While a great fan of the books; I consider myself almost an enemy of the movies.

Rating: 1/10 (14 November 2005)

Well I cannot hide it. The movie was extraordinarily horrific. Not only have they chosen to cut out 70% of the book (I am not a mathematician so don't get anal about that figure), but they have also chosen to change, even omit, certain details when adapting the book.
Firstly there is the opening sequence with Frank Bryce being murdered in the Riddle-mansion. According to the book only Wormtail, Nagini and Voldemort are present apart from Bryce. But Barty Crouch Jr. is for no real apparent reason also in the room with them. This removes an entire storyline. It is no longer possible for us to discover how Barty Crouch Sr. has staged his own sons's death, it removes Winky from the story and also the episode at the Quidditch World Cup. Which reminds me, what happened there? The match wasn't shown, Ludo Bagman doesn't appear ( and his wager with the twins disappears as well ) we are not introduced to the Veela and so we cannot find any reasonable explanation as to why Fleur has such a great effect on Ron. The other Weasly brothers are not shown ( Charlie should have been there to take care of the dragons ), Amos Diggory is not given a chance to talk so much about how good his son was against Harry in Quidditch ( and Cedric at first seems somewhat arrogant and not at all like he is depicted in the book )and believe me I could go on. I never understood why they were not in the 'fancy' box at the World Cup, and why O' why were we not allowed to see Narcissa Malfoy?
As for the acting I still think the first two were the best in this respect with the first one as a clear number one. Rupert Grint and Emma Watson carry out their roles in a manner above acceptable. Daniel Radcliffe should be sacked and thrown off the set. I do not wish to resort to mudslinging but he is dreadful in this movie. He was good in the first two, halfway decent in the third, but in this his acting is downright poor. He delivers his lines with almost an air of indifference, pay close attention to his reaction when he returns from the encounter with Voldemort, he is supposed to cry but he is not convincing. His performance makes Steven Seagal seem a right Lawrence Olivier in comparison. Michael Gambon is normally a highly regarded actor but it pains me to say that he has no business playing Dumbledore. Richard Harris made that character come to life. He acted the part so brilliantly that I truly believe that they should have stopped after his death. Michael Gambon does not portray Dumbledore as well as Harris. Sometimes he seems even weak, off balanced and not in control. In essence he does not portray Dumbledore but someone posing as Dumbledore. (That's the way it seems). The other actors perform adequately but nothing more.
I was also surprised at the absence of communication with Sirius and equally surprised at his physical absence at the end of the movie (as he should have been there according to the book).
There are numerous other flaws, mistakes, changes, omissions, etc. but I will not bore you with them all here. Bottom line is that this movie is right insult to the books. The story is much too quickly paced, the storyline of the movie leaves one wanting to know more (the things one wants to know were actually revealed in the book), and the story is generally uninteresting. As a whole the movie is not worth watching and by the Force, do I wish I hadn't. Biggest disappointment was, however, Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort. I have no words for this atrocity they call acting. Fiennes is generally a brilliant actor but his performance in this movie should be forbidden by law.
In fact, the creators of this movie should sit down and say: "Crap! We naused it up, lads. Let's call it a do-over."
I give it 1 out of 10 but only because there is no lower grade. This is possibly the worst movie of the last decade. And yes, I saw Deep Impact.