First off, like I said, I already braced myself for most of what was excluded. I pre-raged at them excluding all but two of the past memories about Tom and his family. So I wasn't upset about them missing. I already knew they added that crazy Burrow attack scene (which was enjoyable, but no idea why they made it up), so it didn't bother me.
That aside, I was not braced for how they butchered the ending.
Anyway, let me first say I did enjoy the movie. From a strictly movie-goer sense, it was quite enjoyable. Lots of good humor, action, story, etc. However, I'm a huge Harry Potter fan who of course has read the novels and loved them. I can not believe how they changed and ruined the absolute most important and best part of the book. Why leave out the Hogwarts battle? Why allow Dumbledore to Apparate inside Hogwarts' grounds (I seriously raged)? Why ruin so much of the drama, emotion and power behind all the ending scenes? FFFFFFFFFFFF And worst, WORST, of all was the Dumbledore death scene. HARRY POTTER WATCHING IT FROM BELOW? WHAT THE HELL. ....THAT COMPLETELY RUINS HOW POWERFUL IT WAS. HIM BEING TRAPPED IN HIS BODY, FORCED TO WATCH DUMBLEDORE BE MURDERED BY SNAPE IS HOW IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE DONE. But instead we get HERPA DERP I SEE YOU POTTER, SHHH NOW I GO KILL DUMBLEDORE LOL.
And goodness after he died. Well that's sad let's reflect. ;_; POINTING OUR WANDS AT THE SKY WILL BE GOOD ENOUGH!
Ultimate nerdrage, forgive me. But come on. The ending was perfect and absolutely powerful. The movie's version was the ultimate disappointment for me. Gosh dangit. At least the scene with the Horcrux in the cave was done pretty well. I enjoyed it. After that, though... Ruined everything. Some other minor things disappointed me (like leaving out Fleur+Bill and Tonks+Remus, which added to powerful love connections emphasized strongly in the book), but I won't rage over them...
Other things I did like was how annoyingly done Lavender was (who doesn't hate that bimbo), how many scenes made me laugh (especially McLaggen... LOL what a douchenut; the entire theatre loved laughing at him) and of course Luna. One of the best things about the movies is getting to see Luna. She's so awesome. ;_;
All in all, I guess, I definitely had a fun time. It's a good movie in itself, but its flaw is how horribly it handled the ending.
