****************POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERTS. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED********************************

As I sit here trying to put together the words to review this last installment of the Harry Potter movies I'm reminded of the comment that Peter Jackson made in the behind the scenes stuff for Fellowship of the Ring. He said that the daunting task in shooting Lord of the Rings was the sheer volume of source material. He realized that he wasn't going to please all the fans but he said that shooting the entire book page by page just wasn't a possiblity. Sacrifices had to be made for the sake of telling a linear story. So once the story is stripped down to it's barest components, then you have to go back through the source material and find the elements that are essential to the tale. Tough choices needed to be made I think part of that applies here. As with all the preceeding films alot of stuff just didn't make the "cut" and some things were changed to tell the story at hand. One also has to bear in mind that not everyone who goes to see the films, read the books, so in some instances, they can only use the previous films as guidelines as to what makes it to the screen. Just like in the case of LOTR there were plenty of people that ONLY know the story from the films NOT the books.

Right off the top let me just say I liked it! I don't know that I LOVED it, but it was decent. It was much as I suspected it would be with so MUCH to cover, had to hit the ground running. Do I think in the hands of a different director it would be better…possibly but who's to say? I think after having seen the film there were some strange moments visually but I saw it in 2-d so I'm thinking that some of the odd looking shots were because the movie was also filmed in IMAX and 3D. I have seen enough behind the scenes stuff to know that when shooting in those mediums, to get the effect needed the director some times has to block the shots a little differently.

For me personally, "The Battle of Hogwarts" is probably my favorite chapter in ANY of the books so it didn't bother me that it was the focal point of this film.

If left to my own resources I could rattle off a list of things that either didn't make it to the film at all or were radically edited down but in the long run, I liked the final product. My one main complaint about the movie was the SOUND. Perhaps it was my theater, but I thought the sound was kind of muddy and there were times when you couldn't hear everything.

I'll probably buy the dvd when it comes out.

Also I must say that Alan Rickman was his usual brilliant self. I don't know if this was his greatest film ever, but he definitely flexed his acting muscles on this one. His humanity is what really got me in this film.

Here's the thing I couldn't for the life of me understand about the movie. HOW THE H3LL DID LUNA END UP AT HOGWARTS BEFORE HARRY RON AND HERMIONE!!

She's just chillin in the Room of requirement when they get there. I mean WHAT!! Luna you are CRAZY!! Were you just sitting in shell cottage and was like "You know what? I think I'll go back to Hogwarts. It's not like it's run by a death eaters who know I'm supposed to be locked up in Malfoy Manner or anything like that."

And THE HUG!

Voldemort's like "Is this how it done?"

Draco is all "Do not want"

And everyone's looking on like "AWKWARD!"

Hah!!! Hadn't even thought of Luna getting to Hogwarts before the Trinty, but that's true, maybe that will be for eternity one of those film gaffs you read about (like Cpt Jack Sparrow wearing a watch in a couple of scenes). Yeah the Draco & Voldemort hug was strange, but also not a deal breaker for me. Personally, I would've loved to see Trelawny lobbing some crystal balls from the upper staircases like in the books, even funnier if she had a bottle of cooking sherry in one hand whilest doing so BECAUSE…..that would've been a nice nod to the folks who HAD put the time in and read the books.

THE HUG was just… and Voldemort's giddiness… it was so… so not a Voldemort type thing to do but OMG it was great by far the best part of the movie.

I would also like to take this time so ask, why did they give Neville a mush speech?!?!? I wanted him to yell "I'll join you when hell freezes over! Dumbledore Army!" He was such a BAMF in the book.

I would LOVE to sit with you over some adult libations and discuss Potter in depth because I find it such an endless entertaining subject (and a hell of a lot better then talking religion or politics for my blood pressure).

Yeah, they went the whole rallying the troops speech (ala Braveheart & LOTR) with Neville. Perhaps you noticed that at the end when they were in the train station that Harry's son's initials are ASP (albus severus potter) perhaps a foreshadowing of his getting into Slytherin prominently featured on his trunk. I don't think I'm going to see it again until it comes out on dvd but I'm sure there were a million little things….I noticed that the Cornish Pixies made a reappearance so are we to interpret that to mean they were ditched in the room of requirement by Gilderoy Lockhart? I was also noticing that instead of Crabbe and Goyle being w/Malfoy it was Blaise Zabini and Goyle. Is this a reflection of the actor playing Crabbe being arrested for drugs in real life?