Keep David Yates Away From Deathly Hallows

We the undersigned would like to express our disappointment with your one of your recent releases, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  The previous four films have been very adept in capturing the feeling of the books without having incredulous running times.  We all had very high hopes for OotP, after having great experiences while watching the first four films. 

Unfortunately, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was severely lacking character development.  Harry, Ron, and Hermione had grown so much in Prisoner of Azkaban and the Goblet of Fire, but their characters seemed to stagnate in this outing.  The plot unfolded in front of us, but the three had very little meaningful interaction.  The scene after Harry kisses Cho in which the three are discussing how it happened is cut terribly short in favor of moving the plot along just as we were starting to see them as real people for once (instead of just slaves to the plot). 

Changes from the book are inevitable, but this film made uneducated choices in this department.  Harry threatens Dudley in front of his friends.  While Harry would have no problem tormenting Dudley one on one, Harry would never be stupid enough to pull out his wand in front of a group of muggles just because he was slightly angry.  Harry and Dudley are attacked by dementors, but one of the most important results of this attack is that Aunt Petunia acknowledges the wizarding world, and this is completely removed from the film.  Yes, we needed a way for Harry to get into trouble, why skip the real significance in the scene?  This film is chock full of terrible choices that only serve to create a hollow shell that appears to be a Harry Potter story.

David Yates' skills as a filmmaker are evidently absent as well.  The overuse of the helicopter shot (digital as it may be) made Hogwarts appear small and insignificant.  Yes, the school was in trouble, but the repetition of the image of the tiny castle is far too direct and insulting (the school isn't completely defenseless after all).  The shot the goes through the window to reveal Voldemort's face in the falling rain is also far too direct, again insulting the intelligence of the viewers.  These things could have been developed through characterization, but Yates simply chose to represent them through cheap imagery (not cheap in terms of cost to you though).  Many scenes are cut far too short just as they hit their stride, such as the scene in which Harry, Ron, and Hermione discuss the kiss with Cho. 

The films climax is the biggest indignity though, as the children are saved from the big bad Death Eaters by the adults of the Order.  In the book, several characters in the book are almost killed, whereas here they, at worst, get a bloody lip or nose.  Other than stunning a few Death Eaters, the children run around, grab the prophecy, and then are put into headlocks.  Then the adults come in and save the day.  This is the largest scene of growth in the film, but it was boiled down to nothingness, the beauty of the scene escaping as vapor no doubt.  The children learn much less in the film than they do in the novel, and it could have been fixed if Yates had any sense for what makes a great film.  Cuaron and Newell sure as hell did.

We understand that for you to remove David Yates from Harry Potter and the Halfblood would look bad for business, at least while Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is in theaters.  What director would sign with you in the future if you fired him now?  We only ask that Yates be kept as far away from Deathly Hallows as possible.  Steve Kloves will be back to write a much more competent script for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, but David Yates will still have the power to muck it up. 

Please do what you can to return the series to greatness by removing the weak link.