I loved the movie but was disappointed too

Rating: 8/10 (28 November 2005)

I know that the book was so long that some things had to be cut. However, it seems to me that whenever a cut is necessary it is always the softer, 'sensitive' and humorous side which gets it, leaving and even expanding the "action" i.e. violent side. All of Hermione's activities to save the house elves which are very funny sequences are omitted. But even worse, the manipulations which necessary to eliminate the roles of Winky and Dobby in the plot were not only complicated but made much of the Barty Crouch Jr stuff inexplicable. If I had not just reread the book, I'm not sure what I would have made of the whole thing. On the other hand we were subjected to that whole flying dragon thing which was not in the book and minute after minute of swimming thru mer-people and thrashing thru hedges. Those sequences could certainly have been shortened especially since the whole thing was so truncated that the tasks seemed squashed into each other. This is the third "classic" (Pride and Prejudice" and "OLiver Twist") I've seen this year in which the director made perplexing choices in cutting. However as I always say, "Any Harry Potter is better than no Harry Potter"