A Harry Potter fan I am not. BUT... I did see the movie cause my girlfriend just loves the books and it happened to open on her birthday, so... Here's my take on the film, if you'll have it.
In general, I thought it was pretty good. It's interesting to see the kids grow up as the movies come out year after year. It's a lot darker and a bit more mature than the three first ones. The special effects are very well made and the story ain't so bad either (I mean, a million fans can't all be wrong!).
Still, even though I think it's still very 'cliché' by our standards (as D&D players), I recommend this film (and it's predecessors, if you haven't seen them). The Harry Potter films seem to get better and better every year, so by the seventh one I really believe that they'll have an epic film on their hands.
I give it a 7.5 out of ten. Nice job!
Ultradan
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I'm not as much of a fan of this movie, actually. I do admit I'm a rather big fan of the series. As far as the movies go, my favorite one was Prisoner of Azkaban, and, after seeing this past one, I'd have to say it still is. I can't really blame it all on the writers. The book was absolutely excellent, but it wasn't the best start for a movie plot. So much had to be cut out to make the movie short enough (which brought it down to two and a half hours) that, when they were done cutting things out, they were really only left with the tournament and a few other minor scenes.
The one thing that really bothered me was the lighting in the beginning of the movie. Dark indeed. I'm not sure if it was the theatre or the film, but I couldn't tell what was going on all of the time because it was just so poorly lit (especially people's faces... I couldn't tell who they were when I knew I was supposed to know).
It's definitely worth seeing, despite my complaints. I'd have to give it a 6.
Can't wait to see what they do with the next one (I hear it's currently in preproduction).
I really liked it, but as PhysChic said, it cut out almost everything but the tournament. That being said, it was very action oriented, but it was able to show some of the more significant character developments as well.
Things like Hagrid and his new girlfriend, Ron and Hermione's continuing non-relationship, and the effects of the dark mark on all of the old Death Eaters. I enjoyed all of those.
But I think that some of the details that were changed, like the trial of Barty Crouch Jr without Bellatrix even mentioned, bugged me. I've found her particular sub-plot the most interesting of them all, now it seems that she might be taken out of the movies altogether.
Most of all, the amount of action and important events in the fourth movie reminded me how much I really didn't like book six, which starts off with 500 pages of utterly unimportant drivel. I can't see how the sixth movie will be anything more than Hermione getting mad at Harry for cheating at Potions.