating: 8/10 (19 November 2005)

Enjoyed it, but slightly disappointed due to missing elements
I watched HP4 the other night and overall enjoyed this adaptation. I thought that the graphics and sound were excellent. The editing was a little choppy, bringing the thought of discontinuity to mind, especially if you haven't read the book. I think that there was just too much material to be put into one movie.
Kudos goes to Ron's character. Another reviewer mentioned that Rupert Grint's portrayal of Ron was dead on. I whole-heartedly agree with that statement.
And MadEye's introduction to the fourth year's Defense against the Dark Art's class was pretty good as well. I thought it followed the book close enough. It definitely got the message across that MadEye is a slightly demented but wickedly knowledgeable and powerful Auror.
---Spoiler stuff--- However, being a lover of the books, I was disappointed that the movie bypassed Harry's training in the defense of the dark arts. I thought Harry and Lupin's Bogart/Dementor training, in the HP3 movie adaptation, was well done. In HP4's movie adaptation, MadEye's training was totally skipped over. I think this was a significant miss, because it would show the uninitiated audience how Harry can actually overcome the imperius unforgivable curse. The movie misses again with failing to show Harry's strength when negating Voldemort's own imperius curse... and with Voldemort's death eater's witnessing this awesome defiance. Honestly, would it have taken that long to include these scenes? In the books, it's obvious that Harry gets stronger with every passing school year. You don't get that feeling in this movie.
...But again overall the movie was enjoyable.