Who's in It: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Imelda Staunton, Ralph Fiennes, Gary Oldman, Maggie Smith
The Basics: Everything's gone all haywire and upset in the world of Witches and Warlocks and Wizards. The kids are cranky, the adults are tyrants (petulant or just plain useless), and, worst of all, Voldemort really, really, really wants to kill Harry off for good. Why? Well that's part of the mystery …
What's the Deal? Now, this is a Harry Potter movie I can really get behind. There's not an ounce of happiness or Quidditch blah-blah-blah or wacky Muggle antics. I've been waiting for things to turn dark and murderous for a while now, and I've finally gotten my wish. And best of all? It's not so full of its own sense of importance that it takes three hours to give you everything.
The Casting People Can Finally Breathe a Sigh of Relief: They took a gamble that not just one but three children would grow up to be competent, attractive film leads and now that all three of them are near adult age, they can relax that they scored three out of three. Only Watson seems to be giving filmmakers trouble, and it's not because of her performances; it seems to be because they don't seem to be able to decide if they should make her less nerdy and more sexy or vice versa. Thankfully, nerdy seems to be winning.
Who Steals the Movie: Well, besides Alan Rickman, who threatens to walk off with every one of these films, Staunton is a great evil Hogwarts dictator this time around. Any adult who doesn't see parallels between her reign and the current American Presidential administration just isn't paying close enough attention.
Maybe I Missed Something: But why doesn't Harry have a scar this time? They even mention his scar once in the film, but when they do, all it does is draw attention to the fact that it's either not there or nearly invisible.