Waste of MONEY!!!!

Rating: 1/10 (11 July 2007)

This movie could not have been more of a let down! I wasn't expecting much from this film, I have grown to understand the movies can not be as detailed as the books, but really. This film should have been the Empire Strikes Back of the series, with a few great bits of action and lots and lots of set up with a OK pay off that left you counting the days till the next film. Instead we get a VERY VERY VERY watered down version of the story, with changes so people with a short attention span don't have to remember anything about this film for the next one. At least with the last 4 films the story was the underscore to the action or special effects, with this one none of that came across. This film turned into a disjointed grouping of odd scenes with nothing really to 1. set the time line of the over all film and 2. does nothing to forward the ongoing story of good vs. evil.
The basic story is Harry is a whinny 15 year old who no one believes, does not listen to anyone, and wants to be all EMO about it till he screws up and leads everyone into Voldemort's trap. While in the actual book all of this is about 250 of the 900+ pages but in the film version it is turned into about 10 minutes of a 2 hour 18 minute film. The key scenes from the book are some what included in some way even if the story that should have been told as part that scene is put some place and some time else. The wrap up, which has been done very well in the last 4 films at the end with a slap in the face to help everyone understand what they just saw, is done in such a hap-hazard in the very start, of what should have been, a great battle that you don't even remember what was said.
The only 3 things I would say that did help this movie were 3 of the new characters, which were all very under used. Dolores Umbridge who is done perfectly in this film as the condescending new DADA teacher, which they really missed out on not going deeper with her (which I am sure is because she is only in this one book) because she could have stolen the film. Luna Lovegood who, to my surprise, did come across almost better then she did in the books as the "out there" 4th year Ravenclaw, but was used as a narrative character to explain plot holes and be background filler with Neville and Ginny rather then be one of the stand out characters that they all should have been. But the character that made the best transition from book to film had to be Kreacher, which falls right behind the story as my biggest let down in the film because he was so under used (only 2 scenes) and was never really explained to the audience of what his reason for being was. Those 3 almost make up for the complete loss of purpose for characters such as Tonks, Bellatrix Lestrange, and even Grawp. But can not even start to make up for the rest of the film.
If you are a fan of the book DO NOT SEE THIS FILM!!!! If you have never took the time to read the books and only see the films, take my advice READ THE BOOKS!