8 / 10
score
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Introduction
With David Yates taking the reins (and maintaining a level of consistency seen throughout the films), and featuring the usual who's who of British acting, it's business as usual in the fifth instalment in the much loved series. The story continues to grow ever darker (will there be a light at the end of the tunnel?), and the goings on more sinister.

Lord Voldemort has returned, but the Ministry of Magic does all it can to keep the wizarding world from knowing the truth – including appointing Dolores Umbridge as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts. When Umbridge refuses to teach practical defensive magic, Ron and Hermione convince Harry to secretly train a select group of students for the wizarding war ahead.

As much as a fan I am of cinema, and as much as I support the British film industry, I'm not really a fan of Harry Potter. In fact, I've never read a book in the series, even though I did once try. On every occasion that a new film, based on JK Rowling's books, is released, I watch with much anticipation. Not because I've liked what I've seen before, but because I'm hoping I can find that 'magic' that seems to elude me, and that entertains many others. It's not that I don't want to like the adventures of Master Potter, but I just can't really engage with the films, for one reason or another. Maybe I've subconsciously programmed myself to dislike them - because of all the furor and hype that surrounds every new book or theatrical release.

So I didn't watch the film wanting to hate it, but instead I had an open mind and clinged onto the vain hope of realizing the wonderment that has so far escaped me. If you're interested in reading a review of someone who does generally enjoy the films, then Stuart McLean's look at the SD version might be worth checking out as well. But I've reviewed this without taking too much notice of general consensus, so I'd like to think I've given a balanced overview of what to expect. It does look spectacular in High Definition, and for Harry Potter fans with the option, I'd say this was a no-brainer. But for the non Harry Potter fans? Read on…

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Video
As you would expect of a new film, with a budget as big as this, it has a sharp detailed print that really demonstrates the power of HD. It's not perfect; darker scenes suffer from an small amount of noise, but day and well lit scenes really shine. It's been given a 1080p/VC-1 encode, which is more or less common for HD DVD at the moment, and mirrors the Blu Ray version. It's also letterboxed slightly due to the films original aspect ratio.

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Audio
Featuring a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround sound track, it's a fantastic demo for your home theatre. The mix is as good as you'd want from a big budget release, and you are totally drawn into the film thanks to the fantastic sound design. You also wouldn't know the score wasn't a John Williams original, and again it equals with the high level of consistency seen throughout.

In comparison to the Blade Runner re-release, I was happy to see that there was no element of volume tinkering, thanks to levels and a great amount of clarity all round. Once the disc was in, you could sit through and embed yourself into the world of Harry Potter.

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