an appalling thoughtless rendition of a great book

Rating: 1/10 (16 July 2007)

Simply put Yates absolutely butchered all the potential that this film held. This harry potter film is by far the worst film of the series, even toping my top three for worst book to movie films in history. I would say that all true harry potter fans will find this film absolutely despicable and appalling. "Director" yates turns this film into a cheap, tacky, and insulting rendition of the potter book. Throughout the film there are such blatant derivations from the crucial elements of the plot that it appears Yates has not even read the entire series. Harry potter is such a huge phenomenon in our present day that a competent director should have been assigned the honorary duty of creating this movie. Yates takes the wonderful work of JK Rowling and simply ignores he backbone and foundation of the magical world that she has created. He creates a movie of his own, apart from the story this movie is supposed to follow. Alright the very very basic elements of plot are there, but everything else is a disaster. He changes the power, characteristics, and personalities of numerous characters, simply disregards many elements that Rolwing has strategically placed in the novel (death eaters who can turn into black smoke and fly around??? are you serious?? this seems laughable to real potter fans im sure but it indeed happens throughout the entire film). And since when can wizards do magic with their non wand hand without a wand, or with their walking stick? And the dumbledor voldermort battle which should have been so easy to make stunning, powerful, even moving... it is completely mutilated, reminding me of the cheesiest movie of all time X-men 3, from which yates steals a move that he has voldermort use ( the glass). Yate's disregard of Rowland's work is appalling and it is unbelievable that for over a year the huge staff of this movie permitted such an atrocity and shameful attempt at a harry potter film continue. So my words of wisdom are thus: if you liked the book of the series do not see this movie for your own good. I would be amazed to find that Yates has even read all 6 books before making this terrible movie. Its a plottless, thoughtless, boring, cheezy, uninteresting, waste of life and money of a movie that will upset any true potter fans. a 10 year old fan could easily direct a much more satisfactory film than this piece. one word: ATROCIOUS