O.K. as a movie, but not very true to the book.

Rating: 5/10 (14 August 2007)

After the extreme disappointment of the 4th HP movie (Goblet of Fire), I didn't really have any hopes for OOTP at all. When it came closer and closer though, I began to hear good things about it and was open-minded when I went into the theater...whaddaya know, I got disappointed AGAIN! Don't get me wrong, there were good things about the movie. I thought casting on Luna Lovegood was especially good. I loved how they made the Ministry look. I even liked the last battle between Voldemort and Dumbledore, even though it wasn't entirely faithful to the book.
Now to the bad things.
They completely left out LOTS of subplots from the book, both important, and unimportant. Some of them wouldn't even take more than 5 or 10 minutes more of screen time. The actress who played Umbridge had the character of the book version down exactly, but she didn't look ANYTHING like how they described her in the books, which was a letdown. Tonks wasn't at all how the book makes her out to be. The plot became a complete mess sometimes, and you wouldn't understand some of it if you hadn't read the book.
Overall, some of the biggest things I was mad at, were just the little touches that they change from the book for NO reason at all. It makes no sense. For one, the "stupefy" spell is bluish instead of red, which is mentioned TONS of times in the books. Luna yelling out "LEVICORPUS" and then a guy flying off was totally ridiculous, as thats not even what it does, it doesn't even appear in the 5th book, and thats gonna cause all sorts of messed up things for the 6th movie, as that spell was a big part of the plot in book 6.
And finally, one of my "pet peeves" so to speak(sorry about that one heh), was that not one of the movies yet has had Peeves. Peeves for those of you who haven't read the books, is a hilarious poltergeist that bothers the people in the school and plays pranks all the time. Book 5 contains his shining moment, where when Fred and George are leaving the school they yell, "Give her hell for us Peeves!" and he salutes them and does exactly what they told him to do.
Anyways, I've ranted enough. To summarize, alright movie i guess, but not if you are a fan of the books. 5/10