Yeah typical Harry Potter movie where it is not humanly possible to compress it into a 2 1/2 hour movie. But I still would recommend it. The 2 1/2 hours goes by very quickly. The areas that needed to be intense were not as intense as they could have been but for those who may not have read the book I am sure this is enough. And even those of us who "religiously" follow the series and books still let the tears fall in the outcome that that we have dreaded from the beginning of the movie. Long Live Dumbledore!