Intense action but no sense of wonder

Rating: 6/10 (26 November 2005)

Given the reviewer hype, this is a very disappointing effort: video arcade action with virtually no dialog; poor direction (new-to-the-series director Mike Newall) with characters sporadically departing from previously established personae; rife with discontinuities, insufficient context (there is a misplaced reliance on viewers having memorized the book) and bad editing; Michael Gambon's inability to comprehend the concept that Headmaster Dumbledore is supposed to be an old man, not an angry young man wearing a beard (I do so miss Richard Harris's characterization); and, not least, much of the sense of wonder engendered by the prior films has not survived.