Potter!

Potter Six suffers from what has previously been known as the Steve Kloves problem – the writing isn’t as tight as it could be and there’s too much reverence to the book. Film five succeeded in taking the most bloated book and paring it down into something more cinematic by not being too reverential – unfortunately that was the only one Kloves wasn’t involved with which means Film Six isn’t quite the top flight it could be as he once again returns to writing duties.

It’s better than most big budget adaptations, and the young cast are certainly getting better (Radcliffe & Grint show a flair for light comedy) whilst the older hands remain as solid as ever (whenever Rickman is on screen he dominates the film completely). Yates remains an interesting choice of director – gone is the visual clutter of the first films which suffered from ILM “things moving in the background” overload in favour of a more stripped down style, and his action sequences are certainly better than previous directors (except of course, Cauron).

All in all, solid rather than spectacular summer entertainment – certainly not amongst the top flight of the summer movies but leagues ahead of the worst.