So, Raiha and I went to the midnight release last night.

I thought it was fantastic...easily the best Harry Potter movie to date. I feel like the movies have finally found their stride in what to show and what not to show, and what to change and what not to change. I also think this movie is the culmination of the actors learning their characters in the last five films, or maybe it's just where we've had the same director twice he perfected what he wanted from each actor. But either way, everyone felt spot on with their performance.

One thing I really appreciated was that they cut down on random panoramic shots of Hogwarts, and they also seemed to cut down on the screen time of the other students in the school and put a lot more focus on developing Hermione and Ron, which I felt have been slightly gipped in the previous movies. I love all the other characters, but they're better to read about than to watch.

I have to say that Slughorn played by Jim Broadbent was my favorite character in this movie. He was the comedic relief a lot of the time, but he did a fantastic job of conveying the guilt that his character felt when he needed to.


*waits for people to pour in and complain they didn't stay true enough to the book*

I havn't read the books, or seen the movie, but it was terrible how they didn't stay true to the book!

It needed more panoramic shots of hogwarts and should have stayed closer to the books.

I think it could have stayed closer to the book in some ways. There were a couple of major movie scenes that were conjured up out of thin air.

I liked the movie as well, but I think OotP was better. There wasn't enough... stuff in this one, I guess, which is kind of how I felt about the book.

I think the Harry Potter series is one of the rare few that gets better as they go on. I hated the first couple, really liked the last one I saw with the glowy orb things falling from the shelves, and plan on seeing the Half Blood Prince soon!

I liked the trailer that showed before the movie. It had Ryan Reynolds in it. Naked.

I think you may feel that way because this one focused more on the characters than on the magic. I personally preferred that.

The only scene that was missing that I had really wanted to see was the scene where Harry and Dumbledore go into the pensieve and see the Gaunts. But I have to admit it did very little to drive the overall story, so I can see why it was cut.

There are just a lot of things in the books that wouldn't translate well to the screen. Like the opening, for example. A lot of the action at the Dursley's in the book actually took place in Harry's head. It would have been cool to see Dumbledore bully the Dursley's a bit, but again, it would have taken up a lot of time and done very little to move the story.

In the end we just gotta remember it's a movie based on the book, not a direct translation.

There were a few madeup scenes that I liked, like whenever Harry first arrived at the Burrow, and there was that scene in the stairwell.

Okay yeah, THAT was funny .

There were some weak parts in the middle, and some of the things that were clearly meant to be serious had my whole theater laughing. In particular, the scene where they get attacked at the Weasleys' seemed totally random and pointless. But by and large it was a good movie and the last half-hour or so was just excellent. I really think Dumbledore stole the stage in the movie.

Dumbledore has some really hilarious lines.

Cave scene was just epic.

I had the urge to hum "Ring of Fire" during that scene .

But I thought the best scene was Harry and Hermione sitting on the steps after the Quidditch match. Or the lighted wands at the end. The actual death I thought was a bit overdone.

It's funny how the magic CGI was much better than the "real" CGI; all the spells and magical effects looked incredible (the firestorm Dumbledore makes in the cave springs to mind in particular) but many of the physical things just looked silly, like the bridge breaking in the beginning which I almost burst out laughing at.

Poof.

That is all.

Snape kills Dumbledore. That is all

The fall killed him.

I shall have to go see this, but it's likely I'll be waiting a long while before I do.

Likely be when it is released to DVD.

I liked it, but not as much as OotP, although that may simply be because I also prefer Book 5 to Book 6. There were particular bits that I thought were very well done, in particular Dumbledore's death and everything surrounding that, but I really didn't like the destruction (was it destroyed? If not, near destruction) of the Burrow. It's not in the book at all, it didn't really advance the story, and now they're going to have to change the next movie, when they're all meant to be at the Burrow, hiding and having a wedding.

.....I've read the books, but I've yet to see Half-Blood Prince. I'll be seeing it soon enough though. Bit wary to see Half-Blood just because I didn't particularly care for anything after Order of the Pheonix seeing as Harry turned slightly Emo. Shall hold opinion til movie has been seen.

I love Hermione.