I’m posting this without reading any of the other reactions in the thread, because I wanna make sure it’s really me. And I didn’t read any reactions here before I went to see it (yes, I read the books), because I wanted to go into it fresh.
I thought it was a workmanlike rendition of the high points of what was in the book, geared towards the “6 to 14” age group. The Better Half has not read the books, and had only the vaguest idea of what the story was about, and I was able to tell him afterwards, “Yes, you had a decent overview of the book.”
I see movie critics with a lot of quibbles about this and that, here and there (“they didn’t explain why Snape hated Harry…”, etc.), and really, they’re just quibbles. Overall the movie was very nice.
I adored the Dursleys’ house. As soon as I saw that set, I immediately thought, “But of course the inside of their house would be Seventies Tacky, how could I not have known that?” I had always pictured it as somehow vaguely “1940s British cozy”, but the Seventies Tacky, with the earth tones and the bumpy yellow glass in the kitchen cabinet doors, was so absolutely perfect, I was filled with admiration. “You are in good hands,” I told myself with satisfaction, and settled down deeper in my seat.
I do agree that the CG centaur sucked, but I thought the Quidditch match was fine. People who wanted a “pod race” type of thing should just have gone out and rented Phantom Menace again.
La Principessa was rather more critical, mainly that they changed things around a bit (“but in the book…”). And yes, she knows that they sometimes have to change things to accommodate a movie’s needs. It was already 2 hours and 20 minutes long–there wasn’t room for the final “potions” test in the dungeon at the end. But overall I didn’t think the changes made that much of a difference.
One really nice thing was that the theater was half-empty, and this was a Sunday afternoon matinee. We tried to get in last Sunday, for the same show, and when we got there, in plenty of time we thought, we were told, “There are only 50 seats left, and they’re probably right down in front.” So we went home again, came back today, and like I said, the place was half-empty. I think everybody who was gonna see it, has seen it, and we’ll see a sharp dropoff in box office receipts on subsequent weekends.
At the end, where Dumbledore is announcing the “surprise” extra points for the houses, the mom behind me whispered, “Sixty!” just before Dumbledore said, “Sixty!” on-screen. Now there’s a fan. 
[sub]p.s. imo alan rickman was SADLY under-used. kind of a walk-through for him. oh well.
and i want a dress just like his for next halloween.
really.[/sub]
