Best Potter film yet; a wonderful adventure

Rating: 10/10 (30 June 2006)

Acknowledging first that I am a big fan of all three other _Harry Potter_ films to date, I strongly believe this is the very best of the lot. While I do miss the house elves, seeing Harry's 'family' in the Muggle world, and many other interesting details, characters, and scenes that weren't adapted from Rowling's fourth book, I feel the director and screenwriter did an admirable job of pulling hundreds of pages of text into a movie less than 2 1/2 hours. Beyond that, the action scenes, such as the extended version of Harry outsmarting the dragon in the movie, are wonderfully constructed and shot. And the amazing foreboding of the climatic scene in the graveyard leads to a masterful translation of that quintessential moment in Harry's life: he finally gets to 'speak' to his loving parents but only a point when his life is at its greatest risk, when he doesn't even get to say goodbye again in the swirl of light and darkness. The young actors are getting better ever time out and their supporting cast keeps adding more talented actors. This is an all time great adventure fantasy film.