Harry Potter Month - Mini Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1

We’re coming down to the end now as we have the penultimate entry to Harry Potter Month and the last of the mini reviews. I suppose before we start I should make my opinions clear on the subject of splitting stories over multiple movies. I think for this film it was necessary. Unlike previous books, where it was easy to cut things out, this book was fairly linear in its structure, that meaning that most if not all of the story was focused on a single plot-line rather than having sub-plots that could be cut out of a movie. I however don’t see necessity of it for every novel adaptation. I have not read or watched the Hobbit but I struggle to believe a 300 page novel needs 3 movies to tell the entire story. As for the latest superhero movies that are up to this, I’ll reserve my judgement until I’ve seen them.

But back to the movie itself, this and part 2 were given a joint budget (they were shot back to back) of $250m, the movie went onto make $960.3m at the box office, the second highest of any Harry Potter movie. It was reasonably well accepted critically earning 78% rotten tomatoes and 65 on metacritic. But let’s dive in

This movie is beautifully shot, nicely edit, very well acted and has excellent visuals to boot. You do get the impression, however, that you’re only getting half a movie. It’s a difficult thing to end a movie on both a satisfying note and one that makes you want to see the next one, this one goes more for the cliffhanger rather than the satisfying ending

The other thing that this suffers from is that this is where things from the past movies that have been left out come back to bite them. Remember Bill Weasley? No? That’s because he isn’t any of the other movies, he just sort of shows up in this one oh and he’s marrying Fleur and oh he’s was bitten by an untransformed werewolf and likes his meat quite rare. Yeah, that’s a lot to take in.

Remember the new minister for magic? No, that’s because it’s the first time we see him, he’s also dead within the first half hour after showing up. Remember when Kingsley was supposed to be guarding the muggle Prime Minister, or when Kreacher was passed on to Harry, or who the hell Mundungus Fletcher is? No? That’s because they cut them out originally

Then we have Dobby’s death. I get why people are upset about it but his absence from the previous movies does sort of take away from that slightly. I mean the last time we saw him Harry made him promise never to save his life again, yet here he is saving his life on several occasions. Oh, you want to know why the death eaters keep finding them, they never explain it. Maybe they’re expecting you to work it out given the Lovegood scene but… Why not actually explain it?

The other thing that really needn’t be in this is Dumbledore’s past because the final scene on this point (spoilers for the next movie) doesn’t provide the final explanation I don’t see the point in having the scenes at all.

I’m not going into the story too much this time because it’s largely character work, the consequence of having a fairly linear story, particularly if there’s only half of it. I suspect budget may have had some restrictions on how far this movie could go. I suspect the second half of the film, where more actors have major roles and there’s a lot more action, took the bulk of the budget.

It’s usually pretty decent character work however, as the darkening surroundings affect them  all as they pursue the Horcruxes, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint do this particularly well, Daniel Radcliffe isn’t quite the same level but still very good

Rating 80/100

For more reviews click here

Images used in this review are from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use