I had a long rant prepared. When I got to the end of it, though, I realized that I could sum it up in a much more manageable post.

Those responsible for adapting an 800 page novel into a two-and-a-half hour movie have to pick and choose what they believe are the most important scenes. As an avid fan of the books, I think that the movie showed some serious flaws in scene selection and, more importantly, a lack of insight into the series by the writers of the screenplay. Their decision not to include the scene in which Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny find a locket while cleaning Grimmauld Place proves that the writers didn't do their homework fairly well. It's significance was apparent to anybody who pays attention to the series, and if the writers couldn't figure it out on their own, the least they could do is pay attention to all the speculation floating about in conversations involving people who do.

That said, it was fun to watch. The interpretation of the Ministry of Magic was fairly awesome, although the ending of that bit was slightly disappointing. If one is able to separate the movies from the books (something I admit I am incapable of doing), he'll be able to walk away from the movie satisfied.

I really think they should just bite the bullet and make the movie three hours long. People can and will sit through three hours to watch a movie, previous book-to-movie adaptations have proved this (need I speak their names?), and an extra half hour would go a long way toward capturing a lot of the little bits and pieces that turn out to be important in the end. If anything, J.K. Rowling has a knack for tying even the smallest details into the plot; nothing is insignificant. One would assume that they'd have figured that out by now.

Yeah, that didn't turn out so short after all.