Highly Disappointed!

Rating: 2/10 (12 July 2007)

I have to admit, the much anticipated, long awaited Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie was a major disappointment. Especially considering that I had re-read the novel recently to re-familiarize myself with the story line. It's funny that the longest book in the series produced the shortest movie, and while the fifth was my least favorite book, I had some expectations for the movie...
***SPOILERS - DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT WASN'T IN THE MOVIE!*** Now I realize it was only a two and a bit hour movie so cuts need to be made (I don't however accept that the book can not be done justice in that amount of time) but they CUT SO MUCH OUT... nothing about the promise (howler) made between Dumbledore and Petunia, the stuff about the order was light at best (which amuses me since it's the FRIKKIN TITLE OF THE MOVIE), there was really no classes or schooling AT ALL (which is the magical part of the stories and a MAJOR part of the fifth novel being OWL exam time), there was nothing about the hospital, or Ron and Hermione's jump to Prefects, verrry little about Kreacher and his part in the whole thing, no Quidditch, the Weasley brothers' grand exit (while funny) was lame, the entire thing with the centaurs was amiss (the audience had no idea what was going on), Firenze taking over Divination and the wisdom he instill (and trouble it causes with other Centaurs) all missing! Nothing about Neville and Harry sharing the birthdays and even the possibility of the prophecy, nothing about the pensieve, nothing about the overtaking of Umbridge before Fred and George left, the two-way mirror from Sirius didn't exist, the locket in Grimmauld Place (crutial in the 6th book) did not appear, the fight scene and the stuff about the prophecy was so rushed and out of sequence that it was rather boring for the most part, and Sirius' death was bland and lacked solid emotion. There is so much more they left out but you'll have to see for yourself.
The plot was so incredibly rushed (had no sense of time), very much out of sequence, and there were many things in the movie that didn't actually happen in the book. The scenes were also choppy and seemingly unconnected. The major characters were merely window dressings (i.e. Snape, McGonigall, Trelawny, Sirius, etc) and the acting was abysmal. Though as a saving grace I loved Luna's character, Bellatrix, and even Tonks (for what little we see of her). At a few points my husband and I were actually bored with the movie.
It was, sadly, disappointing. We presume that if you hadn't read the book it would pass as a decent enough plot line, but those die-hard fans (which most who see the movie are) will find a lot of holes in the plot that are just disheartening.
I was fairly disappointed to say the least, then again I am of the mindset that when you adapt a well known novel to film, you better make a good job of it. As one person commented "It is a book fan's nightmare." This was sloppy in my opinion