for me, it was the special effects that really made the movie so thrilling. I can only imagine how creative you have to be to figure out how to capture he imagination of Ms. Rowling.
What was odd, was everytime something semi-romantic happened, the crowd would laugh or chuckle. lol
Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) was classic, such a fun character and natural actor.
I had forgotton what happened in the book, so the movie was more entertaining for me. Sometimes not knowing or partially knowing adds to the suspense.