Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 Review

(4 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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Having been a fan of the book series, and spending the weekend prior to my viewing of this film watching Harry Potter three through six, I was pretty excited to watch the beginning of the end. Unfortunately, unlike every other film in the franchise, this one doesn’t stand on it’s own. And that leads to its ultimate disappointment.

While I understand that this is Pt. 1, that doesn’t excuse the film makers to only deliver Act 1 of the story. A film works in three parts, even the Lord of The Rings films which were all part of one bigger story, worked individually, and that is also the case with every Harry Potter film prior to this. But The Deathly Hallows spends half of the film lazily delivering exposition and decent but not great action, and the other half in the woods.

Don’t get me wrong, things like the visual style and the acting were just as good as they’ve always been and that’s why the film isn’t a total loss, but when you’re promising Part 1 of the greatest finale of all time, then you better be delivering that.

It felt like the film makers made this film to get to the major cliffhanger at the end. Rather than giving this film it’s own conflicts, everything is set up for Pt. 2. I think a quote a friend of mine made serves the film best “this film is like all the boring parts of a five hour movie.” Sadly, it’s true.

On a technical front this film is just as good as all the others. The production team has always done a good job at world building and David Yates definitely brought his A-game. It’s just a shame his A-game wasn’t enough to redeem an O.K. script.

And I do think that’s the biggest reason for my disappointment, the script just wasn’t there. And it is because it’s hard to make the story interesting in a visual form.

When reading it in the book, you’re able to get inside Harry’s mind and understand what he’s going through. But in the film, unless you find a reason for him to speak, you don’t get that. This is something that plagues every book to film adaptation, but I think the strain of this being the seventh film in the series is finally taking it’s toll on everyone involved.

And just as a small gripe, the one character who serves the biggest role in the book outside of Harry, his friends and Voldemort, Snape has exactly ONE scene in the entire film. It’s things like that, that really irk me.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 isn’t a bad film, it’s just misguided. Misguided by the false sense that you can put anything out in this film as long as Pt. 2 is epic. And since the majority of what was in the trailer isn’t in Pt. 1, I have a feeling Pt. 2 will deliver on everything this film was lacking.

6.5/10