Just Saw it. It was bad(? or !)

[Steve]

I just returned from the late afternoon matinee (only $5.00).

No serious spoilers here. I really don't talk about the details of the
move; all generalizations.

First I have to respond to the movie complainers.... oh no wait,
that's movie critics.

Of course, the movie had it's failing in that they tried to condense
hours and hours and hours of reading into minutes of movie. The plot
moves fast and if you've read the books then the plot leaps are huge. 

BUT NONE THE LESS, the movie does hold together on it own merit.

I think we see this massive plot compression because some executive at
WB, an executive who see all his movie in a private suite rather than
in a theater with REAL people, decided that mere mortals and
substantial idiots like ourselves and our children are so hopelessly
addled that we couldn't possibly sit through a movie longer than the
standard 2 hours and 30 minutes, or in this case 2hrs 40 minutes. 

We have to remember that a few minutes of real 'clock' time equal
hours of movie/plot time. If they had had the good sense to stretch
both of the movies to 3 hrs, there would have been plenty of time to
include a more well developed plot. Although, I still say the movie
stands nicely on it's own merits. I suspect most of what was needed to
fill out the movie was actually filmed, but it was all lost in the
effort to compress the movie into your standard 2hrs 30 minutes. A sad
waste of good talent.

Now to my experience at the movie. I can tell you this with all
truthfulness-

I laugh. (Many times.)
I cried. (only once but I got misty a couple of times)
My heart pounded.
My heart ached.
I was thrilled more than once.
I was spellbound.

-Mr. Weasley was perfect.
-The howler needed to be louder, but was substantially better than
what was seen in the trailers.
-The spiders were too small, but the spider scene in the movie was
better than I expected. (another heart pounder)
-The Whomping Willow was better than the trailers made it appear. I
though it was a bit whimpy in the trailers, but in the movie, it was
nasty.
-Quidditch - another heart pounder, 'nuff said.
-I was set not to like Dobby. Doesn't match my image at all. Where is
his butt? Don't elves have butts? My previous impression was that they
turned a house-elf into a cartoon English butler. However, even
starting with that impression, I still liked Dobby. He was endearing.
-The scenery in England/UK was beautiful; spectacular.
-Lucius Malfoy was nasty. He's not a nice person at all. Deliciously evil.

If the movie was truly lacking in any way, it could have never had the
emotional impact that it did. To be emotionally moved when I already
know what is going to happen it a tribute to the actors.

One last comment and then I'm gone. This is again related to the
length of the movie.

I was at the matinee, so there were a lot of kids there. Although, it
wasn't crowded. One reason I go to the matinee is because I hate being
in crowds; too much stress. So, while we were waiting for the movie to
start, these kids are making noise, talking loud, laughing loud, and
doing all the annoying things that kids do. But I can tell you that
once the movie started they sat spellbound, completely enraptured by
the movie. Not a sound, other than applause and cheers at the
appropriate points. When it was over, may of them stood up and
applauded at the end.

There wasn't a single kid there who wouldn't have loved another 20
minutes of this movie. 

WB executives, are you listening?

To people who have taken the time to come here and read this, you are
going to love it.

Just a few thoughts.

boy_mn