With the knowledge in hand of what it takes to make a movie I still say that a better movie could have been made than what is out now. Though this is a fun romp and visually compelling eye candy the storytelling is a condensed version of cliff notes of the original, it is worth seeing on the big screen for the fun, but only if you don't expect much. This toned down for "families" movie gives you very little story and reminds me more of "90210" than of a Harry Potter story.

Okay, yes I'm a fan of the books, but that's because they're well written and extremely well thought out. Heck, a vanishing cabinet is a very important artifact throughout the entire series of books. We see it the "Chamber of Secrets" when it's "destroyed by Peeves," and when its twin is touched upon in Borgin and Burkes. We even see it pop up in "Order of the Phoenix" and its purpose finally revealed in "Half Blood Prince." Rowling is an absolute master at giving us information and props we see early on and that we'd see later that were part of the story.

However, the movies have been fairly disappointing. All of them have failed to be as consistent with her storytelling as only Hollywood can be. Let's face it, with that many directors and with different script writers how can it be consistent? It would like asking James Bond movies to be a coherent continuity. But how much intelligence does it take to realize the overall means and method of story telling so that you can make a complete story? Obviously, more that I give a lot of people credit for.

The worst part of watching this film, is expecting more and being delivered very, very much less. With writing you can say a lot by alluding to things outside of the action on the screen. It means giving more dialog, but it can be done. Most of the time too it takes very little time to insert it into the action. However cutting out something that is completely intricate for the story and for the actions that follow that are in the film, is more a reason to strike against the MPAA* than it is anything else. We ended up with an ending that did not make sense for the actions we see, much less for what the characters' behaviors have been previously.

It has been fun seeing Harry on the screen again, but disappointing when it comes to an ending that makes sense. Also, really don't expect much when the quality of the storytelling is concerned. It would be nice for there to be more to this film and could have been, but overall, you're better off waiting for the used video section.


*Why do I say strike against the MPAA? I say because of them, they forced the people making the film to comply to archaic rules and regulations to get a rating that the execs felt would be more family friendly. The MPAA takes a movie and forces changes on it so that the movie can get a rating that conforms to the conservative, blind and foolish personal prejudices of the people rating it and not to a set standard of rules and regulations. They do not accurately represent the society it's supposed to represent. The Harry Potter movies I've seen so far don't rate much further than a G or PG rating, because they're not overly violent, sexual or anything else. It's strange they can rate the movie "The Passion of the Christ" R and yet more people would take the family to see that than Harry Potter. I saw just as many kids and families in that theater as I did in Harry today.

May I also point out that the entire Harry Potter series is a story for kids and adolescence? The people buying the books are mothers and fathers. The people reading them is the entire family. Why? Why in the world would a movie be changed to make it more kid friendly when it's already kid friendly to begin with? Because the people buying the tickets are the same people reading the books and the MPAA doesn't think that they can visually take seeing what they read in the book? Because, some executives think that just because it's rated PG and not PG-13 you won't take the kids?

As a society we've got to know that the ratings are a guide line and not a rule. It's an industry imposed standard to keep the government from coming in and to get rid of the blatant biases of things like the Catholic League of Decency. However the system is ruled by a few conservative people. Please see "This Film is Not Yet Rated" for more information. Please just treat the rating system as a way of seeing what's in the film, not as whether the movie is family friendly or not.