Harry Potter 5: Fans Disappointed

I took my kids to see "Harry Potter 5: Order of the Phoenix" this Saturday. My daughter are hugh fans of the books and all of us are great fans of the Harry Potter series.

In book five Harry does a great deal of growing up, from his first date, realities about his family, and the fact about how either he or Voldemort must die.
Harry Potter 5 did not show Harry's first date. The painful attempt by Harry to start dating and his subsequent failure at said attempt was a very important sign that Harry is growing up. While listed in detail in the book, was boiled down to a mere kiss for Harry Potter 5 that doesn't even cover the teen's growing maturity. Besides the date, there was the chance for Harry to tell his story in print in the book that was not covered at all.

The fact that Harry Potter's father wasn't the perfect person that most son's think their father's are until they become older and more mature was only covered by a quick scene in the movie. While in the book Harry confronts his father's oldest friend's for the unbiased truth to Snape's reason's for hate.
In the end Harry does ask Dumbledore about the prophesy and weather it's true that he must kill Voldemort or be killed by him, and why Dumbledore did not tell him before. The movie's version of this conversation is far shorter than the book's version, which shows a light into how Dumbledore actually feels about the situation and Harry.

All in all the movie starts and ends in close proximity to the way the book is, allthough somewhat shorter or more condensed. It is the middle after the beginning and before the end that will upset the fans. The special effects are superb as usual, but the middle is rather thrown into a mixing pot and missing vital ingredients to the characters' further development.

We can only hope that the next Harry Potter movie will follow the book more closely.