I actually thought, as far as urgent plot points and condensed pages conveyed, this was the strongest of the movies. One of the things I liked best about it was that the screenwriter got out of the way of JKR's dialogue (including the "teaspoon" line among others) whereas the previous screenwriter seemed to rewrite the dialogue in an unpleasing way every time.
It wasn't so terribly unhappy. The D.A. scenes were lovely (and, as in the book, for me, nearly made up for Harry's grumpiness.) I guess I was surprised because Phoenix is my least favorite book, and I enjoyed the movie so much. We speculated that this is because the book lends itself to massive cuts in length. While reading, it takes (at least two full) days to read Harry's ALL CAPS YELLING and Umbridge's cruelty and all the while, you feel as lost as Harry without Dumbledore's presence. But it can be more easily stomached in the short form.
What's more, it was joyous to watch Umbridge because Staunton (love her!) had a performance that was so much what I'd envisioned, from the "hem, hems" to the condescending classes to the horrifying detention "lines" scene. The abstract Umbridge was painful to read, but I loved-to-hate Umbridge-in-the-flesh.
This director certainly has a way with actors-- it seemed like everyone brought their A game. Including the recently LoT-maligned Rupert Grint, who had some incredibly natural scenes. No mugging in this one. Radcliffe (still cute, no matter what you say, iSm) gave a complex, real portrayal of Angry Young Man, and his work in the climax was, I thought, quite good. BTW, iSm, the kids were 16 when this was shot-- just a year older than they're supposed to be. I didn't think they looked too old; I thought that they well-represented what can only be expressed by behavior and complexity of each new novel: these are no longer children. They're nearly adults.
Hurrah for subtlety. Their handling of Ginny (her potential as an excellent witch and her future love) was subtle, just enough for those who know the next book. Even little things, like Neville using "petrificus totalus," had resonance.
My only gripe, really, was
All in all, a lovely cinematic outing, and served (as well as the re-read of Half-Blood Prince) as quite a build in excitement for next Friday. NEXT FRIDAY!!!