i enjoyed the film. it's certainly lacking every secondary plot from the book. Sirius doesn't stomp around, whining about how he's not helping the order. the house-troll "kreatcher" doesn't end up revealing the location of the house (which I thought was a major event in the novel, but whatever.) the battle with the death eaters and the kids at the end is more coherent than the book (no brain-suckers and running through doorways) but still just as silly (seriously -- "stupify!" is shouted out 15 times. and the deatheaters aren't doing anything to defend themselves. until the Order of the Pheonix shows up and they have all sorts of cool spells. ridiculous! they are DEATH EATERS. they shouldn't be that easily knocked around. )

the film really lacks the great banter between the 3 main characters. it's sorely lacking in this one. and part of that is the book's fault -- harry is so ANGRY the whole time. But in the film, he's not angry for as long. in fact, he's pretty much over his spat with ron and hermione about the whole 'you knew about the order and i didn't' stuff about 30 minutes into the movie.

but once they are all friends, there is literally one scene where they have the kind of friendship we've come to enjoy through the books and the movies. (there are 2-3 brief moments where ron & hermione talk/flirt, and harry does get to kiss Cho, but there's no chemistry between anyone).

Ultimately, it's fun and there's less of the recapping that the other films seem to do. but the reduction of the secondary storylines really leaves the movie with nothing much to do and plenty of time to do it. one of the great things about the film is dolores umbridge. she's great. in fact, probably the best performance in any of the films. she really steals every scene she's in. although, their her scenes, so she can't steal them. snape is usually the one that's THIS good -- where he owns the character and you couldn't imagine anyone else playing him. she's actually worth the price of admission, and is used enough that it's worth it. snape is only in 2 scenes in this one and i was surprised, but pleased, that they included the scene where harry sees snape's memories. of course, there's little time/room for harry to lament his father's assholeishness, but whatever. maybe the next movie will get more emo.

Again -- i actually enjoyed it, but I can see how it would be viewed as less textured. there's 1 moment between harry & malfoy, and that's in the beginning. hargid shows up about 30 minutes before the end with his half-brother, quickly explains where he's been, and then 15 minutes later the kids are back in the woods with Dolores and she's gone. if i hadn't read the book i would scream plot device. but i guess there was just no way to do the ending without hagrid's half-brother. still, they could have brought them back sooner, added another scene with the kids feeding him, and then it would have seemed a bit less of a deus ex machina (alright, so it's not technically a deus ex machina, but you get the point).

the directing was pretty good. i felt that the opening sequence with the dementors and Harry's annoying cousin was done really well and set the tone for the film. there were some great tense moments with voldemort trying to scare harry in his dreams and in real life. the fight between Voldemort and Dumbledor is amazing. when voldemort is trying to take over harry's body after the fight, well that was a bit silly. it didn't translate well (there are some shots of voldemort just 'posing' that, i guess, are taking place in Harry's mind? they were dumb.)

the cinematography has moments of inventiveness, too. also, the school looked great, with flourishes in all the right places and consistency where we'd notice (the dining hall looks the same, as do the moving stairs, but the room of necessity was fantastic as was the ministry of magic).

Ultimately, i enjoyed it more than the first 2 (which were done by Chris Columbus and therefore are really boring, but i guess work as simple kids movies), but considering the amount of material there was to work with, i was surprised that it felt less textured than the last one, which itself had been reduced to simply a string of competitions. but at least there was some Quidditch in there. i can't say which is my favorite because i kinda have an issue with 3, 4 & 5 that prevents me from watching them over and over. (3 has that whole time travel thing that makes the ending repetitive; 4 has a really basic structure that seems cramped in the 2nd half.)

Anyway. let me know what you all think when you get a chance to see it!