Since OotP is my least favorite book in the series to date--all that angst and shouting and meanness and stupidity--I was prepared to not like the movie, either.I didn't love the movie, but I did like it, and liked it better than the book in a lot of ways.Mostly, I liked that it was edited down to less than two and a half hours running time (plus about seventeen previews, but that’s not the screenwriters’ doing). There were some things cut that I wished could have been included, like seeing Ron and Ginny on the house quidditch team, and some things included that I wished had been cut, like Kreacher (especially since he didn't do anything important, but I guess they had to find something for all the special effects houses to do—like making the baby thestral, which was cute but not necessary), but on the whole I think they hit all the critical points needed to move the story forward. The change I noticed most was having Cho betray the D.A. instead of her friend—that let them get her and Harry apart without having to spend any time in Hogsmeade on Valentine's Day (so no Rita Skeeter, either). Cho was redeemed late in the movie, so that made me feel better about using her that way.
The final magical battle got a bit too Star Wars for me. I could have sworn I heard light sabers, which was distracting; I kept waiting for Darth Someone to show up. The end credits were a letdown—nothing to see there (or if there was, I missed it because the plain text on plain background held my interest not at all).
From a knitting perspective, the Hog’s Head scene and immediately after has some great knitwear in it, as does Christmas at Grimmauld Place—there’s a lot of color work in sweaters and hats and scarves, but there are some simpler things, too. Besides the knitted goods, there are some crocheted pieces, and a Weasley vest to sew (I think; I didn't get that good a look), and a blanket on Harry's bed near the end that might be a quilt or might be knitted—blocks of something, anyway. The house scarves are still the trapped bar style introduced in PoA and still very long; the bars seemed farther apart to me, but I may just be remembering that wrong. I had hoped to see Hermione knitting hats and socks for the house elves, but given that SPEW was cut from the plot in GoF, I’m not surprised it wasn’t in there.