[KlausBaudelaire]

On my third viewing of the film, I feel now ready to write a complete review:

The opening is the best part, even though David Yates starts with a 'TV State of Play Beginning', showing Harry and Dumbledore at the Ministry felt like 'in the previous episodes of the past Fifth Season...'.
A scene of Voldemort's announcement to cause a Muggle catastrophe if he wasn't made Minister of Magic at once, would work better imho for audience to understand exactly why there's such a havoc in London city.
But the direction of the opening felt good: the pace was excellent, we have so many videoclip directors who fills everything with explosions and cuts (coughcoughmichaelbaycoughcough) that I'm glad Yates didn't fall in that trap.
It's like we're entering in the wizarding world with the DEs when they hit Diagon Alley's wall.

What felt worse was to see that the Trio has lost its chemistry since PoA: Harry and HeRon talking scenes were unbearable, were they in the burrow, in the common room, or in the great hall, the three of them looked forced and unnatural: while Emma has improved as an actress, Daniel and Rupert didn't step up to the game. (and that is most bizarre, they have more acting experiences besides HP than Emma)
Tom Felton? wow! can someone give this boy Sean Penn's career please? he looked the best suited for acting since PS/SS so it's unfair that all the lights are for the same old three.
The acting has improved, but however Yates's touch, who was so right for OotP, is just out of place for HBP.
HBP is a story about hard vs easy choices and the parallel between Harry and Voldemor is stronger then ever before, but these themes are just slightly touched.
They're not taken away by romance (who was much better than GoF) as someone would say, they were just too light, for Yates daesn't know how to create mistery.
There's no sense of fear and ambiguity about Snape, Draco's mission, or Dumbledore's real game, it's thrown to your face or barely talked about.
While I can say in all honesty that OotP!Book and Yates were made for each other, HBP was not.
There are just stories that aren't made for every director, and HBP was not suited for Yates's style.
He has tried and tried to give his best, I reckon that, but no, HBP should have been directed by someone else.
I sincerely enjoy this film more than GoF and CoS anyway, but I can't help but thinking that HBP could have been much better in different hands.