easily the worst of the harry potter films

Rating: 4/10 (16 July 2007)

rushed, chaotic and nonsensical (if you've not read the book). the editing is awful and the script is worse. went in with lowered expectations and were still disappointed. they seem to have taken all the connecting threads of the plot out and focused on the less important aspects of the core story. this movie could have been great in competent hands. instead, we get no character development, no idea of what's going on, no slowly building rebellion against umbridge, no tension and a particularly anti-climatic battle against death-eaters. in fact, you never really feel like harry and his friends are in danger in the ministry. you feel like, if harry hands over the prophecy, they will actually let them go. instead of killing them.
when i think of what this film could have been, especially if cuaron had been handed it, it's a bit saddening. why they thought an 870 page novel could or should be condensed into a 138 minute movie is beyond me. did they think kids who read a near 900 page novel wouldn't have the attention span to sit though a movie that was much more than 2 hours long?