... Where's the book's influence?

Rating: Null/10 (9 June 2004)

OK, I went into this movie with hope that it would be better than what I'd seen on TV of it. However, I was sadly disappointed with it.
First and foremost, I hated the new version of Dumbledore (who came across as cold and uncaring. He didn't have an air of omniscience about him, he had an air of arrogance.
Second, I rather disliked the lack of development of... basically anything (the list would take far more than the maximum hundred words allotted here).
This movie is supposed to be based on the book, though many elements and ideas within the book were disgustingly left out and overlooked. While some people have said he used less computer animation, I think he used just as much but with worse results. The movie itself was too flashy and didn't focus that much on a central plot or characters.
Third, the transitions were shoddy and didn't hold up to the type of film. They simply took up time and took away from the possible nearness to the books.
All this criticism doesn't mean that I hated the movie, just that I rather disliked most of it because of shoddy workmanship. What should have been done was not and the focus was nearly inexistent. What did JK Rowling think of the movie? I would hardly expect that she was flattered by it.
However, I did like the way they showed the ((spoiler)) time-twister thing((spoilers ended)). It just looked cool.
But I must ask the crew (and Cuaròn) to read the book before finishing the next movie so that it's a little better than this last movie.