Too slow. Too short. Too dark.

Rating: 6/10 (11 July 2007)

I was very disappointed with this movie. I haven't read the book since it first came out so I'm not exactly sure how much was missing but either way this movie left a lot to be desired.
The books are long and major chunks have to be taken out to fit as much as possible in but this movie had the strange feeling of being stretched out. There were times when even the characters seemed to be talking in slow motion. There should have been more jammed into this especially scenes with Snape and Harry. Those occlumency lessons were some of my favorite 'scenes' in the entire series of books so for it to whiz by the way it did when other scenes dragged on is very strange, especially since the movie could have been and probably should have been longer. And what was there you could barely see. It was soooooooo dark. I have no problem with dark and atmospheric films but this was dark just for the sake of being dark. Hogwarts even looked dingy and in need of a wash. I'm guessing that they hired a little known director that they could bully into making a truncated and ugly film, because he's just be happy to have the job. I'm guessing they told him to make it dark so that they could fudge the special effects. It's not just a case of being spoiled by the previous directors because, in my opinion, this was bad even for a newbie director.
The acting was pretty bad from almost everyone, save Staunton and perhaps Radcliffe. And honestly this party didn't get started until you-know-who showed up and you can guess when that was. So basically this movie had a killer ten minutes. But that's it. The one thing that improved from the book was the death of one of the characters. Because in the book it's kinda confusing and the way it was handled here, through special effects, made it more definite. In fact I guess I'm left with the feeling that this movie was made more as a set up for the next film, instead of as a stand alone film.
I fear for the next film, and what's worse is that I didn't enjoy the events of Half Blood Prince. So enjoying the book for Order of the Phoenix so much and having the movie turn out this way doesn't bode well. I don't know if kids will like it. They've read the book and depending on how they feel about the omissions might make all the difference. The parents who go with them might be confused and bored. I saw way to many cell phones being used to check the time. But there was one funny moment in my theater. When Fudge finally admits that someone is back the whole crowd said "Duh!" in unison.
I mean you're going to see it, everyone will, just don't expect it to be as good as the last two.