I would like the 2.5 hrs of my life back that I wasted on this movie

Rating: 1/10 (2 December 2005)

I've never read nor have I seen any of the Harry Potter books or the previous movies, but having heard all positive comments regarding them I went to see this movie. Half way through the movie, I realized that because I didn't read the book, most of the movie did not make any sort of sense to me. I also got the feeling that they cut out VAST amounts of plot from the book, so much that the movie just felt like a vague outline of an otherwise (maybe) enjoyable story. Scene development were terrible to the point that MANY events went unexplained. Maybe to the elementary school kids, this is OK, but as an educated college student, it frustrated me to no ends. To top off a movie with no plot continuity, the ending made absolutely no attempt to salvage anything and ended on an extremely bland and lifeless note.
And yes, the special effects were awesome. But, at some point you have to grow up and realize that flying dragons and cool effects do not make up for a badly written script.
Maybe Harry Potter is just not for me, but after the movie, I've been told that none of the previous three movies were anywhere close to the inferior quality of this movie (drawing the analogy of Harry Potter IV is to HP I as Matrix II is to Matrix I) and that I should be a more objective person and not judge the entire Harry Potter series based on this disappointing experience.