Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Acting and special effects; the few tense scenes are well done

Cons: Pacing is way off

The Bottom Line: 

Story advances

Acting and effects are great

But pacing is slow

Splitting the Deathly Hallows in Half was a Mistake

When they made the decision to cut the final book of the Harry Potter series in half, my first reaction was disappointment.  While I enjoyed the book as a whole, I found the first half of the book drawn out and repetitive.  I was afraid the movie would turn out to be the same.  Having watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 last night, I'm sorry to say I was right.

First and foremost, DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST COUPLE OF MOVIES.  In fact, I would recommend you watch them before you see this one.  It assumes you remember what is happening and doesn't really spend much time at all in back story.  Since I haven't watched any of the movies since the last one was in the theater in summer or 2009 and I haven't read any of the books since summer of 2007.  I'm a bit rusty on my Potter lore, so even I found myself trying to remember everything that had gone on before.  That, of course, if mostly my fault, although a little bit of reminders might have been nice.

The movie starts out with dark times for our heroes.  With Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) growing in power, most of those who oppose him are in hiding.  The same is true of Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson).  The three set out on a quest to find and destroy the Horcruxes that contain little bits of Voldemort's soul.  The only hope of defeating him once and for all is to find and destroy them all.  Just two problems - they don't know where they are or how to destroy them.  Will they be able to avoid capture and destroy the Horcruxes before Voldemort destroys them?

As I said, the movie pretty much just jumps right into the story with barely enough bits and pieces to remind us where we are.  You need to see the last couple of movies to understand what is happening.  We are reaching the climax of the epic tale, so that is to be expected.

The most die hard fans have long bemoaned the fact that the movies leave out scenes or even entire sub-plots from the books.  At times I have understood their frustration when my favorite scenes didn't make the movie.  However, when the books are 500+ pages, you have to cut somewhere.  By turning the last book into two movies, they are able to include so much more.  In this case, it isn't a good thing.  There were long passages of the final book that were repetitive and boring.  They could have condensed much of what happened in the middle of the book and turned the story into a good movie.  Instead, I found myself wondering more than once how much longer we had to go before the movie was over.

The book was saved by some great action scenes, most of which were at the end.  The second part is going to be outstanding.  There are some good scenes with great tension here, and they were well executed, keeping my interest the entire time.

Like the book, many of the characters we've grown to love from the early books in the series are reduced to cameos here.  One main character that I can think of doesn't even appear at all.  I was expecting it, but I still missed them.

The have heard complaints about the acting over the years, but I never found it that bad.  I'd say the acting was fine here as well.  It never pulled me out of the film.  In fact, at times the acting really made the emotions come to life.

The special effects were outstanding as well.  Even when I knew what was a special effect, only the analytical part of my brain saw it as such.  The rest of me bought it all.

Parents need to take the PG-13 rating seriously.  We're talking about war here, folks.  There are some very dark scenes and several characters die.  Also, a few of the scenes could frighten kids (I'm being vague here to not spoil things).  Yes, there are some very funny moments that help break the tension, but overall this isn't the light kid's films the early ones were.  Know that your kids can handle the dark nature of the film before you take them.

I was hoping to be proved wrong with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.  I was hoping to absolutely love it.  But without the second half of the story, it turns out to be the weakest of the film adaptations to date.