mixed feelings on the movie

Rating: Null/10 (7 June 2004)

(this review will contain spoilers to the movie)
After seeing the movie for the first time just yesterday, I came out with very mixed feelings. As a movie in just itself, it was better then SS and CoS. The acting was better, all the actors have improved greatly and there were some breathtaking and beautiful scenes. As an adaptation of the book, I feel that it was lacking some of the very things that made PoA my favorite book of the series and the reason I became so Harry Potter obsessed.
Lets begin on a positive note about some of the things that were really handled well. Alfonso did a great job I think with showing what it was like being 13 and in boarding school. The added scenes like the Fat Lady not letting the boys in at first and the boys goofing around eating candy that made them do animal noises, were cute and I enjoyed those. It showed that even with all the stuff going on they are still only 13 year old boys.
Also a few of the scenes where they are in the Great Hall and ghosts are just running around without much notice of the students was a great touch. These students are in their third year and should be used to that by now.
I thought they did an excellent job with the time turner scene and explaining how it was Harry who saved his life, not his father who he originally that did. David Thewlis, thought not physically how I imagined Lupin, he did a great job (even though I didn't feel the strong bond between him and Harry as I did in the book). Gary Oldman also was excellent as Sirius Black and he had some touching scenes with Harry.
Now for the things that I didn't like. The Shrieking Shack scene is favorite part of the book and I think it was too rushed. I believe they could have spent more time there and maybe less during the time turner scene. I love the dialogue sequence in the book of that and I think they should have stuck with that. The bond between Sirius, James, Remus and Peter was never fully explained. That Sirius, James, Remus became animagus to help their friend and the reason Harry's patronus was a stag, again not explained. I've read a lot of reviews that said that the whole Marauder thing wasn't a major part of the whole story. I disagree because their bond  seven years living together in the dorm, the making of the Marauders map, finding the secret passages, becoming animagus, being with Remus during the full moon- all this is what made their bond so close and special and their story so tragic. And this made the betrayal of Peter, even worse and it wasn't fully explained. When Harry overhears McGonagall, Fudge, etc talking about Sirius and his parents, it really bothered me that they kept saying Peter would always follow Sirius Black around. It was Sirius Black AND James Potter, he had to have followed around, since they were never seen apart. Again the closeness of their friendship ('Never saw one without the other') made Black's apparent betrayal even worse and I think that is what was so tragic, not that he was Harry's godfather.
Snape's hatred of the Marauders also not clear and no mention of the 'prank' Sirius played on Snape. In the hospital scene I was holding my breath waiting for Snape to come enraged that Black had escaped. Disappointed again.
Harry seeing Peter Pettigrew on the map, I cringed when that happened. What was wrong with how it was in the book? Did they really need to change that? Also two lines that I think would have explained the Maurader's bond better, just by adding them, could have been when Sirius jumped on Buckbeak 'You are

truly your father's son' and later on when Lupin is packing up to say 'I have no hesitation in saying that James would have been highly disappointed if his son had never found any of the secret passages out of the castle.'

I didn't like the way it ended. Surprisingly it wasn't because now after he rescues Sirius that he gets his Firebolt, but just that it ended with him flying away on a broomstick. I was waiting for more, anything really and then the credits came up. The conclusion wasn't satisfying.
OK now that I realize what I just wrote, I am a nitpicker for details with some parts, but other parts I do believe could have been reasonable put in the movie. The back story of the Marauders I believe is just as important to the book as Harry growing up, it was part of the magic that made me fall in love with Harry Potter. I also believe I will enjoy it better the second time. When I was watching it some of my favorite scenes I know so well from the book that I was waiting for something to happen that wasn't going to happen and it ruined the scene for me. But now that I know it won't happen, I will be able to enjoy it just how it is without comparing it to much to the book.
I would give it a 7/10.