Read the book, then watch the movie

Rating: 4/10 (23 December 2007)

Contains spoilers. You've been warned - BEWARE!
Over and over again, we have heard the argument that there is simply no way to fit an entire book into the time slot that a movie may be played in. Nowhere is this more evident than in this, the shortest Harry Potter movie that incidentally is adapted from the longest Harry Potter book.
I'd like to say that the cast seems to do great things with the little on-screen time they are given. Helena Bonham Carter and Robbie Coltrane were hardly in the movie at all. Almost no time was give to Mr. Weasley either, considering his importance in determining the nature of the connection between Voldemort and Harry.
The biggest problem for me was the story behind the Thestrals. Forgetting that they were replaced in the earlier movies, the explanation of their existence was never given. Indeed, later, when others encounter them, no explanation of why they could see them survived either. Having read the book, I know why this is so and what has happened between scenes, but I shouldn't have HAD to read the books in order to understand the movie.
Finally, at the end of the movie, the ministry sees the errors of its ways - the newspaper transitions were useful here, since they imparted quite a lot of information without wasting a lot of time. It seems however, they've dug themselves into a hole considering Umbridge by overstating the implications of her time at Hogwarts.
In short, there were a lot of holes left in the movie, little or no explanation of plot progression - things seemed to just happen for little or no reason, unless you knew what was going to happen. I'm glad that the movies are subtly pushing viewers to read the books, but I don't think they should assume everyone has read them.