Harry Potter 5 is good, but not good enough

Rating: 7/10 (22 August 2007)

Wow, a lot to say for Harry Potter 5. First of all, I think that with a book this good, the directors can't really mess this movie up too much. That's a good thing for the directors, because they really messed up on some major parts of this movie.
First, the good things. I thought the casting for the characters of Luna Lovegood, Dolores Umbridge, and Bellatrix Lestrange were done very well. The acting, for the most part, was well done in this movie, and the casting continues to be excellent (with the exception of Grawp.) The movie certainly had a lot of action in it, and I actually liked what they did with the scene in the department of mysteries.
Now for the bad. Ron and Hermione together had about one full sentence of dialog in this movie. Draco barely came into the movie at all. I think David Yates is forming his own opinion of what should have been shown in this movie (I mean, the whole thing was spent on the DA meetings.) This is a big mistake, I think Yates is forgetting what a huge success this book was, and thinks he needs to add stuff in. A couple other things: (1) Make the movie an hour longer. I felt as though I was watching a bunch of clips thrown together.(2) Get a new Dumbledore. The first guy was perfect, this guy, far from it. He has way too rough a personality for the part. (3) Stay true to the book. For example, if somebody hadn't read the books and just seen the movie, he would have said, why is Harry upset about Sirius dying. They try to make it so that people who don't bother to read the book will oooh and aaah by the special effects, but not get the actual plot. (4) Finally, either make Daniel Radcliffe take acting lessons, or get a new one. He was great through the second one, and after that, went downhill. It is really hard to sympathize with him in the movie, because he is portrayed as some whiny brat and not a hero.
Bottom Line: See the movie, it's worth it. But to live up at all to the book, David Yates needs to make a lot of changes.