Spoilers within...tread carefully...Great movie...

Rating: 10/10 (11 July 2007)

From my perspective, this was the best movie...most true to the book (surprising with all the cuts that were needed) since the first one. Many lines were directly from the text, and that was fantastic. Being the first showing, the theater was fairly rowdy and a well timed audience line of "you suck Dolores" got a huge laugh and applause. Speaking of, she was pretty good...didn't look the part so much but really played it up. They were lose with the decrees, but her attitude really hit the mark (as well as her little cough). Could have been a bit more to her, but that was I think a result of cutting some of the things that made her evil in the book (banning harry for life from quidditch) and not on her portrayal of the character.
I wish it were about 20 minutes longer to add certain scenes I'll mention in spoilers. Some things were changed as to who said them, when they happened or how they happened. Some were changed outright, but overall the essence of the book remained. Much more so than say the third movie. A few lines/scenes WERE included that my wife and I were wondering about after re-reading the book that could have easily been cut but as we are anticipating, will play huge in book 7 so remained.
The added things were well done to maintain the feel of the book, even though they didn't happen in the book. Two slaps were AWESOME, both. A line from Harry in the forest was something that I kept waiting for in the book, but never came although the direct FEEL of the line was definitely in the book.
Kreacher was in very small, but was pretty creepy. Bellatrix was perfect (Helena Bonham Carter) but not enough screen time for her...she did baby talk to harry which was great.
For the second time in as many movies, Neville was a stand-in for Dobby's role in the book.
This director was very good...I liked his style very much. I know he is doing the 6th book and I think the 7th...this is good. The newspaper parts were well done.
Some flashbacks were interesting, seeing the little boy roundheaded harry was cool.
***********Big Spoilers********************** Grawp was far too cute...I didn't like the parts with him so much and I was really expecting to. He wasn't terrifying as in the book, and Herme wasn't scared of him. I felt that just wasn't handled so well.
Cuts in general made it probably hard to follow for those who have never read the books. Dunno though, as I have, but I get the feeling it might have been a little rapid on things going on.
The opening was nice, but it missed the element of Harry talking trash to Dudders, which is something I always liked about this book...I felt it needed it.
None of the injuries to the kids happened (and no frigging baby head death eater!!!!) so it looked more like the adults of the Order really saved the day instead of having the feeling that the kids really put up a fight to the death and survived, as it seemed in the book.
It is avada kedavra Bellatrix uses on Sirius, which is NOT from the book...however I think they wanted to be clear that he is dead. They also didn't touch enough on Harry's pain and confusion of him being dead. They DID talk about the voices behind the curtain, so JK must really feel that important.
Harry hears the prophecy...he actually HANDS IT TO MALFOY which I did not like, and Malfoy breaks it. He sees Snapes worst memory while in his mind, not in the pensieve, Voldy tells harry about crucio instead of Bellatrix, etc. Things like that are altered, but in the end it really didn't affect the tone or feel or result of the movie vs. the book.
One thing I hated and was very sad about (other than the baby head death eater and no brain tentacles on Ron, almost dead Hermione, broken ankle Ginny and broken nose Neville) was they bypassed the Rita Skeeter part of the book which I absolutely loved. Bringing her back and using her as a turning point was great in that book, IMO. Instead, in the movie the change of heart of the populace was reflected in Shamus saying he believed Harry after the Prophet reported on the escape of the 10 death eaters from Azkaban.
Oh, and although Dumbledore's escape from his office was pretty awesome visually, I thought in the book he was much more of a bad ass and smart ass. That's pretty picky of me though.
And the kiss...well, it was sure a lot more heavy than I thought...you go harry. The scene right after was pretty much right from the book and the audience was laughing and clapping during it. They were awesome in that scene and it really showed the strong bond of friendship between the three.
No Fiorenze and the centaurs were introduced in a roundabout way in the newspaper, and weren't the goal of Hermoine with Umbridge...Grawp was...but in the end it played out the same (mostly).
***********End Big Spoilers********************** All in all, I was really surprised at how much they power-packed into 2:18 from a 900 page book. Some things I really loved were cut but it had to be done.
I personally loved this one, and it isn't my favorite book. My order of favorites from the books thus far is 6, 3, 1, 5, 4, 2. This may be my favorite movie though...I'll have to see it again to be sure.