Simply put- Excellent.

Rating: 9/10 (17 July 2007)

Kudos to a director for finally giving HP the adult feel it needed. Nothing wrong with previous films being colourfull and having a target audience of pre to mid teens. This book, however, is much darker, and is reflected so in the motion picture. There are people trashing this film, I don't know what they expect. You cannot have everything. David Yates however, has brought the story back to me (long time since I read it) with just enough of what I needed to know. What makes me smile even more is that there were little and no comedic moments, no audience laughter, bar a few titters. There is no reason, and was no reason to have comic relief. Instead we are allowed to wallow in darker waters with no scripting to try to pull us out of it. The acting throughout is excellent. All of the characters were fully believable, my personal favourite being Bellatrix. Bohnam Carter manages to pull of deadly insanity without looking theatrical, and this is very important considering the tender nature of her past escapades. I would agree that there are some characters, Lupin for instance who is given next to no speaking parts and spends the limited time he has on camera merely looking at the conversation. What they *do* manage to do, is look like they are *part* of the story and the group, and not just extras or stand ins smiling for the camera. Yates has a background in TV vs films. This is obvious with his command of character direction. The film contains nice visuals, but he's not playing the film to visuals, he is using characters as the driving force. The films special effects, though integral, are secondary. As a book fan it delivers all I really need to know, as a film fan it more than delivers considering the bulk of the written word it has to convey in a film just over two hours.
I would recommend this film to both Potter fans, and non fans; The heart and soul is there, even if things have been chopped and changed slightly. A film that actually made me care, and has left me wanting more.