Excellent

Rating: Null/10 (14 April 2006)

***LOTS OF SPOILERS*** (how can you give examples of the movie's greatness without spoilers?) One thing I loved about this movie is that you can see the development of teenagers very clearly, especially with Harry. Upon asking Cho out, he slobbers all over it and she doesn't understand him; when he's dancing with Parvati at first he gets nervous and doesn't want to take her waist; when he's on the Hogwarts Express, he finds the trolley to buy some candy, but sees Cho there and is completely lovestruck - he falls back into his seat with a hypnotized smile (perfectly played by Daniel Radcliffe).
Another thing I liked seeing in the movie were the effects. The Priori Incantatem scene is probably one of the best effects I've seen in a while, with the red and green beams colliding and sparking. However there were a few moments which I, plainly, found hard to believe. After taking the Portkey to the Quiddich World Cup, I found the way Cedric, Amos, and Arthur magically floated onto the ground without being thrown down was really poorly done, and just looked like they were riding invisible bikes.
This movie, however, had absolutely brilliant scene flow. Unfortunately, for those that haven't read the book I found it would have been hard to understand the plot. I went to see this in the movie theater with some friends when it had just come out, and I found that the five of us that had read the book spent a lot of the time explaining the story to the two of us that hadn't. I think if these plot holes had been minimized for those who haven't read it this movie would have seemed better for me.
One thing I didn't like about this movie was the cracking voice of Sir Michael Gambon (Dumbledore). It seems to me that Dumbledore's ability to yell, "SILENCE!" at the top of his lungs and really should like the greatest wizard alive was vital, and when his voice cracked in the beginning of the movie I just couldn't bear it, and I still wonder why that wasn't re-shot.
All that aside, this movie was great. The actors were excellent, the effects were brilliant, and the plot was, in my opinion, the best of all the Harry Potter movies/books, and the most interesting. This movie was very well done, and my negative comments were only on a few very minor things.
Eight out of ten.