Maybe my expectations were a tad too high, but then again it's a Harry Potter movie, how can your expectations not be high for such a wonderful series? Although the tone, the gathering darkness and maturity of the movie was good, it was too disjointed, too many scenes were cut out from the original novel to begin with, leaving everything a mess.
I was particularly disappointed that the film didn't unfold itself in the usual way like the previous movies, where they slowly reveal the mysteries and answer them at the end of the movie. There was no mystery in this movie, only a lot of empty space and blanks left empty to be filled in. They just led us by the nose and we all followed them.
I had several friends who never read the book, and said that they didn't know exactly what was going on, but the gathered the story from bits and pieces here and there throughout the movie. I read the novel, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, the development of the characters and how they matured and banded together through the darkness to fight Voldemort and his Death-eaters.
The movie lacked everything, it was almost like a hide and seek game, played in the form of guerilla-tactics. Death-eaters attacked, Order of the Phoenix fight back, Death-eaters retreat, Order of the Phoenix are too disillusioned with their losses they don't even want to talk about it.
Scenes that were missing or lacking or something:
1) Fenrir Greyback, he was just muscle, menacing and opened shirt to show his hairy chest. In actual fact, he was the werewolf who bit Remus Lupin.
2) Ollivanders, the wand maker, getting kidnapped in the beginning of the movie, yes, he was the guy whom the Death-eaters captured in Diagon Alley, the hooded fella. If you didn't gather the details by now.
3) The in-joke of the entire movie was the Millennium Bridge, aka the Wobbly Bridge. A friend of mine from the UK told me about it. When the bridge was completed and opened, and when people walked across it, the entire bridge wobbled and swayed, due to unexpected lateral vibration (resonant structural response). They had to close the bridge down 2 days after it opened and repair it. It reopened again later, but not before they got an entire platoon of military men to march across it, to make sure it didn't wobble and shake again. If any of you have been to London, the Millennium bridge is located near St Paul's Cathedral in the direction of the Thames. Crossing it will bring you to the Tate Modern and the Globe theatre nearby. It was called the Millennium bridge because it was supposed to have been opened in time for 2000, but because of the defect, it was closed and reopened later in 2002. The bridge was not in the novel.
4) I don't remember Bellatrix Lestrange taking on such a huge role in HP6, but Helena Bonham Carter is one fine actress, she did an amazing job of portraying wickedness and evilness throughout the movie.
5) The Battle Of The Astronomy Tower, where all the students were involved in one way or another to hinder the Death-eaters from escaping after killing Dumbledore, didn't happen. That was the ultimate let down in the entire move. Compared to HP5, which had a rather huge duel between Voldemort and Dumbledore, HP6 paled in comparison to having absolutely no duelling at all. Even the Quiddich match was a let down.
6) Felix felicis was not used by Harry to get lucky and get Professor Slughorn's memory, it was used during the Battle of the Astronomy Tower, to protect the students from the Death-eaters.
7) Ginny Weasley romancing Harry wasn't till book 7.
8) Dumbledore had no funeral in the book 6 chapter titled The White Tomb.
9) Bill and Fleur were not present.
10) The backstory on the Gaunt's or Tom Riddle's ancestors was cut out entirely! This made it very difficult to understand exactly why Tom was the heir to Slytherin.
11) The inferi in the lake look like Gollum, the only thing missing was them all saying "My precious" at the same time!
12) The Burrow was burnt and destroyed, probably to garner sympathy for the Weasleys.
God I could go on with this list, but I'll have to stop here.
If you were me, you would go back and read book 6 and enjoy it more thoroughly than I did with this movie. I hope that by doing a 2 parter film to book 7, they would cover all the destruction of the Horcruxes and leave nothing of the original storyline out.
Recommended only for the special effects and fans of the novel.
2 out of 5 stars
