Warning: A few spoilers if you haven’t read the books.
This was definitely the best movie so far. Daniel Radcliffe’s acting has improved (though Emma Watson is still overacting) and as the stories keep getting deeper and darker, the movies are doing them justice. The imagery was great, as usual, and I think they did a great job portraying certain things that might have been difficult to transfer from book to movie, such as the concept of occulemency.
At first, I was a little worried they would completely take out the occulency lessons with Snape, which would mean you don’t learn about his past and how James Potter used to bully him at school. Fortunately, they did manage to squeeze this in, although a bit later in the story than it was in the book.
There were a few moments I felt they kind of brushed over so it may not have made great sense to someone who hasn’t read the books but it was nothing like how confusing the 3rd movie, Prisoner of Azkaban, was to those not familar with the story. This one is definitely enjoyable for those who haven’t read the books too.
But for example, I think they could have explained a little better why Dumbledore was ignoring Harry the whole time. In the movie, he says he was just trying to protect Harry. But in the book it also explains that with Harry’s psychic-like connection forming with Voldemort, Dumbledore can’t risk Harry knowing too much without Voldemort possibly finding out as well. This seems like a minor thing to brush over but I believe it’s important to the story that the viewers understand how deep this connection can run if Harry can’t seal off his mind from Voldemort’s invasion. They also made it seem like this was just one of Voldemort’s many talents to take over someone’s mind. They didn’t explain that in the book, the connection between Harry and Voldemort is unique and in Harry’s dreams, the ability to enter each other’s minds is not just Voldemort’s doing and in fact, Voldemort is not even aware of it happening in the very beginning. I do understand these are difficult thing to get across in a movie though.
Another moment they seemed to brush over though was the court room scene. My husband who has never read the books felt it was rushed and there was no warning of it. There was no mention of him needing to go to court until he was suddenly there and it was happening. Although I do understand the purpose of rushing through the court room scene because it’s main importance was to introduce Umbridge, I felt they could have let the viewers know it was coming.
They also did not fully explain the prophecy but they did get across the main purpose of it: that eventually either Harry or Voldemort will be the undoing of the other.
Enough negativity though because the movie was excellent. They did a great job portraying how each character was feeling and what they were going through. The politics and build up was all the same as it was in the book. The casting was of course perfect. Staunton did an amazing job portraying Umbridge – you could really feel the frustration and disgust for her. Evanna Lynch was an excellent “Loony” Lovegood, she had the perfect voice for it too. Overall, they did a fantastic job packing so much into only 2 hours time and still have all the main points make sense and come across fluently.
