Not satisfying (May be a couple of spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (5 June 2004)

Let me first say that I love the books, so I know automatically that the movies aren't going to satisfy me as well, but I loved the first two movies, and I was not satisfied with this one. First of all, and the biggest flaw, was the adaptation from book to movie. The book had rich detail in the new things readers discover at Hogwarts, while the movie talks about them for 2 minutes and forgets about them. To me, the books were so good because Rowling used amazing atmosphere to drive the story. Around every corner there is something new and fascinating happening, she describes happenings in the book in a way that lets you SEE what you are reading. Rowling succeeds more in giving us a visual picture by reading than the whole movie put together gives us. half of the movie is not like I imagined it in the book. Also, they shortened the dialogue I believe to keep the children's attention, and made the pace of the movie far too fast. Some people would consider this a great thing, but for me, after reading a 300 page book with great dialogue, I want to see some good conversations to further develop the characters. Ron Weasley, one of the main stars in the books(and previous movies) is given maybe, and that's just maybe, 6 or 7 lines in the entire movie!! The rest of the time he stands around holding Scabbers. Professor Mconagall is given one line and Dumbledore is given one good scene, and then completely disregarded. No one can replace Richard Harris as Dumbledore properly. So, I may be the only one that sees this, but making a movie that is fast paced like this, and forgetting about the characters is pointless. I would have rather had a 3 hour long movie with an actual plot intact than this 2 hour 20 minute mess. However there are some good things about this movie that force me to give a higher rating than you would expect. The opening of the movie is just right, and is exteremely funny to watch. Alfonso Cauron's vision for the movie is amazing as well. He has his own visual style for this one that is atmospheric most of the time. Some of the scenes are like I imagined in the book, but unfortunately many of the scenes were not, especially the demontors attack.
So, after it is all said and done I have to give this movie a B-. It may sound surprising after all the bad talk, but Cauron's vision is remarkable and compelling at times, and Sirius Black was portrayed perfectly. So everyone enjoy, but I just hope you won't be as dissappointed with the treatment of the characters and storyline as I was.