I went to the midnight showing with my two best friends. While I am not obsessed with the series, I do re-read the books quite frequently, and intend to buy the boxed set soon. My one friend has read them more frequently than I have; my other friend stopped reading halfway through book 5, and hasn't seen movie 6, so we did some explaining to her beforehand and she seemed to follow along pretty well. We arrived at the theater around 9:15, expecting to be sitting on the floor in the lobby for 3 hours. Well, much to our pleasure and surprise, after maybe 15 minutes of that, we were let into the theater! We were the second people in, and got great seats (towards the top in the center)!
I was overall very pleased with the movie; I felt it remained truest to the books, and most closely resembled what I had pictured in my head. Yes, there were some details left out, but to those of us who read the books and know the back stories, we don't really need them, and to the people who haven't read the books, it didn't seem to confuse them too much.
I was actually happy with the lack of Polyjuice potion, I felt it was honestly used a little too much in the book. I agree that the Harry/Ginny scene in the beginning was a little risque, but similar to the book for plot, and I loved George interrupting them! I immensely enjoyed the adults at the Ministry of Magic, I couldn't stop laughing.
I didn't watch the snake at Bathilda's house, because I knew it would freak me out, and judging by audience reactions, I was right.
I though the Harry/Hermione dance scene was adorable, and strictly platonic; he was really just trying to cheer her up. The locket figures were awesome, I thought the book's description that "this Hermione was both more beautiful and more terrible than the real one" was accurately portrayed, and while I think the kiss was a little steamy, they were covered!
I was semi-upset that Pettigrew's fate wasn't depicted, but I'm not sure how it would have been explained. I honestly thought Bellatrix (who I love by the way, I think she's the best villainess ever!) was doing a silent cruciatus curse on Hermione, but the carving in the arm also works. Loved Dobby's line about "not aiming to kill, just seriously hurt or maim", but didn't cry when he died, although I didn't cry during the book either.
I thought they ended it in a decent place, but I am almost thinking that the second movie will be like the second part of the Titanic, where you just watch the boat sink for 2 hours. I realize there is more than the Battle of Hogwarts (they still need to break into Gringotts, get Snape's backstory, possibly hear from Aberforth, find the Diadem, etc), but it just seems that it will be 2+ hours of battle.
Overall, I really liked it though!
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