Faithful Adaptation Keeps a Potterhead Spellbound

Rating: 9/10 (12 July 2007)

(This review is written from the point of view of a Potter obsessive. You have been warned.) After months of anxious anticipation in which any screen-shot, trailer or other revelation was eagerly lapped up, here it was. The real deal. All around the world the avid Potterheads, (myself included) the casual fans and the people without a clue milled into cinemas to witness the latest installment in the Harry Potter saga. The film amassed a gigantic $44.8 million on its first full day at the Box Office, so Warner Brothers will be ecstatic, but what about the film itself? Is it any good? The answer is a resounding "YES!"
Firstly the cast. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson (who play Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger respectively) deliver a much more powerful and believable this time round and Grint in particular is (to steal a quote from the character he plays) "bloody brilliant!" He provides the film with some fantastic humour and even demonstrates some (subtle) chemistry with Watson.
There are some new additions to the cast as well. Imelda Staunton is outstanding as Dolores Umbridge, the Ministry of Magic representative at Hogwarts. Umbridge slowly establishes a dictator-like role at the school and imposes a great number of ridiculous new rules on the students.
Another new character is Luna Lovegood, the mysterious and rather odd girl with a tragic past who is played by (avid Potter fan) Evanna Lynch is truly excellent and somehow leaves you feeling both happy and sad all at once.
In fact almost the whole cast (with the exception of Kathryn Hunter as Harry's batty old neighbour Mrs Figg) performs exceptionally well.
The special effects are (as usual) top-notch and certainly do the much-loved Fred and George leaving scene justice.
In contrast to what a lot of people are saying I thought that the directing and editing was great. The recurring theme of the "Daily Prophet" newspaper looked stunning and the story seemed to flow nicely.
But lastly (and perhaps most importantly) the screenplay. The unsung hero of this film is screenwriter Michael Goldenburg. He manage to compress a 736 page monster of a book into just 138 minutes and managed to do so without undermining the story that we have come to know and love. Sure there are quite a number of cuts (most prominently the St Mungo's Hospital scene, the much shortened Department of Mysteries scene and Quidditch among others) but it doesn't seem to damage the storyline much at all and if you want amazing detail read the book.
So in summary I loved this film. It exceeded my expectations and as far as I'm concerned this is easily the best movie in the series so far.
Magic!