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I liked this much better than the last two. I am glad that the AC moved the characters, as well as the plot, forward. I am not a fan of CC at all. I loved the scene of the dementors entering the the Hogwarts Express and I am glad Hermione is getting more 'Leia' like. The acting has stepped up a notch compared to the last two.

The score for this one was a vast improvement over the CofS...I loved the jazzy and medieval flavour it gave the movie.

I really enjoyed this one.

I think there was a different producer from the last two or something.

The director of the first 2, Chris Columbus, was producer on this installment. Alfonso Cauron really added some depth and a more adult feel to POA. He won't be directing GOF, which is a shame.

The dementors were perfect, the way they glided thru the air was supreme.

Filch, McGonnagall, Mrs Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Crabbe, Goyle, Nearly Headless Nick, Quidditch et al either played no part at all or had very very small roles. POA really centred around the 3 kids (Emma Watson is kinds cute now) this time around.

I just wish they had shown more of Black and Lupin's past via flashbacks. There was a shitload of charater dev stuff left out of the book. These 2, plus Potter's parents, Dumbledore, Snape etc were kinda like the Loyalist committe of HP.

Best of the 3 so far but missed a few important bits from the book that would have added alot to the film, IMO. Like Sirius showing up at the Quidditch game, there wasn't really a sense that an insane madman was lurking outside the gates of Hogwarts waiting to tear Potter jnr apart at the first opportunity. Which made Potter jnr's first trip to Hogsmeade through the secret passage a bit of a waste. Sirius is a pretty spooky character, they left all the spookiness to the Dementors which was a waste cause they're clearly cheap-arse Ringwraith ripoff's.

I thought Lupin came off pretty well, he wasn't as tragic as I thought he might be but he was OK. And the tightness of Potters parents, Pettigrew, Lupin and Sirius didn't really get cemented so when Pettigrew's conspiracy was exposed it didn't really have much impact. It seemed like they jammed it all into the single scene in the Shrieking Shack to leave time for 5 more extended panorama's of the castle grounds. As such, the Animagus thing fell by the wayside, the history behind the Marauders Map was missed, the explanation for Snape's intense hatred of Potter jnr was skipped yadda yadda....

That was my biggest problem with what was done. You get the sense that Lupin knew Harry's parents, and then he's all chummy with Sirius so you can make the connection there, but you don't get the sense that these 4 were as close as (or closer than) Harry, Hermione, and Ron are. It was almost like "yeah, I knew your mom. She was a great person." and that's it. And no one who hasn't read the books has any idea why Harry's patronus was a stag.

That and the relocation of Hagrid's shack and the Womping Willow were the only problems I had (and the relocation stuff was more just annoyed because I saw the first 2 movies before reading the books and just ended up picturing their locations in the books as they appeared in the movies).

Definitely the best of the first three so far.

I made mention of this somewhere else where I said I thought POA could have easily done with an extra 20-30 minutes. I know the kiddies wouldn't appreciate a 3hr HP flick, but hey, fuck 'em

I hope you're right and there is some extra character dev sceens inserted into the DVD, particularily Potter's parents past and relationship with Snape, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew. Although a lot of this takes plave in Order of the Phoenix, but that's 2 books away!

Overall a very solid flick, and Daniel Radcliffe really shines in this one, he seems to have a level head on his shoulders. It's a shame that Cauron isn't at the helm for GOF because he really kicked arse in the dircetors chair.

I think cuaron is doing OOTP. He said that he couldn't do two HP films back-to-back.

well I'm glad if that's true. Although I've never heard of the guy who's directing GOF. Mike someone...

LOL OOTP will be harder to adapt to screen than GOF!

I didn't find the plot moved that fast...

As for the marauder map, it didn't bother me. There was so much going on in that bedroom and with the turning back of time, that either the audience would have been fairly confused or they would have picked the twist in the first hour...

Are you kidding? At certain points characters were actaully speaking so fast it took effort to understand them. Things were definitely rushed around from plot point to plot point.

However, I still loved it. I think Gambon, Thewlis, and Oldman all did fantastic jobs, especially Oldman, and the Trio just get underage hotter every year

I loved Cuaron's direction and the new settings and overall feel, it really is everything the first two movies could have been but werent. It's appropriate that the movies are taking this turn now because this book is really when the more adult themes and the bigger plot start to kick in and they stop being silly kidss books and silly kids' movies.

Hmmm, I agree with Dani.

Also, Daniel Radcliffe is hot, Ron's voice is nuts, and Emma is kick ass. I liked Lupin.

Also, the soundtrack is amazing, a huge change from the first two. Very awesome.

I really didn't find the plot that fast - all the basic elements flowed nicely.

And yes, the soundtrack for this one was miles ahead of the last one.

cool!

has she started writing it yet? when's it due out?

Saw it 8 times.
Twice in one day the first time I saw it. Five more times over the summer and the last viewing I saw was in IMAX.

Obviously loved the movie. Hated the first two, thought they were totally boring.

Emma's hot. Hot. Hermione totally does it for me. I'm 15, so I can say that.

2005 is the rummored date, no month yet.

Cool, so hopefully just a year away.

I wonder if the book will come out around the same time Goblet of Fire is released to the theaters. I can only hope.

Hardly any need to do prequels, given how much more backstory is revealed in each new book. But then you did say you hadn't read them.

Yeah, the flashback styled parts of the books with Harry's pop take care of it.

The cast for the fourth movie will be the same as in the third. In the books and the films the characters age about 10 months. Each book begins around the time of Harry's birthday.

As far as going into reading GOF, I would definitely read the POA novel before starting on that. while I love the film versionof POA, it left out a LOT of important stuff. It's not that long and shouldn't take forever tor ead.

The Half Blood Prince is due out in July, on the 17th I think.