Not as good as the play

Rating: 5/10 (10 February 2012)

I was just taken to see this as a birthday present, and I must say that, although Radcliffe does some very good work in it, and the new ending they came up with was fresh and interesting (if a bit twisted), I really felt disappointed that the stage play, which I saw several years ago in an EXCELLENT local production in Los Angees, was so much better. Except for one moment in the middle (you'll know it when you see it, but you won't find any spoilers here), I didn't find it scary at all, and all of the interviews with Radcliffe have hopelessly built it up to be "really scary" (Radcliffe's words). It's not. The stage play made me jump SEVERAL times AND has the wonderful added layer of the actor being hired by the older Kipps to play his younger self (with the actor ultimately finding himself BECOMING Kipps in a never-ending cycle), which the movie completely dropped for some mysterious and unexplained reason. That said, the film does have some great cinematography and moody lighting effects, but nothing we haven't seen done to death (and better) in the "Potter" series of films.