Normally, Harry Potter films only loosely follow the book such as the 3rd and 4th film. The 5th and now this one being directed by the same director Yates, are much better. In fact the Half Blood Prince is a 8 out of 10 in terms of following the book. There are direct quotes from the book, which makes this movie very enjoyable. The action flowed and the timeline of events was continuous and did not jump like in Order. It actually felt like Harry was at Hogwarts for a year and not 2 months. I would recommend see this movie before your the last one! Enjoy the film!
Actions movies sometimes have a compelling story, this is not one of those. The acting performance of the main characters is fair at best, the robots are much better by comparison. The climax to the movie takes 30 plus minutes to play out in full. The ending is very obvious about an hour into the movie. I would stay home and wait for the DVD, because at least then you can take a break from all of the action to watch the nature channel. It is a good sequel but the first as usual is the best. Out doing the first with way more action, while exciting, is not that interesting. I actually fell asleep during the build up to the big climax because it took so long to get there.