I knew beforehand they were going to burn the burrow. I read a spoiler review before the movie, thinking there wouldn’t be anything to spoil since I’d read the book. Wrong. They said they inserted that sequence to sum up all the reports of attacks in the book, and to make it more personal to Harry. I cried when I saw the burrow on fire, and saw Mrs. Weasley’s face while she watched it burn. And even though I knew it was coming, I cried when Dumbledore died. (Yeah, I’m a movie crier. Can’t help myself.) But yes, there were so many things about this movie that rang hollow. It felt like a placeholder to get to the final two movies. Can’t very well skip one, can we? So let’s get this over with. Bad form.

There were things I liked about it, and a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, but overall, it wasn’t as good as I expected it to be, and definitely not as good as I hoped it would be. I’m sure I’ll watch it again when it comes out on DVD, and maybe I’ll find more to like, but for now, I’m mostly disappointed.