Best one so far. Seriously.

Rating: 9/10 (12 July 2007)

When I learned that this was the shortest film out of all five, I'll be honest- I thought it would suck. I mean, putting 870 (or 766 in the UK) pages into a 138-minute long film... seems impossible, right? Wrong. At least not for David Yates and Michael Goldenberg. Of course stuff was cut- the St. Mungo's scene, for instance, Harry and Cho's date- and a lot was moved around. If you're a die-hard fan of the books, you will be angry. But if you go in accepting that things will be cut or moved around, and that you probably won't like it, but try to see what's good about the movie, you'll enjoy it.
THE ACTING: The adult cast gave their usual perfect performances. Michael Gambon, while not being as great as the late Richard Harris, improved with his character from the last film. For some reason, however, Richard Griffiths' portrayal of Vernon Dursley was just wrong in this film. I don't get it- he was great in the other films. Let's talk about the new comers, starting with Imelda Staunton as Umbridge. I was bursting at the seams in awe of her performance. She was the perfect Umbridge. Staunton should win an award for it, but then again, do Harry Potter adult actors ever get awards for their HP roles? Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix was a gem. She's just as I imagined-while reading the book I imagined Helena Bonhmam Carter to play Bellatrix. She simply gave a chilling, great, spot-on performance.
THE ACTING CONT'D: The kids were great too, especially newcomer Evanna Lynch. This girl deserved the role. I'm glad they picked her over the thousands of other girls. The trio was of course, good. Daniel Radcliffe keeps getting better. This performance topped his last one. Emma Watson, thank God, didn't annoy me in this one. She's getting better also. I hope she'll stay for the sixth film. Of course we know Rupert Grint was good, but in my opinion he was underused.
THE MUSIC: Awesome. It wasn't John Williams, but this was a fresh new sound, compared to Patrick Doyle.
SFX/CINEMATOGRAPHY: The thestrals looked amazing, the dementors were astounding... The scenes where they flew around and over London were breathtaking. I got chills in the scene where the students cast Patronus charms. I loved Hermione's otter and Luna's rabbit. Furthermore, under Yates' directorship, we see some new methods of cinematography not attempted by any other director. Some was needed, like the flashes of images as Harry's mind was penetrated, and some was added just for the affect, like the newspapers, and worked.
STORYLINE: (as a movie and as compared to the book)Some events that fans might consider to be helpful or important to the plot have been cut. Quidditch is completely out. Personally, I didn't mind because I don't really like Quidditch. And if you expect the HP movies to be totally faithful to the books, you're delusional. This is Hollywood, folks- it has to appeal to everyone. Would a non-book fan want to sit through a ten hour movie? Of course not. And actually, even though things were cut and moved around, surprisingly, IT WORKED! In my opinion, we get to see the most important things, making it satisfactory for non-book fans and book fans. Unless you're picky, but that's your loss. Also, unlike the fourth movie, which was choppy and awkwardly paced, this one had flow.
MISCELLANEOUS: The things they added into the movie that weren't exactly part of the book were a help, and fans will be glad to know that they included some great lines from the book, such as the famous "emotional range of a teaspoon" line. A downside of this movie is that it was the shortest one for such a long book, so the ending wasn't as detailed as it should have been. They could have afforded a better ending, I think. On a high note, the relationship between Sirius was very touching. It made it more horrible when Sirius died... sorry if I spoiled that for you, but then again I did specify up top that there are spoilers.
All in all, there are some things about this movie that I can't describe. Just go see it and spend too much on a ticket for a movie that's worth it.