skillful adaptation

Rating: 8/10 (6 April 2008)

This is a first: a Harry Potter movie that bests its source. The first, second, and fourth movies were okay at best, and the third one was as good as the book. But book 5 is the weakest of the bunch, and the filmmakers have done what I was hoping they would do - distill it. In the book, Harry's life reaches new levels of miserableness, and he turns into an irritating teenager. Making matters worse for the reader is the fact that the book sorely needs editing; it takes forever to get to Hogwarts. The book is filled with so much unpleasantness that it's a chore to trudge through. Plus, it introduces the series' most annoyingly cutesy secondary character, Tonks.
The movie fixes all that. It looks great and is fast-paced, breezing through the opening pre-school scenes; Harry remains testy, but not overwhelmingly so; and Tonks is now a fun addition. The film also makes the Dumbledore's Army scenes more dynamic and retains the essence of two great new characters, spacey Luna Lovegood and insidious evil incarnate Dolores Umbridge. At the same time, this one suffers from an ailment that plagued its predecessors as well: in attempting to stuff the plot into a 140-minute movie, some depth is inevitably lost. Books 4 to 7 all need to be three-hour epics.