Mischief Managed

I'm probably going to be torn to shreds for this, but I didn't love the last Harry Potter.  Again, I think this movie is only successful because it is Harry Potter.  Honestly, they threw a ton of money at it and stayed reasonably faithful to the books (for those of you who disagree, allow me to clarify by adding "considering they adapted a book of that length into a movie so comparatively short").  It made a ton of money (which is a good way to measure success in Hollywood).  It looks cool, it's fun, but still...

I wasn't on the edge of my seat.  I never once worried that the hero would lose (in a way that had nothing to do with having read the books and knowing the ending).  Yes, harry's journey was hard... but it didn't seem hard ENOUGH.  Voldemort felt kind of lame.  Which is something I never expected.  The whole thing moved too fast for me to feel like there was any character growth (except for Snape and the plot depended on his growth, so they couldn't exactly brush over it).  The balance the previous movies perfected between edge-of-your-seat-action, magical world-building, and laughter was completely gone.  And the epilogue was CREEPY!!

Still... it looked cool.  The fight scenes where Harry pulled Voldemort off the building worked well for transitioning a really simple scene from the book into a visual climax that could satisfy an audience.  The dragon was awesome (and broke my heart), the way Mrs. Weasley disposed of Bellatrix was AWESOME (although I would have loved that scene to have been a little longer/more intense).

Yes, I'm going to see it again.  Yes, I'm going to buy it.  Yes, I plan on watching it with my kids some day.

But I'm still left with the tiniest bit of disappointment.  I expected something EPIC!

And it was just legendary.