Sorry folks, this one just doesn't fly!

Rating: 4/10 (12 July 2007)

I was so looking forward to this installment of the Harry Potter series. I enjoyed this book immensely and just knew that it would make for a great movie. Well, was I ever wrong! The first mistake was in the choice of director. David Yates might be good at directing TV shows or crime dramas, but he totally screwed this up. Can we say welcome to the Imelda Staunton Show? Were they sleeping together or what? I mean REALLY! And yes, I understand the need to compress a very long book into a workable movie script, but there were so very many important plot points that were either totally ignored or else so changed as to be unrecognizable. Would it have been so difficult to work in that Ron and Hermione were PREFECTS? Did they have to make Cho the traitor - I mean what is one more small part (Marietta) in a movie that consisted of small parts - except for Imelda Staunton's part! I didn't even recognize Mark Williams for heaven sake! I thought they had gotten an actor who kinda maybe looked like him! And whose idea was the revolting...i mean revolving Daily Prophet???? Show the damn thing once and get on with the movie!! That was simply a waste of time and made most of the audience dizzy.
And another thing - why waste so much money on the set for the Ministry of Magic. It didn't look anything like it should have - maybe they could have afforded a better director and screenwriter if they had been a bit less over the top on the sets??? Where was Malfoy? Where were most of the members of the Order? You saw them for a couple of seconds and then they disappeared! I saw this movie on the day it came out - the theater was half-empty - doesn't this tell you something?? And now to find out that this MUGGLE is going to be directing the next movie too??? I thought Alfonzo Curzon was the worst thing that could possibly happen to the series...boy oh boy was I wrong!