Since I consider myself a dedicated Harry Potter fan, I am going to try to put this as nicely as possible...<br /><br />If I had never read any of the books (hey they're long I get it) I would have thought this movie was pretty cool and a step up from past films in terms of laughter and the script itself including special effects. There would have been mild confusion towards the end but as said before I would be the casual fan who wouldn't really mind.<br /><br />That being said, I am not what you would call a "casual fan." I along with many others had been devastated when I learned that Warner Brothers had pushed back the release date 6 months and had waited in the theatre for 3+ hours for a movie that I was anticipating to be one of my favorites in the series. In its good moments, there were little things from the book which I was happy to see on the silver screen. Ron's sudden girl-magnet status was done very well along with Slughorn's character debut. The only thing that was wrong was the title. I thought this was Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince? I did not buy a ticket to Ronald Weasley and the stories of Romance nor did I buy a ticket to Harry Potter's Friends with a touch of You-Know-Who on the side. Not only that, what happened to the plot? Where did it go? Who knows...maybe Ron will know if we ask him....How can you fear a wizard when you can't understand why he is the way that he is? What happened to that kiss between Harry and Ginny? (YIKES...oh "i can stay hidden in here too"...WHAT????)Where was Snape's big moment? Where was the drama? In addition, why oh why…would you omit critical moments and downgrade important characters to CREATE new ones that don't mean anything to take their place? <br /><br />Bottom line: This movie was like part 1 of 3 with no real closure, action, and not to mention storyline…. Lets all keep our fingers crossed that 7 and 8 live up to what the books and their fans deserve