![MrGreen :D](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)
I liked it.
It's not perfect, either as a film or an adaptation but then the book is hardly perfect either.
I am not a HP canon devotee so please bear that in mind.
SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY
Minor criticisms
- The film had a very episodic feel in the first half. I remember people complaining about the editing in OotP, well I didn't notice that, I liked OotP, but the first half of HBP felt a bit patchy to me. Hmmm.
- The exposition is terribly rushed in places. Although Kloves and Yates and gang did simplify the story admirably.
- The attack on the Burrow: OK, nicely done in itself, but what really was the point of it? It just seemed tacked in for no reason except to amp up the menace. Which is absolutely fine in principle but one minute we see Molly's face filled with grief and shock over her burning house and the next minute Ron's back at school. Buh?
OK, what I liked
- I liked how the teenage romances were handled, it was sweet and funny, and the cheeky innuendoes were fun. Harry/Ginny was very, very nicely done (I much prefer Film H/G to Book H/G!) And I was unexpectedly impressed by Emma: she really made me feel Hermione's pain over unrequited love, nicely done.
- Snape. Rickman's expressions said everything. EVERYTHING. There was real grief in his face when he confronted Harry at the end.
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
- Draco storyline. This could not have been better. It was the heart of the film, really: Draco's terrible mission and his choice. Great work from Tom.
- Jim Broadbent as Slughorn. Slughorn is an over-the-top character in the book. Jim gave his story, about that oh-so-crucial memory, real emotion and genuine pathos.
But what I liked most about the film was the extraordinary sense of melancholy that suffused the whole thing. I really wasn't expecting that at all. Even underneath the teenage hormonal stuff was this pervasive sense of sadness and darkness. And the film was really very moving and powerful at the end. Almost dreamlike, in fact.