Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince (movie)

Outside of being cash cows, the HP movies aren't cinematic gold by any means, but damn if this one wasn't the freakin' lump of coal in the stocking.

I'm not going to get into a long, rambling account of it, but let me touch on the elements that made this such a pathetic movie and an insult to what I consider the best book out of the entire series.

1. Harry & Ginny: The budding romance came off as trite and irrelevant...two things neither of these characters are.

2. Ron & Hermione: See above...

4. Ron's face-time: He was shunted to the corner like the red-headed stepchild (no pun intended) when he is really a core part of and value to the story.

5. The return to the castle: the battle was a very important element leading into the next book. it is what made true believers out of those who weren't 100% on board with the mission to eliminate Voldemort. This is the tipping point that brought the 'troops' together so to speak. And it's damn sad when more time is given to the silliness of Lavender Brown than to this battle.

6. They f'n cut out the funeral for Dumbledore! That was the emotional climax to the book---having Hermione & Harry having a chat on a balcony lent nothing, absolutely nothing to the emotional trauma they had all just suffered because of the death of Dumbledore.

I have about 20 other points that well and truly pissed me off about this movie, but there's no need to go there--anyone with 1/2 a brain will have easily figured them out if they've already seen it or will do so when they do see it.

If it wasn't for the fact that I own all the HP movies, I would be really pissed off about buying this one--but having the complete set is just part of my mild OCD.

I'm a little curious about how and why JK Rowling signed off on this travesty.