So disappointed!

Rating: Null/10 (10 June 2004)

I have just watched the film and I am so disappointed with what I saw. I am a huge Harry Potter fan as are my children. I think the books are fantastic and just keep getting better with each installment. I expected the movies to follow suit. I was disappointed with the first two movies as well as they seemed a little cheesy but they followed the books' story lines fairly well and I felt that was the most important thing. With a new director I had high hopes for the third movie, and in some ways it was better, but there were more ways in which it was worse.
***Spoilers***
I enjoyed the more mature feel of the film and thought Buckbeak looked great but where were we? How could Hogwarts have changed so much? Where were the wizards' robes? The fourth & fifth books point out how much trouble some wizards have blending in with muggles because they don't know how to wear the same clothes. Where were the explainations needed to transition from one scene to the next? Harry Potter is a good wizard, but a Patronus charm in two attempts? All the supporting characters have disappeared! Even Ron's family, which are important characters in every book, have been mostly ignored. (Where was Percy?) Petigrew plays a very important role in the future but his introduction to the story was pretty sketchy. If you haven't read the books, can you even understand the movies?
I could go on and on with the specifics of my disappointment but the point is that I feel this film was too choppy, too rushed and too far from the book. I understand that a movie cannot be an exact replica of a book but this is a part of a series and therefore requires continuity. How is the next film supposed to continue a storyline with so many holes in it? Where was J.K. Rowling? Did she approve, or have any input, in this chopping of her story? The Goblet of Fire is my favorite book of the series so far but I am hesitant to hope for a movie that might try to do it justice.