Excellent movie. Best of the bunch. It tripped over itself being politically correct: it HAD to have at least three Blacks and two Indians in it at all times. I rather doubt the real minority makeup of Britain is such. The bus trip was very entertaining, in my opinion. The fade-ins and fade-outs reminded me of something Hitchcock would do. Without spoiling the film for everyone, the movie changed around some things toward the end and, in my opinion, improved it quite a bit from the book. A lot was left out, dealing with various relationships and details, but what do you expect from a 2 hour movie?
SPOILER!!!! read at your own risk!!
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
The "animal" was VERY scary! THAT'S what one should look like!
Our movies was 2 1/2 hours. We decided we didn't like the werewolf. But the response to the werewold was awesome.
I'd like to see it in a better theatre.
The ethnic characters have been in the books for some time. I'm sure they are there for PC reasons. Rowling had intended the books to depict racism symbolically in the prejudice against elves, giants, goblins, etc. But criticism of the first book led her to include human ethnic diversity. I don't think it was exactly forced on her. She is naturally left-leaning.
I find it a bit odd to think of her this way, because the series reads best as a children's guide to WWII, with Dumbledore standing in for Churchill, Fudge standing for Chamberlain, etc.
This is pretty explicit in books four and five.
There are 2 Indian girls that were always mentioned in the books, and they factor into the 4th book. One of them is Harry's date to the Yule Ball.