If Only They Would Fit the Movies to the Books...

Rating: 9/10 (11 July 2007)

A very enjoyable movie and a great addition to the series - but I left the cinema wishing that they would fit the movies to the books rather than the other way around. My kids and I know going in that there will be large holes where sections of the novel couldn't be included due to time constraints, and we're resigned to this fact, however there is always a disappointment when some scenes don't appear on the screen. At least half of the disappointment is due to the excellent job the various directors and producers have done with casting the characters of the series so far; you tend to expect to see everything rendered in cinematic images to match or enhance the pictures you formed when reading the book. For example, there are frequent comments comparing Richard Harris to Michael Gambon. Michael Gambon suffers the fate of coming second in place - after most of us saw Richard Harris in the first film and thought 'Ah! Yes - THAT's Dumbledore!' The cinematic image matched the one in our minds. Now Michael Gambon - doing an excellent job in his own right - yet doesn't look like the image we agreed on... Therefore when some scene is not dramatized, or some moment is left out there's this vacuum of missing images and I guess the only way around that would be to make two movies, for example, of this book (which certainly deserves two movies). In a way it's a pity HBO didn't pick up the rights since they may have done a more complete treatment of the stories. When I compare these films with their many fascinating characters and story lines jammed into a couple of hours with other recent 'blockbuster' movies that surely were cookie-cut out of plastic, I can't help feeling cheated.
All that aside, it's a fine movie and a lot of fun, even when the fun is quite dark. Harry is pretty intense these days, and Daniel Radcliffe does it well. Hermione and Ron don't really get a lot of screen time which is too bad since these actors have remained so consistent over the years that you could really believe they spend the time between movies in costume. Imelda Staunton does Dolores Umbridge to perfection, including a small squeak before she speaks that does more to signal the character's cheerfully evil nature than anything else.
J.K. Rowling has done us all a great service with these stories and added some wonderful people to our universes; the directors and actors of the series have done a fine job of bringing them to the screen and my only regret is that 138 minutes is too short a time to be able to visit with all of them.