SPOILERY DISCUSSION
[The first 20-30 minutes of this movie, minus the dementor scene, were horrible though. No dialog, no interesting things, no anything. Mrs Figg = bad, period.
What was wrong with Mrs Figg?
She was great.
As a non-fan, and as someone who doesn't have an extensive knowledge of the book, OG, I found those first 20 minutes absolutely brilliant and riveting. I loved the opening scene: the camera slowly panning down onto that panoramic view of the summer fields of South East England, Harry walking through a cornfield with the sun burning down, Harry sitting disconsolately on that swing in that rather creepy playground (reminded me of Sarah Connor's nightmares in 'Terminator 2'!) and then the confrontation with Dudley and the Dementor attack in the underpass ... it was a FANTASTIC opener ... unsettling, jolting, completely riveting.
Oh, and when Dudley taunted him about Cedric and his mum, there was a
tear in Harry's eye.
Baby!
Fred and George's exit kicked ASS.
I was sad to see how many cliched battle scenes there were, every single one had some annoyingly blatant black vs white, good vs evil overtone that was just so unneeded.
The books aren't about good v evil?
Besides, Jason Isaac's portrayal of Lucius Malfoy is simply delicious. He sounds so REASONABLE when he tells Harry to hand the prophecy over ... tempt me to the Dark Side, Lucius, go on.
It was never shown how the order got the news to go to the Ministry, Harry tells Snape like in the book but it never shows Snape telling anyone.
As a non-fan, I worked that out for myself. The Potter virgins have to do a bit of work here. That's fine.
I do agree there are plot gaps in this film. But so much delighted me about it that I can overlook that.