First off, let me preface this review by saying that this Harry Potter is the best out of the series, save one (The Prisoner of Azkaban) and it’s too bad that they’ve finally hit their stride as the end draws near. They’re learning to add emotional moments into the climax of the story, which is something that has been lacking over the last few films.

The death of Sirius Black in the fifth film was a bungled mess leaving audiences to scratch their heads and wonder if it really happened. The death of Albus Dumbledore in the sixth film was a marked improvement, but still lacked some of the gravitas required.

Not since the Prisoner of Azkaban has a Harry Potter film lived up to the potential of storytelling and brought me a well-told, logical story with an emotional heart that mattered.

A particular highlight of the film was the animated sequence explaining the Death Hallows. It was a tremendously well done sequence (even though Death did look a lot like General Grievous.)

The acting of the kids and supporting actors has improved dramatically, though I must say Emma Watson needs to rely on her eyebrows less. Jeez. If she ever won an Oscar, they’d have to give her one full size statuette and two miniature ones for each eyebrow.

The action sequences in this film were incredible, from the opening chase in mid-air to… well, perhaps the only real big one. The rest of the film is just thrilling drama and close-calls. Perhaps my favorite sequence in the movie was when our heroes infiltrate the Ministry of Magic under the guise of a poly-juice potion. It was very, very well put together.

Though the plot is much less complicated than the twists and turns of Azkaban, it establishes very well what’s at stake going into the second half of the film due out in July.

Having said that, I say the movie this morning. At about 1:30 am. It finished sometime around 4:00 am. Beyond some miracle, I was able to stay awake through the entire time. Afterwards, in my delirium, I tweeted the following:

“Harry Potter was good, but it was no Phantom Menace.”

And now let me explain what I meant by that. This is a totally subjective statement based completely on subjective criteria. This is probably a better film mathematically, but I enjoyed the Phantom Menace so much more. When I went in to see The Phantom Menace for the first time, I was literally shaking with adrenaline and when the film began there was an explosion in excitement and I left the theatre in awe and wonder. Never had a film so completely bowled me over with enjoyment on the big screen before, save the Special Edition releases of the Star Wars trilogy.

Harry Potter didn’t have that effect on me.

At all.

I could see moments in it that gave me the chills, the mythology was cool, sure. But nothing in it invoked a reaction in me like that of a new Star Wars movie.

I can’t fault Harry Potter for not being Star Wars, but I can still enjoy Star Wars more. The people I was seeing it with did have that sort of experience, though, and for that I’m grateful. Because if they can experience a taste of what I went through watching Phantom Menace, then they won’t discount my feelings about a movie so readily.

So at the end of the day, sure, this movie was good. But to me, it was no Phantom Menace.