Last night I sat in a packed theater anxiously awaiting the 6th Harry Potter movie. I felt envious of those who have only watched the movies and never read the books, because I knew they wouldn’t be disappointed. I had to keep reminding myself that the movie was probably not going to follow the book, and that they would leave things out due to time constraints, I expected it to be so.

What I didn’t expect was for the director to completely change parts of the story, and to leave out key elements that will make the finale two movies hard to connect. *Spoiler alert*

Here are the parts that really upset me:
1. No fight scene at Hogwarts!! I told my boyfriend, who hasn’t read the books, to expect action, and that this was one of my favorites of the books, based on the fight scene and the Dumbledore/Snape showdown. It was so intense. I think the way they changed the Dumbledore death scene was more confusing than it would have been if they just did it true to the book.

2. The burning of the burrow -there was no point to it, it added nothing to the story, and wasn’t even very well explained after the fact. If I were the director, I would have taken this scene out and added the fight scene at Hogwarts.

3. Harry and Ginny’s kiss-I know this may seem unimportant, but honestly, Ginny is Harry’s true love. Make it passionate, make it memorable. The tiny peck in the room of requirement is ridiculous, when in the book it was so much more hollywood-the dramatic huge kiss he plants on Ginny right in front of Ron. Plus all the conflict Harry goes through over whether or not it’s ok for him to like his best friend’s little sister. It’s a very real issue and they didn’t take it very seriously. Also, he breaks up with Ginny at the end, and they don’t show that either, which is key to the next book/movie.

4. The horcruxes-I know here there was a big time constraint, because the movie was so long, but they should have mentioned the conversation Dumbledore has with Harry regarding what other items he thinks Voldemort made into horcruxes. Otherwise the next movie will just be a wild goose chase for him to find them. Plus, DD needs to get some credit for coming up with it. Potter didn’t just think it up on his own.

There is a lot more I can complain about, but then I think readers would get the wrong impression. I did love this movie, for the sake of it being a stand alone movie. I thought the shots were beautiful; Hogwarts is just how I pictured it in my head. The actors did a great job, especially Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy. He brought seriousness to his role, where before he was just a silly bully. I thought that storyline was well done, and didn’t get twisted too much in the film.

I’m not sure what to expect from Deathly Hallows, after seeing this movie. I still think the movies are great, but I will just have to remind myself not to expect them to be anything like the books, and then I will be a lot less disappointed. All in all though, still worth seeing.