3rd movie was good, not great

Rating: Null/10 (5 June 2004)

I may be overly critical seeing as for me and many others the 3rd book is the favorite of the so far 5 book series. It was well casted and the information was given in a good way, and let's be honest, the special effects were great. The 3rd book being my favorite, and having read it many times, I knew what was going on at every instant of the 2hr 21min film. There were times though, when I was a bit perplexed. There were many things put out of order (there is my overly-critical side kicking up again) and there were things that weren't in the book that could have been omitted to make room for several scenes that I think to be crucial. My examples and reasons are as follows:
1. My favorite part of the book is when Snape tries to reveal the true purpose of the Marauder's Map. And there is a message from each member of the club (Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs) This was really funny in the book, I was dying to see it in the movie
2. The letter from Sirius: On the train home from Hogwarts Harry recieves a letter from Sirius explaining the origin of the firebolt, and Sirius' status, Ron also recieves an owl named Pigwidgeon, seeing as the owl shows up in book four it might have been a good idea to present him in movie 3
3. The debriefing from Lupin: near the end, Prof. Lupin explains who Moony Padfoot Prongs and Wormtail were. he explains a little bit more about James too
4. Finally, the debriefing from Dumbledore: This is supposed to be a constant in every single book, so I thought the movies might have wanted to be the same. He explains about his patronus and more about Harry.
These were the only things I think that could have made the 3rd movie go from really good to really great.