... the movie is out...

the only reason people aren't commenting on it was because it was awful... right?

well, hell, i at least thought it was awful. in fact, the only thing i liked was that they added some tension with Draco's character and him trying to master the Vanishing Cabinet magic. i did think some of the scenes with Pansy (or whatever Ron's annoying girlfriend was) were somewhat funny, but the rest of the romance? Standard Hollywood trash.

we lost a few scenes with Voldemort's backstory, and we got tons and tons of foreshadowing about Dumbledore dying (seriously, everyone knows it's happening. i can't think of a more reptitively wasteful thing than foreshadowing an event the entire audience knows is coming...) Of course, they couldn't even get the climax right, and the lackluster ending with everyone holding their wands like some U2 concert was about as stomach-turning as they get.

Part of the problem for me was they didn't really capture any of the evil of Voldemort in the flashbacks. The book had small bits and pieces showing his potential for evil, and although the one scene with him speaking to Slughorn was decent, there was never that shock that should come with seeing the Big Bad's backstory.

They also decided not to include the Order of the Phoenix in the battle at Hogwarts, which made that entire part seem even more disappointing.

This was a bad movie, all around. It's not just that it wasn't as good as the book. NONE of the movies are as good of the books, in my opinion. It was just a very bad film.