OK, I am late with this review, oh well, that’s life.

First impressions, the movie sucked and it didn’t.

Any negativity is not because I read the books and was disappointed, I read the books and for the life of me could not remember a single thing, except for something at the end, which is a massive spoiler, so I won’t say anything. I don’t even remember the incidents with Professor Snape, except one thing, and he is my favourite character in the series. I guess that tells you how much I cared for and what kind of impact the books have made on me.

Not much at all. The books really started to suck after the third one in the series. And even before that, they were OK, but merely adequate really. But I am a stubborn fool and tried to make sure I finished them (kind of skimmed through the last one, that was the worst one of all).

So, judging the movies is difficult. Because I have a preconceived idea that they are going to suck like the books did, so this represents an unfair bias on my part.

I also have another bias (another bias? Oh do tell, I have more than one?). I hate teenage romantic angst (well, I found the George Michael’s teenage angst in Arrested Development extraordinarily amusing, but it was done well and suited the mood of the series). To be honest, I am often not interested in teenage stories at all, it is such a stupid time of life. Everything is a melodrama, you are often a know-it-all at that age and act accordingly (the rest of the world is stupid, especially adults, and no one could possibly understand your problems), peer pressure stinks, etc. etc. It was bad enough living through it, mercifully it is a few short years in comparison to the rest of your life (unfortunately, some people never grow out of the teenage mentality).

So keep these two big obstacles in mind when I critique.

Boris is a huge fan (I hope he doesn’t read this), he invited a co-worker along (hey another Alice!), and his Mom. She is a wonderful person. So it was a fabulous evening companion wise and at the end no one was negative about the movie, not even me, because I didn’t totally hate it.

Now Boris loves teen angst, so he liked this a lot. It had a bunch of this: noticing the opposite sex; I like him, but I won’t tell him I like him; awkward teenage hook up; necking with girlfriend in front of the “I like him, but I won’t tell him I like him” character; the budding romance; oh fuck it does go on.

There is not enough about the bad guys and their nefarious plans. I do not get a sense of urgency or fear. They are there, there needed to be more about them. In the end I found myself going, well, great I don’t get the evil, why are people so worried. It is sorely lacking any non romantic tension. And hell, you know how I love romantic tension (sheesh).

There were not enough scenes with Snape for me (god, I love Alan Rickman in the role).

On the whole, it is a very well cast movie, so absolutely no complaints there for me. But the script (oh no, here she goes again, shut up) is poor. The scenes are rushed and there is not enough explanation at times. Maybe I will have to read the book again to explain more (hahahahaha, nah, I’ll not be doing that). I wasn’t confused, it just seemed important things were rushed through so we could get more teen romance. Sigh.

One good thing about the movie was that there were some fun character moments. Overall it was more character driven than action oriented. But some very rich characters, were glossed over and given perhaps two seconds of useless screen time. I did like the Professor Horace Slughorn character as played by Jim Broadbent. His character was one of the nicely developed ones. Damn fine actor that man is.

Now I have read some complaints in other reviews about the ending and how horribly different it was from the book. Honestly, I only remember one little thing from the book, so I can’t say. As a movie on it’s own, the ending was kind of lack lustre (maybe I am jaded by action movies with the incredible wow factor finales, this one didn’t have that). The movie just kind of ended, leaving me to wonder, what the heck, it seemed like something more was needed.

Oh well.

It doesn’t really matter to me, I will see the last one of the series, because Boris will want to, and Boris is fun to go to movies with. I know I said that after George Lucas and Pirates of the Caribbean, I wouldn’t see any more stupid sequels. Well, this movie was not as bad as the last Indiana Jones film, or as bad as the Star Wars prequels, or even as bad as the second Pirates of the Caribbean sequel (not that being better than these is difficult to be). I suppose you could call that damning with faint praise. That’s about right, I have faint praise for this Harry Potter chapter.

Later. If you want to watch a really fun film, watch Up if you haven’t already seen it.

kimkac has opinions, and they might not be yours.