Book fans will be disappointed

Rating: 8/10 (11 July 2007)

My expectations going into the midnight screening of HP 5 were that not everything from the book would be in the movie. I learned this early on, seeing that even the movie based on the shortest book, Sorceror's Stone, did not include everything. However, what I did not expect was that vital scenes would be cut, hardly anything explained, and perfectly good story lines changed!
The acting I have to say was much better than previous movies. Daniel Radcliffe offers up an excellent portrayal of Harry and Imelda Staunton got Doloris Umbridge right on. The special effects were pretty cool as well, although I felt at some points it masked the story line. What they did with the newspaper headlines was cool, but not needed. The best part was seeing certain things come to life (!!SPOILERS!!): Ministry of Magic, the Black House, Kreacher, Grawp, Snape's memory, and a few other things.
Disappointments: (MAJOR SPOILERS!!!!!!)
-Dementors look different from their appearance in earlier HP films; they looked exactly how they were supposed to before, why change it?? -Harry was supposed to tell his aunt and uncle about the dementors which is where we find out that Aunt Petunia actually knows about them. -Harry finds the people from Order in the kitchen at Private Drive, not at his bedroom door. -The Black House appears because you envision the address, not because Mad-Eye Moody hits the ground with his staff. -St. Mungo's hospital is completely left out of the film which is actually how we find out about Neville's parents. -Dobby is completely left out of the film as well. In the book, he's the one that tells Harry about the Room of Requirement (which only appears after you walk by the wall 3 times!) -Kiss scene is way overdone- it's not THAT important to the story! -Cho Chang did not tell Umbridge about Dumbledore's Army, her friend did. There was also supposed to be a hex put on the paper to show who told. -What happened to Quidditch?? -There is absolutely no mention of Hermione and Ron becoming prefects! -Rita Skeeter and the Quibbler interview are totally left out. -Grawp is friendly in the movie and does not speak. In the book, he is mean (like a giant would be) and learns to speak. -Ministry of Magic: movie does not show how they got into the room full of prophecies. They completely skipped over the revolving room surrounded by doors and the room with the brains. The Order did not enter the room through the veil, but from stairs leading into the room (also, Dumbledore was with them). Neville dropped the prophecy, not Lucius Malfoy. No one heard the prophecy- Dumbledore told Harry what it said later. The fight between Dumbledore and Voldemort is low-key and quite short.
There are actually several other things, but I don't deem them as important as some of the things listed above.
Although I have listed several disappointments (from my point of view), everyone should still go see the movie. Book fans may be disappointed, but it's still entertaining to see parts of the book come to life. Non-book fans will not know that anything's missing and will probably enjoy (although they may get confused). The movie is NOT 2.5 hours long. With previews (I would guess 10-15 min. of them), it's only 2.25 hours long, making the movie about 2 hours by itself.