Mixed feelings

Rating: Null/10 (9 June 2004)

I really liked the first two films, so when i heard about the change in director i had my doubts. Unfortunately they were mostly correct. I'm a huge fan of the books, and this third film did not follow the book very well. The best part of the movie were the special effects if you ask me. The casting of Trelawny was awesome! She looked exactly as I pictured her in my head. Pettigrew on the other hand, looked so much like a rat, it was unrealistic. He was totally different from what I imagined. Further, there were so many accents on minor details,that bigger parts of the story were left out. I understand that they can't film the entire book, but really. Things I missed: no mention of who Prongs, Moony, Wormtail and Padfoot are. No end of year banquet and no train home. I also missed the sorting hat. (Harry and Hermione miss the sorting, I know, but why do we have to watch that choir sing?????) The film focused too much on the Dementors and other stupid scenes, like the Womping Willow-scene. I'm not interested in a tree swinging its branches, I want to see Harry's Firebolt at Christmas (not at the end) and more Quidditch!! Some of the special effects were pretty useless, like the headless hunters. There is no mention of them in the story, so why cast them?? Just leave them out entirely if you don't want to mention them. What also annoyed me, was the fact that teachers (like Snape and Mcgonagal, who I loved in the first movies) were almost completely missing in this movie. Perhaps this was because the students have hardly any classes. It's a school! Students tend to attend classes there. (strange isn't it?) And what happened to the castle?? Did the old one fall down or something? There was this huge clock i hadn't seen before, the gardens were all weird and there was a bridge to go to Hagrids. Come on people, places don't change that much. The fact that the actors have grown doesn't really disturb me, because they grow older in the books too. The new Dumbledore was OK too. So all in all, i didn't really liked this movie. I really wanted to see it and I felt a bit disappointed when I left. Hopefully the next movie will be better (stick to the book guys!).