Another excellent installment

Rating: 9/10 (25 December 2005)

This installment in the Harry Potter series is fantastic and a wonderful addition. The script is excellent; unlike various other films with sequels (LOTR, Terminator, Beverly Hills Cop, etc.), this film takes what we already know from the previous Harry Potter films and religiously builds on it. Old tricks are not rehashed and the film isn't retelling the same boring old story all over again.
Think of it as a different adventure featuring all of your favorite characters (Harry Potter, Hermione, Ron, Professor Snape, Dumbledorf, old woman, Hagrid, the twin boys, Ron's parents, Harry's parents, Malfoy and his father, etc.) with the original cast of people that wonderfully play them.
I wasn't expecting much from this film, given the fact that the series has seen a different director (a third one), but was pleasantly surprised. It seems that with each successive film, the series grows darker and darker. Pretty soon, perhaps we can expect a Harry Potter film to carry an R rating? There were several images in this film that could be considered disturbing to small children, but otherwise a fun film to watch.
The rating given by me is a 9 out of 10. Reason being was because this film didn't start off like the others. For instance, I actually like seeing Harry's uncle, aunt, their fat son and their house. Also, I enjoy the weird events seen in the beginning of the previous films (running through the wall, the flying car and the triple decker speedy bus). This Harry Potter film didn't have enough of Professor Snape, Hagrid, Hermione, Dumbledorf, the old lady and some of the other familiar characters.
Last but not least, Harry never got around to tell Dumbledorf that Malfoy's father was one of the death eaters. So those things aside, this film was pretty spectacular. I hope the next film will have more of those characters that I mentioned above.