Harry Potter and the Half Assed Plot

I must preface this whole blog by saying I am a person who whole-heartedly understands that a movie CANNOT be a book. There must be cuts and edits and some re-writing to translate the written page to the big (or small in Danielle Steele's case) screen. And up to this point I have never had any large issues with any book I've liked being turned into a movie. If I have, it's been because the acting was terrible or in the case of 'Flowers in the Attic' the screenwriter couldn't have possibly read the book, maybe the cliffs notes...anyhoo, that was until I saw 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'. Suffice it to say, if you have not read the book or seen the movie and do not want to know anything, stop reading now and move along.

First off, I had read some reviews and articles stating that the big finale wasn't like the book at all. The rumor that Dumbledore wasn't killed off is completely false. He dies, just like in the book. What doesn't happen is there is no big fight between the OOP and the Death Eaters, and no funeral scene. Nichols (the director) had a good point about not having the big fight; there's going to be one at the castle in the last movie, it would be redundant in the films. Instead of a funeral, there's a bit of a nice tribute. Cool. It was good. Now on to my gripe. This movie went from one that should have helped set up the finale in the way it needs to be set up, to one long crappy teenage lovey dovey fest!! The sub-plot concerning the love lives of the main characters was turned into the major plot of this film! And for some reason, they decided to burn down the Weasley's burrow! WTF?? No mention was made of Harry inheriting #12 Grimauld Place or Kreatcher, VERY IMPORTANT INFO. No explanation of WHY Snape is the Half-Blood Prince, VERY IMPORTANT INFO. And there was very little build up of the Horcurxes..a MAJOR plot point in the next two films!
We waited an extra EIGHT frickin' months for this movie only to be handed this crappy sitcom that's 5 times too long??? Bring back Chris Columbus for fuck's sake, at least he kept something of the storyline resembling the actual plots of the first two books and visually was a damn genius! How the hell did they get JK Rowling to sign off on this adaptation?
I have read all of these books to the point of not really needing to re-read them completely to enjoy them anymore and I can say unequivocally this has been the worst adaptation, not only for the series, but for adapted movies from books that I have ever seen!! The last book of the series is an awesome piece of writing. It's smart, well thought out and leads us to a great ending, let's hope the last two movies redeem this franchise and don't make me want to slit somebody's wrists!