Special effects: Outstanding, actors: Ecxeeds Expectations, music: Acceptable, cut: Poor, plot: Dreadful

Rating: 5/10 (15 July 2007)

==========THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS, SO STOP HERE IF YOU ARE STRONGLY AGAINST SPOILERS.============= So here I am, the latest victim of the Potter-Movie-Mania. At least I wanted to see the movie to bridge the time to the last novel. If the movie had passed the OWLs it would have reached three out of five: 1. The S-E: they are really outstanding! What the artists have created is really more than I ever expected. Especially the realization of the fight scenes was magnificent! Also outstanding was the creation of the scenery such as Umbridges office and the Ministry of Magic, they were absolutely unique.
2. The actors: they really exceeded my expectations. Especially Radcliffe, Lynch, Staunton and Bonham-Carter were great. Thanks god also Gambon has given Dumbledore his characteristics back. After the poor realization of this character in the last movie I feared the worst. But he surprised me. The problem is that the whole story fixes on Harry and so all the other actors don't really have the chance to give outstanding samples of their competence.
3. Music: The Music is acceptable but the Music of the first Movie fitted more to the Novels. Sometimes it was a little too noisy that you could really account it for music.
4. Cut: The cut is really poor, relating to the poor plot. Sometimes the cut is so fast that you can't follow the plot.
That leads us tho the last item: 5. Plot: DREADFUL!!! Really, after the last movie I thought that the director (it's a NEW director!) would have learned something! But not at all! The original story (800+ pages novel) was cut to 138 min. The whole scene at St. Mungo's is left out, so is the explanation of many details like Tonks's relationship to Sirius, the fact that Mrs Figg is a squib, and so on... I know that you can't put all details of the novel to one movie but I think most of the audience would have preferred a movie that has 30 min more and explains things. Many visitors will not understand who Tonks is, what the order of the phoenix really is and why Percy Weasly suddenly appears in Dumbledores office.(And so on...) It's not explained at all.
During the whole movie I asked myself why the crew that has done such a good job with the outwardness of the movie, like SE, scenery, costumes... didn't pay the same attention to the contents of the story! All these wonderful details that make the scenery and the acting so lively and authentic are left out at the story.
So, for all who read the book: don't expect too much. For all those who didn't read it: read it, otherwise you don't understand the story.