Two WTF moments in the movie (spoilers)

[Carol]

Caro earlier:
> > What? Mr. Weasley tells Harry about *the Vanishing Cabinet*? 

va32h responded:
> 
> Carol, if you actually see the movie, you will see that there is nothing "bad" going on. 
> 
> In the scene, Harry asks Mr. Weasley if Mr. Weasley has received Harry's letter. Mr. Weasley says yes and that he researched the item that Draco was investigating at Borgin and Burkes and that it's a Vanishing Cabinet. He then explains what a Vanishing Cabinet is (ie that you go inside and disappear for awhile) and says that they were all the rage during the first war. 
> 
> And yes, I know there is nothing in canon saying that Vanishing Cabinets were all the rage in the first war, but as with every other film, the screenwriter adds things and takes liberties. 
> 
> In any case, all Mr. Weasley is saying is that he knows what the thing in B&B is, which is certainly plausible given that he's raided B&B in the past as part of his job for the Ministry. 

Carol again:
I should probably keep my opinions to myself until I see the movie, but IMO Mr. Weasley "researching the item that Draco was investigating" is a big departure from the book and too much for Harry to know. (The viewers will know it, of course, from the Draco scenes). Neither Harry nor DD (nor Snape) should know that Draco is trying to fix a broken Vanishing Cabinet; it's too obvious that he wants to use it to get DEs into Hogwarts.

Besides, Harry doesn't need to be told that there's a big black cabinet in B and B; he hid inside it in CoS (a scene included in the extended version of the DVD), fortunately, not closing the door completely. And book!Harry knows quite well what a Vanishing Cabinet is; the Weasley twins pushed Montague inside the broken one in HBP. That's how Draco figured out that there was a connection between B and B and Hogwarts--or would be, if the broken cabinet were fixed.

Once again, the filmmakers have evidently omitted crucial information and substituted, well, flimsy, inadequate, illogical explanations from characters who couldn't know that information, anyway, not to mention that the explanation seems to be provided way too soon.

Wheter or not Mr. Weasley has raided B & B on occasion, he wouldn't suspect a Vanishing Cabinet of being a Dark object, and the VC in B&B would not have been moved, so Mr. Weasley couldn't possibly know that Draco has been "investigating" it. Mr. Borgin, under threat of being attacked by Fenrir Greyback if he doesn't cooperate, is unlikely to provide a Ministry official with that information, and Draco didn't take Borgin's Vanishing Cabinet with him. He's planning to use it as a portal to the other one once it's fixed.

There are liberties and liberties, if you know what I mean. The whole added Burrow scene sounds worse and worse the more I hear about it, and I'm not happy about the changes to the tower scene, either. IOW, I can understand (though I don't like) the bit about Harry and DD side-along Apparating from DD's office to the cave (and, presumably, back again, though how Harry would know to go to the Astronomy Tower rather than DD's office, I have no clue) because they wanted to eliminate Madam Rosmerta's role. (And, it seems, we now have no explanation for the poisoned mead, either, unless Draco mentions his charmed coins in the dialogue with Dumbledore, which I assume is also greatly curtailed. Another omission that I don't like but can understand is the elimination of the Dursleys (though the flirtation with a Muggle waitress is completely out of character for a Harry still in mourning with his godfather and not at all confident of his ability to deal with those mysterious beings called girls.)

So, yes, some changes (mostly omissions) are necessary or at least understandable in converting a book to a film, but Mr. Weasley's telling Harry about the cabinet is just too much. Or so it seems from my perspective as someone who has not yet seen the film.

Carol, who wishes that she could temporarily Obliviate her memories of the book as she watches the film to see whether the adaptation works