Upsetting adaptation! Great special effects!

Rating: 5/10 (3 January 2010)

You take all the great points of the book and you get this movie. It was easy to hate Umbridge as the actress made the character pure evil. A bunch of points are left out entirely (ie. the house elves; something that is vastly important to Hermione and Ron in Deathly Hallows).
I did enjoy the film, but it seems the writers have gotten lazy with following the story since after Prizoner. Dumbledore's Army comes together quite differently in the book, and this is the book that shows how powerful Ginny is. It also shows her shining as one of the main characters and not some shy "good luck" girl like we saw in the first film.
In the climatic scene there is so much going on, the story is pretty much thrown out -- while you're dazzled by the special effects of Death Eaters versus the Order. Fred and George are reduced to a couple of one-liners for comic relief.
Hermione is still the brainiac and Ron is still annoyed with her. Harry still hasn't come to terms with who he will become and Voldemort is pretty much absent from the movie.
It's a good movie overall, and not a good adaptation, to say the least. But it's worth watching and entertaining with all the good special effects. It's not going to hold a candle to the book's imaginative story telling or the last effect it has on it's reader, but you'll enjoy watching the magic of Hogwarts.