Tedious

Rating: 3/10 (29 April 2012)

Have to admit I am not a huge Harry Potter fan but I do enjoy SFX movies when they are well done. I have only read the first book and it left me with no desire to read another. All that said, I kind of enjoyed the first few movies but it has taken me a long time to get around to this one. The effects were terrific for the most part,but the way the film was put together was less than appealing. It seemed to be an endless parade of scenes which had little relevance to the scene that went before and certainly did not drive the story forward. It was very boring and tedious, made worse by Emma Watson's amateurish performance, breathlessly declaiming almost every line - could Mike Newell get nothing better out of her? Daniel Radcliffe was very good in it -I still think he was a great choice for Harry as he has to carry the movies -if he did not work, neither would the films. Rupert Grint was treading water, both in his performance and script-wise. There was not much for him to do. Brendan Gleeson was a great addition to the cast. On a more positive note I was suddenly hooked by the final half hour. The graveyard scene, when Ralph Fiennes finally entered the action, was superb. For a film of this length to only come to life in the final scenes was unforgivable. I hope the remaining films are better than this one.