Good wiz-bang action, but short on chemistry

Rating: 6/10 (11 July 2007)

I commend the director, David Yates, for managing to somehow cram in the salient points from a 900+ page book into a two hour and fifteen minute movie. However, like the previous director of the GOF flick, he also severely underdeveloped several of the supporting characters - and totally butchered the much-ballyhooed budding romance between Harry and Cho. Katie Leung had one? two? lines in GOF. She had about the same amount of dialogue in this movie (shooting the occasional goo-goo eyes at Harry does NOT count!)
Imelda Staunton did well as the sweetly sinister Umbridge, but wasn't given enough to do. She had one good verbal exchange with Harry, and a far weaker one with McGonagall. In the book, she was the one responsible for the dementor attack on Harry, but that point was never revealed in the movie.
Newcomer Evanna Lynch as Luna was one of the movie's highlights. She was given a considerably meatier role than most of the supporting cast.
The complete lack of Quidditch in the movie also irked me. That was one of the central story lines in the book. Granted, some things are going to get cut from such a long book, but Quidditch certainly shouldn't have been one of them. That was the one thing Umbridge kept dangling over Harry's head, and also played in a big part of developing Ron's (and Ginny's) character as well.
I also think that Harry should have had his conversation about being "possessed" by Voldemort with Ginny (as he did in the book) and not with Sirius.
Overall, the movie is a step above its predecessor, but not by much. It's squarely aimed at the current Potter fans, but with "Deathly Hallows" right around the corner, OotP isn't going to grab their attention for long.