Second of all, can I just say that the whole 3D thing tacked on to the IMAX was a TOTAL WASTE OF TIME? The only scene in 3D was the first one. NOTHING. ELSE. They could have done the Quidditch (which: hooray for keeping in the Quidditch!), they DEFINITELY could have done the cave (all that fire in 3D would have = awesome). But no. Nothing else. Just the beginning. Waste. Of. Time.

Anyway, I try to go into these movies and look at them from the perspective of a non-rabid fan such as myself, because it’s not actually fair to judge them too closely as someone with a lot of emotion invested in the canon. I’ve not been fully satisfied with one of the movies since Azkaban (which I still think is the best and I still wish Cuaron would come back and direct another one. My only major gripe about it was no explanation of the marauders, but you can’t have everything.) Since then, I’ve had to tell myself that I can’t expect them to keep everything in the movies, because I can’t. I find myself analyzing the changes they make in order to fit the books into movies, and ususally I can understand why they do things the way they do.

But that doesn’t always mean I agree.

With Half-Blood Prince, some things I was annoyed by:

Using the end of the last movie as the beginning of this one. We don’t need the wizard paparazzi. We know what happened. You could have just showed the newspaper and that would have been set up fine.

Dumbledore pretty much playing dumb about Horcruxes. I can see why they modified that ‘fake’ memory even more than in the book so that you don’t get the horcrux til the end, but really, Dumbledore knew, he was just looking for confirmation. Don’t dumb the greatest wizard in the world down. It’s just not right.

No Dobby, no Minister for Magic, very little Hagrid and Neville, and casting Fenrir Greyback but then not even making reference to who he is and why he’s so terrible. You see his name on a wanted poster, but that’s it.

Also, what’s up with that scene at the Burrow? Was that JUST there to make me cry?

I think they spent a little too much time on the hormonal/relationship stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, it needs to be there, it’s a big part of the story, and it adds good character development, but we saw more Lavender Brown then we saw Snape, which, for this movie especially, isn’t right.

No Gaunts at all and only a mention of Snape’s mother. Also, what was up with that ring? Where was the crest? Eh?

No funeral. I see why they did what they did instead, but that just felt wrong. Also, not sure how I feel about the whole Hallows symbol being cast over the dark mark in the sky.

Also, why no battle going on when Harry and Dumbledore get back? What the hell?

Things that I did like:

Dan Radcliffe’s acting when Harry is on the Felix. Classic.

In fact, the acting of all the trio (plus Ginny. I love Ginny!) was pretty good. They do get better every time.

The setup of Voldemort kidnapping Ollivander.

We got to see Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes! Only for a few seconds, but still! Too bad they didn’t have to U NO POO posters. They missed a comic gold opportunity there.

Snape, when you did see him, was fantastic. I only wish they did more. It’s practically his movie after all.

We got some Luna!

So glad we got the Quidditch. Too bad there was no ‘Weasley is our king’, but really happy about one last bit of Quidditch. It looked awesome too.

There wasn’t a whole lot of action, but I did like that a lot of this was talking/character and plot development more than flashy stuff. I think the movies needed a bit of that, even if it wasn’t done perfectly. And I like that we saw more of Dumbledore before he goes.

Draco did an awesome job.

Overall, I know I’m missing things out, both good and bad, but in general, it wasn’t a bad movie and, to me at least, it didn’t feel long for 2.5 hours. But I also don’t think it was a great movie. At this point, anyone seeing the movies without having read the books is probably rare, but that doesn’t mean they should count on that to carry them through the plot. With this, I felt like they had a lot of scenes they felt they needed to get into the film but no good line to connect them. It was very piece-y and jumped around too much, and would have been hard to follow if you didn’t already know the story. This is how I felt about Goblet of Fire as well. When I look at the whole thing, it just doesn’t hang together as a movie rather than a movie of a book. And it’s too bad really, because I think they had a lot of room to do better. It was a decent setup to the last two movies, and I hope they use that well and do an awesome job on the last chapter, especially since they’ll have nearly 5 hours of screen time to do so.

It’s worth seeing and I’m sure I’ll watch it again. Hell, I’m sure I’ll buy it. But I’m afraid that after Azkaban, the movies continue to let me down. Especially when it’s been 2 years since any new HP! I guess now I can only wish that they do Hallows justice, because it would be a real shame if that ends up being a let-down as well.