The battle scene was something I looked forward to seeing on big screen ever since I read the book 4 years ago. The way JKR described it, it was awesome, Dumbledore calmly strolling in and staring Tom in his scarlet eyes, while Tom hissed and spat in fury and frustration as Dumbledore not only swept aside all his attacks but forced him to go on a defensive and beat a hasty retreat. On top of it he failed to either collect the prophecy or kill Harry.

Now lets' revisit what happened in the movie. It started off well with Dumbledore stepping out of the grate and staring Tom in the eye. The wands clashed like swords and an awesome display of magical power on hand. It was all fine till Dumbledore decided to .....duck? Wait a minute did I say duck? I mean i don't recall reading that anywhere in the book. In fact he forced Tom to conjure a shield to block that spell of immense power. On the contrary here we had Tom's magic exploding out of his body, shattering all effects in the room and making them move towards Dumbledore, who was seen ducking and shielding himself and Harry from the attack. Tom then retreats smirking in victory as he was kicked out of Harry's body. That was a disappointment, degrading Dumbledore and making a mockery of the oft repeated claim "The only one he feared" . It wasn't fear, it was contempt. There's a grudging respect and there's absolute contempt. Tom hates Dumbledore but realises that he cannot overcome Dumbledore magically. The duel gave no such indication. A negative score for Yates on that point. The duel was high in glitz and effects but felt short on substance.

Naturally I disagree. Being what I like to think of myself a self-proclaimed Dumbledore afficianado ( ) I found no problems with the battle scene whatsoever. We all know that Dumbledore is the Only One He Ever Feared.. atleast those of us who read the books... something that needs to be more accurately portrayed in the movies is Voldemort's reliance on darker, deadlier magic where as Dumbledore refuses to use such magic. We never get this engraved in our minds with the Movie and this scene was altered from the original canonical scene to show us this. We see from the different colored lights that arc between the two wizards as they duel.. from what I remember Dumbledore's light always was pressing on Voldemorts showing that he was more powerful. Dumbledore even holds off Voldemort, looks back at Harry, waves his hand and causes Harry to fly back out of harms way.. WHILE fighting Voldemort, who is trying with all his will to overpower Dumbledore. I see no unjustified cuts against Dumbledore power.

Voldemort conjures the giant flame serpent.. and Dumbledore fights in back seemingly easily. A few waves of the wand and the snake is gone. Dumbledore then, much to my pleasure, takes the water from the fountain and traps Voldemort within it. Dumbledore is controlling all those tons of gallons of water, encasing one of the most powerful wizards of all time.. hardly a feat that says Dumbledore is weaker.

What does Voldemort then do? If I remember correctly (I've seen it twice but my memory is impaired due to the ecstasy of the situation ) Voldemort explodes forcibly from the cacoon of water and causes the room to explode in shards of glass.. yes, Dumbledore and Harry fall backwards.. but that's nothing to worry about when we see what Dumbledore does next.

When Voldemort gathers the MILLIONS of shards of glass from the Atrium, he sends them hurtling right for Harry and Dumbledore. Voldemort means to kill Dumbledore with such amazing force.. and Dumbledore more than adequately counters such an amazing volley. He doesn't attempt to stop the glass but rather creates a 'transfiguring shield' that transfigures the deadly pieces of glass into harmless gusts of sand. Dumbledore truly shows his power when he counters dark and deadly magic with spells that render it all seemingly useless. Voldemort then accepts defeat, that he cannot overpower Dumbledore and then turns on Harry.

The next bit, where Voldemort possesses Harry is as it is in the books. Dumbledore does nothing but watch in fear. The director then alters things from the books. In the books Voldemort leaves Harry but comes back to rescue Bellatrix, where the Minister sees him and recognizes his return. In the movies however, they give Voldemort some extra time with Harry, getting in a good line "You will lose.. everyhing." giving Fudge the opportunity to view him.

The battle scene was epic.. and obviously different to each person.

The burst of magic that seems to emanate from the Dark Lord, the one that knocks both Dumbledore and Harry off their feet, is not a direct bit of magic from Lord Voldemort. Watching the movie for a third time I noticed that after Voldemort escapes from the cocoon of water, Dumbledore presses forward with some blue spell. Voldemort shields himself by concentrating Dumbledore's magic into a ball... Voldemort can no longer contain the spell of Dumbledore's and he releases the magic, knocking Dumbledore and Harry off their feet, as well as breaking the glass. So it seems that Dumbledore basically knocked himself off his feet, rather than by Voldemort's direct power.. it was Dumbledore's concentrated spell, after all.

Yes that's what it appeared to be didn't it? My disagreement with that assumption stems from the fact that perhaps I was expecting things to be too much like canon in the movie. Incidentally very deviations from canon grated me in this movie which included the duel between Dumbledore and Tom and one being the scene where Order turned up to collect Harry from Privet Drive and Lupin was missing... Well won't go into the details about that one, but after all the chemistry they shared in the third book (and movie) Lupin's absence in that sequence was sticking out like a sour thumb

Now back to the duel.. like I mentioned, perhaps I was expecting the makers to be too true to the canon here. It started off well and the lights pressing against each other were impressive even if more reminiscent of , but the best part of the duel in the book was the psychological battle that went on between Dumbledore and Tom. Neither willing to give an inch and all set to state down the other in the eye. Dumbledore's calm cool demeanor was in spectacular contrast to Tom's furious, frustrated and evil countenance. It's not too much about the spells per se than the battle of two icons that I was looking forward to seeing. If they had to show the difference in the types of magic employed by the two, Tom through several killing curses at Dumbledore and those could have been displayed with Dumbledore casually flicking them aside or blocking them with statues. I loved the scene when he enslaved Tom in the huge watery prison and Tom was shown struggling. But I am not sure about Tom releasing his magic since he was unable to contain Dumbledore's spell. Instead it seemed that though Dumbledore neutralised much of Tom's magic, he was knocked own in the process. I may not recall the full details without watching the whole thing again, but maybe that was the scene that did it for me. I always visualised Dumbledore standing tall as in the book and the only time his demeanor cracked was when Tom possessed Harry. Brilliantly captured by the way. I believe that the makers could have done much more justice to the duelling scene by being more faithful to the canon. That scene was all about the effects and the message that went across. The glitz was there, not too sure about the message though. But then that's my opinion which strictly pertains to that particular sequence. [\spoiler]