Book Before the Movie

I have written several entries about our adventures reading Harry Potter here and here. We made a date with our friends, The Sprouts, to go see the most recent Harry Potter movie (from Book 6). We had decided we wanted to see it at the IMAX because Nicholas and I saw Dark Knight there, and it was AMAZING! The movie was released in IMAX a couple of weeks after it was released in general theaters (at least at our IMAX theater), so it took a little while for us to honor our pre-set date, but we made it!
This was the first time that Nicholas and I had seen a Harry Potter movie after we had read the appropriate book. It was a very different experience this time. I still agree with my opinion prior to reading the books that the movies are very good and well done in their own right, but the books are so much better! Obviously you can't put everything from an 800 page book into a 2.5 hour movie. That being said, no matter what the producer/screenwriter of the movie decides to keep/throw away, the audience will always have a differing opinion.
The point of this posting...I find myself oftentimes disappointed by movies that are based on books, especially if I really enjoyed the book. Harry Potter is an exception. While I thought the books were wonderful (and progressively got better), I also enjoy the movies.