Yes another post...

[shirofan]

...but nothing worthwhile to say.

I was cajoled into taking my mother to see the new Harry Potter film (funny I thought people are supposed to take their eager kids, not their eager parents) and since I have nothing better to do I'll put thoughts up to prove I am paying more attention to this thing.

Comments

[shirofan]

The purpose of Luna's character was to be a way of putting out Harry's account of what happened at the end of Goblet of Fire in the magazine that Luna's father is the editor of.
But Rowling then expanded the character to appear throughout. The scene about her mother's death was better at the end of the book as it referenced the veil Sirius fell through and the way that even though you can't see them the dead are still with you watching over you.

As for the Sirius part, well that was cut from the film under superfluous material. They noticed they missed out this because the scene with the old photograph was done with Moody in the book, but they gave it to Sirius to increase his screen time.

As for the duels, I think that is more to do with dramatic effect and applying logic that the one spell you have that cannot be blocked is also your most powerful is something that is best avoided from a narrative perspective.
The best you can do is they enjoy toying with their victims before the final strike; but that makes little sense in matters of expediency.
Practically this is a children's book and wholesale death is somewhat out of place in modern children's fiction; traditional is another matter entirely.