Garbage -- Newell, stay away from the bigtime bud, you're far from ready!

Rating: 1/10 (19 November 2005)

I have liked all the movies so far, but this one you could tell they left a lot out and/or changed the story because they were too lazy to tell it right. I am a strong supporter of making a movie as long as it needs to be to tell the story right. Setting a certain length and trying to squeeze material in is just downright sloppy. Mike Newell has only proved one thing to the world with this movie -- he is not ready to play with the big boys. Stick to your sloppy B movies Mike. Stay away from making movies that have the potential to be masterpieces. If the next movie, which thankfully is being directed by someone other than Newell, veers away from the storyline in the manner Goblet of Fire has I would say the Harry Potter series is essentially doomed at least for those of us who have read the books and see what a mess Newell made of it so far. Tell the story the way Rowling has told it, tell it in the same order, and don't change things to make your job easier. Sloppy sloppy sloppy!!!
On a side note however that has nothing to do with Newell or the storyline --
Ralph Fiennes's acting was incredible and I think that needs to be mentioned in his role as Lord Voldemort.
I hope this is the only movie that gets half-as*ed in the franchise or the series will be ruined. If the movie needs to be 3-4 hours, then make it 3-4 hours or two parts even! Reference Lord of the Rings Extended Editions if need be to understand why!!! People will be more than happy to sit down for four hours to watch a movie if it's told right and feels complete. It's movies like that (again reference Lord of the Rings which is 10-12 hours running in extended form) that people sit down and watch again and again and again.
I hope the next director reads these reviews to make a better movie off of Mike Newell's mistakes. Thanks very much for the opportunity to write this.