You're right. Though I had the pleasure of sitting with a catechetical fan of the series and was treated to, "And they changed this part," "This part is really annoying," and "He never said that in the book!"

I wonder, what would it be like to see the movies without having read the books? The first two were so much transcription, so it's not difficult to get the sense of the story. But looking at this one, which compressed a great deal, and very well, it strikes me that people might need to have read the book to follow the story. I will never know if this is true, though, because I have read the books and my brain is contaminated with all the extra knowledge of the plot.

It'll be interesting to see how The Order of the Phoenix is compressed for film. The Goblet of Fire is basically an action story, so it won't be that hard, for all its length, but Phoenix has a lot going on in it, a lot of characters introduced and refined, a lot of set-up... Voldemort Strikes Back, that kind of thing. It won't be easy to make it both under 3 hours and clear.

With luck, they will finish the series of movies before the young actors hit 30.