Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
I didn't like some of the creative license David Yates took in the previous one. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy Order of the Phoenix, and all-in-all it was a decent movie, but there were certain departures from the book and the previous movies that it could certainly have done without. For example, the dementors were ruined by an apparent desire to show entirely too much. Oh, and what's with everyone flying around in wisps of smoke?
However, despite the latter of these seemingly purely visually-motivated decisions again showing up quite prominently, Yates has pulled off a real winner with the Half-Blood Prince, IMO. It's dark and tense--while at times being quite funny--extremely well paced, superbly acted, and though it is forced to condense and simplify the story somewhat, possibly the most true to the book of any of the movies thus far. It also manages to handle certain pivotal (and delicate) moments with considerable grace. Not to mention it's visually stunning. I'd recommend it to any Harry Potter fan, and to anyone else who likes a good fantasy flick.
4/5 stars