The truth is, the greater majority of the people who go out and watch this film are die-hard fans of the series. It's hard to step back and look at these films from an unbiased perspective, to be honest. Personally, I really loved this movie. As always, the acting was really superb on everyone's parts, the technical sides of the film (directing, music, etc.) was top-notch. Half-Blood Prince is far from being my favorite book in the series, but so far it's one of my favorite movies from the series! (Prisoner will always be number one, unless by some miracle Deathly Hallows blows me away.) However, I'm a hardcore Harry Potter fan, and it's really tough to not let that cloud my judgment. I'm sure that this is the problem for loads of the people criticizing the film. There was a lot that was left out of this film, and so much that they simply didn't add in at all. Even though as a movie separate from the book it was great, when you get down to it, it didn't really do the book justice. When you go and add in a scene where they destroy a location that plays a HUGE part in the seventh book, or in the film tweak one of the most climactic scene from the book, you can't help but cringe a little bit... Personally, I really felt... I don't know.. I suppose detached would be the right word.. yes, detached when watching this film, despite loving it. Strangely enough, the majority of the film got little emotion out of me. Yes, there were scenes that had me laughing and shouting at the screen, but only two or three scenes really struck a deep cord within me as a fan. For most of the movies, to this day, I can watch them at home on DVD and run around skipping after words. However, when I screened this one at work the day before our midnight showings, I left the theater with my coworkers kind of in a daze, somewhat depressed and out of it. (Forgive me if anything doesn't make sense... 4:00 AM reviews are never good!) Anyway, I'm off from work tomorrow, and plan on seeing it again! Several of my coworkers who felt similar feelings have said it gets better the more you watch it. Here's to hoping!