An absolute insult of a film

Rating: 2/10 (1 April 2016)

An incredibly vibrant and powerful book has been turned into a bland and outright offensive pile of garbage.
When a novel is adapted into a film, I know that not every detail can make it into the final cut, particularly when dealing with such an enormous work, but in this instance, I feel that the complaint is justified. It feels almost as if a completely different work were adapted. The acting ranges from poor at best, to just cringe-worthy on a number of occasions; this would be upsetting on its own, but in one instance, it completely alters the characterisation of Dumbledore. Here is a wizard known for his calmness and placidity, now turned into an unpredictable and almost violent being, when he grabs Harry and actually pushes him into a glass cabinet. The casting choice was awful for Dumbledore, but that's another complaint for a previous film in the series. Emma Watson grows worse with each passing second in the series, making her character little more than an overly dramatic teenager. There's not really a single character with more than two lines who is well-acted in this film.
It's not just that the writers have left out entire key details from the novel (Ludo Bagman, for example), but many have been replaced, entirely. The maze is the worst offender of this. Originally intended to be the most challenging trial of the tournament, it was, in the novel, filled with a variety of mythical creatures and concepts, which would test even the most skilled of witches and wizards in their Defense against the Dark Arts knowledge and capability. This is, instead, replaced with a simple, nondescript hedge-maze, and vague hints of possession, condensed into about three minutes. The entire final act of this film is just incredibly rushed. It's as if they went all out on the first two trials, even excessively so with the dragon chase, and as a result, left no time, creativity, or maybe even budget for the final and most important test. It felt like little more than an obstacle to the writers, which just needed to be overcome in order to get to the climax with Voldemort...which was equally clumsy, rushed, and cringe-worthy.
I could go on and on about how bad this film is, and make entire lists of every cringe- inducing moment, from Hermione's fake French-accented "Grindilow," to the overblown entrances of the students from Durmstrang and Beauxbaton, to Mad-Eye Moody's own entrance. It's just an awful, AWFUL film, and, in my opinion, an insult to Harry Potter novels. I'm not a Potter fan, but I've read the books countless times, and they are dear enough to me to actually cause me anger when watching this film. If you want an exciting, vivid, imaginative, and even deep journey, go read the novel, and stay as far away from this abomination as possible. If, however, you're looking for a cringe-inducing couple of hours to blow on a mind-bogglingly awful film, then grab your popcorn.