A wonderful book made into a perfectly awful movie.

Rating: 1/10 (16 October 2004)

It's plain that the new director had never read the book - let alone the ten or twenty times many of this movie's viewers have. 90% of the effort went into special effects, to the total detriment of the story. It's as if the director decided he'd film every 20th page in the book, so great were the flying leaps over whole sections of plot. Not a lick-and-a-promise, but rather ignoring the in-between material entirely, as if it didn't matter to the story. Several VERY important scenes from the book that were vital to understanding the plot - such as the explanation of how Sirius, James and Peter had become animagi while still at Hogwarts - were apparently not deemed necessary for the movie. Before seeing this movie I would have thought it inconceivable that I could walk out of a Harry Potter film wanting my money back, but it happened. I sincerely hope that Chris Columbus takes back the helm for Goblet of Fire...!