Left Wanting more

Rating: 5/10 (1 January 2008)

Im sorry but of the 5 films so far this is the one I like the least. I'm sure a large part of that comes from having read the book before seeing this film something I had not done up until now. The pace of this movie feels to rushed and things that should be in the movie from the book to make the audience better understand what is happening are not there. When you finish watching this film you will feel cheated. It doesn't matter whether you have read the books or not (I have read all seven my wife none). She was left confused in several parts of the movie because they failed to adapt so many key parts from the book. They should have shot for a longer running time and covered more from the book I know you can not shove everything into a film that is in a book, but when you get down it should not feel as if watched the movie on fast forward just to get somewhere on time. 138 minutes is hardly enough time to do the story right. Have they not learned that people will sit for a 3 hour movie if its done right. Even shooting for slightly more than 2 hours would have helped this film.
Now was everything in the fill a wash? Heavens no it has a few saving graces. First and foremost is the introduction of Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch). Evanna pulls off the role wonderfully as the quirky, abnormal, kind hearted heroin. She was to me the brightest point of the whole film Not to be undone Imelda Staunton does a wonderful job of bringing Umbridge to life. In much the same way that she forces herself into a power position of Hogwarts she forces her way into the film almost stealing the Villain role from voldermort.
If you haven't read the books I believe overall this film will leave you confused at times. Those who have read the books will feel the annoyment of knowing why tings went the way they did but were not shown more of the background to the story. I can only hope that they decided to run the next two films a bit longer perhaps even entertaining the idea to split The Deathly Hallows into two films.