I thought this was awful. Nearly absolutely awful

Rating: 1/10 (13 March 2006)

I just saw this at a $1.50 movie, having missed going with my family. I was severely disappointed. I would have felt worse going to the first run. I will start with what little I liked. 1.There were a couple of scenes in which Daniel Radcliffe actually, you know, acted.This is pretty hopeful, because someday they might hire an actor's director who would find a way to get Radcliffe's best. 2. Brendan Gleeson did a uniformly nice job with Mad Eye. 3. Similarly, Miranda Richardson did well with Rita.
I've run out of nice things to say. Now down to business.
I think the most egregious and obvious difficulty was the direction. This may be the most unimaginative rendering possible. It should not have been one movie, but if it had to be, it should have been significantly longer. It was so compact, it felt like a two hour commercial for the real movie. Nothing in the movie had any sense of development. It was a series of highly visual set-pieces leavened with uncomfortably phony dialog. The acting direction may have been the worst feature. Considering the remarkable collection of good actors, this an amazingly wasteful undertaking. The movie seemed like a filmed read-through. Two of the most embarrassing scenes were the conference between Dumbledore (a completely miscast Michael Gambon) and the rest of the faculty about Harry's staying in the tournament, and the last scene between Harry, Hermione and Ron. Emma Watson, who has done such a great job with this role, gave a completely phony reading in that scene, and for that I blame the direction. I say this because there were so many poor performances from good actors.
The second biggest problem was the screen writing. Everything from choices of what to cut, to dialog was amateurish. Harry's line "I love magic." made him seem simply goofy. The most offensive writing feature, however, was choice to add bad material that was not part of the story. If you are going to add something to a story as good as this, what you add should be, well, good. The dancing scene with McGonagall should not have seen the light of day. I pity Maggie Smith for having to do that scene. Moreover, the choices of things that were cut so that this could be added are even more maddening. Small things like Fleur being part Vela and what a Vela was in the first place. The entrance of Beaux Batons and Durmstrang was an ignorant display of fake, international stereotypes. The scene could have been written by George Bush. Rumania is not Russia. The little dip-dance by the students of Beaux Batons was completely inappropriate. Their uniforms and their carriage as they entered spoke of a dignity and even aloofness that would have rung true. This was completely ruined by the silly choreography. Finally, the reduction of Filch to a dumb, running gag with a cannon instead of using a little time to discuss his status as a squib was a great loss and, to my mind, indicates a dearth of writing sense.
Finally, I have to return to Dumbledore. As good an actor as he is, I just don't know if Michael Gambon could do justice to Dumbledore. Richard Harris struck a wonderful balance between humor and gravity that is crucial to this character. Unfortunately, Michael Gambon comes off as someone's drinking buddy. He has done this in two movies. I would hope that this part would be recast.