Not bad, just disappointing. Granted this movie is based on the weakest of the books: the overall plot of the series was not advanced at all, Rowling’s efforts to portray her hero’s stormy psychological development into adolescence consisted entirely of long passages rendered in block capitals, and story rests on acts of incredible stupidity on the part of adults. So, there was not much to start with. But even so, this is a mess. It is so badly edited (from what must have been a much longer movie) that whole scenes make no sense because earlier events which are referenced later never actually made it off the cutting room floor (Cho’s betrayal, Luna’s possessions, Dumbledore on love). My kids spent the entire trip back from the movie counting the mistakes. The movie is very dark – all night sweats and moments of claustrophic panic – unleavened by any sense of wonderment. There is a single scene, when the older Weasley twins create chaos in the examination room and chase Umbridge, that reminds viewers of the excitement of magic and the pleasures of being a student at Hogwarts. Otherwise it is a conventional teen thriller. A word about the adult British cast. As always, it is a who’s who of talented British actors, with the addition this time of Helena Bonham Carter and Imelda Staunton. But, with the usual exception of Alan Rickman’s Snape, they are all wasted. They are either asked to ham it up (Staunton is completely over the top as a very smug Dolores Umbridge, and Bonham Carter just cackles like a maniac), or given lines of such banality that it must be strain to have to utter them (Gary Oldham is tortured with dialogue that cannot be said with a straight face; I suspect he administered the Avada Kedavra curse on himself to get it over with). Why do these actors do it? Is it some conceit about bringing their craft to a wider audience?