Is Potter losing his magic?

Rating: 4/10 (14 July 2007)

I think that this is probably the worst Potter yet. Not because it was particularly bad, it just wasn't a patch on the first 3 or even The Goblet of Fire which I also felt somewhat let down by.
Let me start by saying that I have never read any of the books, so I am judging these films purely by merit of the film alone.
I loved potter 1 & 2 as I loved the sense of mystery presented by them, how you never really knew what was going on until the very end when everything fell into place. They also had a greater sense of fun about them and a real feel of magic where even the children's sweets had spells on them! Then came the Prisoner of Azkaban which, in my opinion, is the strongest of the films so far. Not only due to the arrival of Gary Oldman as the fantastic Sirius Black and the dark directing style of the ever amazing Alfonso Cuarón (see Children of Men). But also you actually watched the children grow up right before your eyes, and the characters develop so beautifully, whilst still maintaining that sense of mystery, magic and fun! At this point I could not wait to see where the story was going!!! Alas, the arrival of Potter 4, and here marked the end of clever and fun magic tricks and wonderful mystery solving, and gave way to moody teenagers, underdeveloped characters and straightforward story lines! As I said earlier, I haven't read any of the books, so I spent most of the Goblet of Fire wondering what the hell was going on! As characters appear from nowhere that you've never seen before, events are spoken of that we never saw happen and we are generally presented with a quick 2 hour summary of a several hundred page novel! Then I saw the trailer for The Order of the Phoenix, how excited I was at the talk of the evil new teacher (who never really gets her comeuppance) the students rebellion (aka a bunch of kids learning magic tricks that eventually never get put to use) and the introduction to many bright new characters (most of which are quickly introduced, have a minute or so screen time and then we hear nothing more of them!) Sadly, this also seems like a brief summary of what was probably a very good novel, that does not do justice to any of the, once brilliant characters, leading to the really annoying point where Sirius Black simply drops dead for no apparent reason!!!!!! In my opinion this could have been the end of Potter, as most of the magic seems to have gone from the films I don't see how they can stretch it for another 2! Oh well, perhaps I'll start reading the books to see if they can bring the magic back to life!