Alright so I just got back from watching this...and I gotta say..."Now thats a goddamn Harry Potter movie!...almost"

I'll explain...through pretty much the entire movie I could feel this sense of "We are trying to make this a goddamn amazing movie, but we've got these six shitholes dragging us down." But maybe that's just me projecting.

One of my favorite moments of this was the "Hey I'm Bill Weasley, you were supposed to meet me three movies ago but I wasn't deemed important enough, but I'm here now!"And I can essential make the exact same point for Mundungus Fletcher, Dobby (Hey you haven't seen me in 4 years, but my death is important to you dammit!), etc etc etc.

BUT all that being said, I really really freakin enjoyed this one...and I will to place the blame for that ENTIRELY on the fact that they weren't trying to cram 800 pages into 2 hours.

Also I've had an epiphany on why I hate how to magic is portrayed in all the movies. It really all comes down to disproportionate levels of magicality placed on various objects. I'll explain. Take the Marauders Map and The Ministry of Magic for instance.

In the book the Marauders map is described as a nondescript piece of old parchment that could easily be overlooked and mistaken for exactly that, a piece of old parchment someone dropped. And when activated, it holds a map of Hogwarts with tiny figures of people moving around with thier name scrawled in tiny letters beside them.

Now, in the movie, the Marauders map is granted a piece of old parchment...about 3 inches thick once it's all folded up.I mean seriously, has anyone counted just how many little fold out doodads and thingamjigs make up that "scrap of parchment", I mean seriously people! And once activated it's a map of Hogwarts granted (That when unfolded is about 6 foot square, very convenient for sneaking around at night, no?)except that everything is all unnecessarily fancy, the entire map is made of words and the names of the people are scrawled out halfway across the thing in weird curling letters. Really? This is the map that 4 misfit boys would have made at school? Really?

Now The Ministry of Magic. In the book it's described as...well a government building...your local city hall, with a few small improvements (Flying letters, fireplaces etc. etc.).

But in the movie, it's this twisting, turning, multicolored menagerie even Tim Burton wouldn't accept. With walls that extend beyond visibilty and...everything' shiny, even the dungeons (You know those "Rough stone walls" to quote miss Jk herself) look like something from a Lady Gaga music video.

EDIT: Just a clarification. I freakin LOVE the design of the Ministry of Magic; it's this amazingly fantastical impossible yet there-it-is type of space that would work awesome in any other movie that wasn't titled Harry Potter.

Part of the charm, for me at least, about the entire Harry Potter seriously was the utter British drollness of it all. Even the Ministry of MAGIC is just another parliament building where politicians clock in and clock out. And that's what's gotten lost in the movies. It feels like the filmmakers went, "Hey, there's magic here right? So let's make everything  SUPER MEGA MAGICALLY AWESOME!!!!" Which for me, is the exact opposite of what JK Rowling was trying to create with the series.

But then...thats just me.

PS. Bill Nighy as Scrimgeour...HEEEEELL YEEEES

PSS. My god Emma Watson, give a man a break would you?