First of all let's get the bad part out of the way: The 3D, or rather, the lack of 3D. It's been known for ages now that Harry Potter was going to be a post-production conversion to 3D and everyone knows that such things are rubbish (Clash of the Titans anyone?) and as such I was fully intending to see this film in 2D, except I didn't have a choice as the midnight showing were 3D only. They actually later added additional showings including a 2D one, but I'd already booked the tickets so it was too late for that! I did however get to wear some rather funky 3D glasses though:
How cool are they? Harry Potter shaped glasses!!! And what made it even cooler (to me) was that they're Cineworld exclusive glasses which I picked up a few weeks ago and we were in a Vue cinema and as such I WAS THE ONLY PERSON WEARING THEM. Epic. :) If only there had been some 3D to actually appreciate... so yeh, post-production 3D conversion = rubbish, it just doesn't work and it's rubbish. Do NOT pay the extra to watch it in 3D although if you do it won't ruin the film at all, but you're actually just wasting your money! Still a few bits were done rather well and the scenes with the dragon springs to mind here (yes there's a dragon in the film so sorry if you find that to be a spoiler!). If anything these 3D conversion films are actually ruining the 3D market because people think that's as good as 3D can be and it's really not. Transformers 3 was a brilliant example of 3D that really worked, because they didn't try to throw it in your face (well for 99% of the film anyway!) and it was just there as a bonus, not a requirement.
But anyway, enough about the rubbish 3D and back to the actual film! It carries straight on from where the first one left off and although the first 5 minutes felt a bit slow, it soon sped up and within *20 minutes* we've already been to Gringotts and we're back at Hogwarts! Please don't misunderstand though, although in the book that's a heck of a lot of pages and in ways Gringotts does feel a little rushed, what needed to be done was done and it gave more time to Hogwarts which is where most of this film is set.
Like all the previous films it was pretty faithful to the books with only a few minor changes, but the most surprising one in this something Neville says/does, but in no way is it a bad surprise, it was just unexpected! I can't say anymore, but you'll see what I mean :)
Right so, basically I've said pretty much nothing about the film, yet I've managed to write 5 paragraphs already, that's not bad going :) Everything that needed to be done, was done and as such I'm very happy with this film and it ended the series perfectly. If you've seen part 1 then it's definetly worth seeing this at the cinema (in 2D!), but I know I'll happily be buying the boxset as soon as it gets released! :D