All the major exciting moments of the book, with no explanations in between

Rating: 8/10 (23 November 2005)

Being a fan of both the HP books and the movies, I have to admit I had very high expectations for this movie, since the book was so great. It's not that the movie was bad, but I was so disappointed at the way they pieced to movie together. I understand that there were time constraints, but I felt there was a lot of plot holes, and certain key elements of the story and character development that were left out.
One particular plot hole is that fact that Harry finds Barty Crouch (Sr.) in the woods dead, but there is no real explanation of what happened to him, why, and how it all relates to Barty Crouch Jr./Mad Eye Moody. The book does a great job of using this point in the story to add to the mystery and intrigue of the story, but in the movie, it is just some confusing incident that never really gets resolved.
It seemed to me that they just randomly choose to cut parts of the movie, while keeping other insignificant parts. IMO they should have made either 2 movies, or 1 longer movie in order for the events to be pieced together more cohesively. My friend and I left the theatre, and I spent the entire car ride trying to explain the movie to him, because he had never read the book.
All that being said, it was still an excellent, exciting movie. The acting, especially Brendon Glesson as Moody, was excellent; even the kids have a better go at it this time. The special effects were amazing, the Quidditch World Cup stadium is especially fantastic. All in all the movie is still very entertaining, and I still give it a 8/10.