Where do you draw the line? (no spoilers) - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Reviews

Being a huge fan of the series, I tried to go in without ridiculous expectations. I understand the need to sacrafice parts of the book in order to make a movie feasible. he question becomes, however, where do you draw the line? I think David Yates took far too many liberties in regards to changes in the storyline. This is another example of trying to fit too much into too short a time. They barely touch on important key points and skim over the rest leaving you confused as to hy things are happeneing, and why characters are acting the way they are. Most moviegoer are used to 3+ hour loing movies these days. So why did Yates feel he needed to cut the book up into 2 hours and 18 minutes? The Lord of the Rings, 300, King Kong, these are a few of the blockbuster movies that come to mind when you think of long running times. Yates could easily have created a theatrical release of 3 hours, and an extended edition DVD of nearly 4 hours and kept true to the book. It makes sense from a sales point of view as well. Sell the theatrical DVD, then months later the extended edition to the same fans. The Potter films, in my opinion have been getting steadily better until now. I fear for the 6th film "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." How much of Rowling's book will survive and how much will Yates make up to suit his needs? I must also admit, that the special effects were decently entertaining. The acting of Alan Rickman (Snape) and Imelda Staunton (Umbridge) were fantastic as well. The film was wonderfully dark and foreboding. In summary, die hard fans will walk out shaking their heads and quickly run hme to re-read the book to remind themselves of how good th story should have been. Fans of the movies and those who have not read the book will enjoy it immensely, as my girlfriend did.