One Man's Review - possible, but hopefully, few Spoilers

[Phyllis]

Steve/bboyminn:

<<For example, and we are touching on Spoiler territory here, I was 
very disappointed that Ron and Hermione being made prefects wasn't 
shown. That may seem unnecessary, but it gives us a window into the 
many characters, who they are, how they feel, what they think, how 
they react. It's called character development.>> 

I read your post after posting my comments, and while I initially 
said that I didn't mind the movie leaving out the prefect part, your 
comments got me thinking some more about this.  By leaving out Harry 
not becoming a prefect, the movie lost an opportunity to explore 
Harry needing to come to grips with taking second-place to Ron for 
the first time ever.  By leaving out the Quidditch, the movie lost 
an opportunity to explore Harry's feelings of jealously that Ron can 
continue to play Quidditch while he (Harry) is banned from the 
team.  I think the movies want to portray Harry as a superhero who 
doesn't have to deal with such mundane things as jealously or have 
to take second place to anyone else.  This, I think, is a shame, for 
it is Harry's very humanness and how this enables us to feel as if 
any one of us could be Harry (if only we could receive an owl from 
Hogwarts!) that is (I think) one of the secrets of Rowling's success.

Also, speaking of the lack of character development, the movie left 
out the Sirius-Snape antagonism, which would have further defined 
Snape's character and underlined the lack of faith both Harry and 
Sirius have that Snape has reformed.  I think this is going to come 
back to haunt the moviemakers in the sixth film, as it will make it 
more difficult for Snape's return to Voldemort to be believable.

Steve:

<<Also, Ron being made prefect gives him much more authority when, 
after the initial confrontation with Seamus, Ron asks if 'anyone one 
else has a problem with Harry' or word to that effect.>>

I had the same thought, particularly as Ron makes this statement to 
the entire Gryffindor common room rather than just to his dormitory 
mates (as in the book).

Steve:

<<I was very disappointed that Harry relented and gave Lucius the
Prophecy Orb. He should have held out to the very end. This doesn't
reflect well on our hero, that when the odds are against him, he just
gives in and gives up. I think it would have been much better if he
had remained defiant until the end.>>

I didn't like that, either (for the reasons I explained in my post), 
but IIRC, in the book, Harry is just about to hand over the prophecy 
to Malfoy when the Order burst in, so presumably he would have done 
so had the Order not shown up at that precise moment.  I don't see 
that as Harry giving up, but rather making a choice to save Neville 
over retaining the prophecy. 
 
Steve:

<<End of nasty spoiler section, and back to more general stuff.>>

Are we supposed to be concerned about spoilers?  If so, I apologize, 
for I haven't been including spoiler space in my posts ...

Steve:

<<For what it's worth.>>

Which, to me, is a lot - you always have a lot of good thoughts to 
contribute!!

~Phyllis