Why Yates?

Rating: 6/10 (18 July 2007)

I read the books, I like the books but for some reasons The movie versions seems to be so,so... So, well, honestly I wasn't too interested when a friend of mine asked me to watch this movie on the first day of its release.
Thankfully I wasn't expecting much, and got just it. I knew it's not going to cover the whole story line as in the book and I knew that with the recent release of Transformers, the visual FX of Harry Potter would seem like a century behind. The fact that I've already forgotten most of the book-version story helped.
For the fans though, story line isn't that important. They already knew, so all they have to do was just memorizing which is which. The fanatics will cheers on every occasion while the purists may having a bit of grumpy mood over some neglected scenes in the book that supposed to be there.
I consider myself as a neutrals, having read the book but not a devoted fans though I have the tendency to be a bit of a purists. So I'm a bit critical about how the director visualize the scenes in the book. I must say that I feel sorry for David Yates and whoever that is going to direct the next Harry Potter. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to be forgiving as to how Yates tells his version of this fifth Potter. While some of the actors give a noticeable performance, Radcliffe did much better than he was in the Goblet of Fire, Yates doesn't seems to be able to grab how Potter should be told. He was merely doing a copy and paste, and worse, some cutting too, here and there. Pacing has always been the most difficult part in making Harry Potter movies, and Yates can't do much of it either. Imelda Staunton and Emma Thompson though, might have been the savior for us, neutrals, as they keep the movie alive with their acts.
So the verdict is, well, fair enough. The fans, no matter what the critics say will have to watch the movie, Yes, of course, you must.