The Deathly Hallows (Part 1) I can’t believe I didn’t write this after I saw it on opening weekend. Better late than never! If you’ve read anything I’ve written on here, you probably know I’m a big Potter fan, so I’m pretty biased on this series. With that said, Part 1 turned out much better than I thought it would. Reason being, there has been so much taken out of the book to make the films, I had no idea how they were going to address some of the most important and detail oriented scenes. For the most part, they made it work. The final book is where everything comes together, tons of background plots come back around to make certain things work. But there is so much left out, it leaves anyone who only watched the movies wonder what the big deal is.

Deathly Hallows was a huge book (as most of the Potter books have been). Many cried foul at the decision of splitting the book into 2 parts and considering the movie turned out to be almost 2 1/2 hours long, it was the right move. It’s the end of an epic story and it deserves as much room as it needs (and the fan base is all for it). I thought the movie flew by, it’s constant moving and actually cuts out a lot of the meandering that the book did.

Most of the film falls squarely on the shoulders of the main 3: Harry, Ron and Hermoine. The whole story is more of an “on the road” tale so most of the standard Potter trappings are gone. No school, no classmates and non-stop danger from the very start. It’s a Nazi like take over in the magical world and the stakes have never been higher. It’s a small miracle that all three actors have stayed through the whole series and have done nothing but gotten better with each chapter. Without them, this movie would have totally fell flat on it’s face. The high production standards stay right on target with Deathly Hallows, the movie truly looks fantastic. Sound direction and soundtrack with beautiful CG and set work.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that “nothing really happened”, which isn’t true. But it’s a clear comment of the flaws of the script that don’t adequately explain how important each event is. For example, Dobby is a big character in the books and he’s really a lynch pin to the story (as is Kretcher) but they are all but absent in the movies. The last scene Dobby is in has no where near the impact that it did in the book. It’s brilliantly done on film, but there is so little background to him that non-readers really don’t understand. Plus, the first half really sets up all of the payoff in the end. It sets up the dominoes to fall (like what the Deathly Hallows are) but nothing is going to be pushed over until part 2. The end of the movie is extremely abrupt, but I can see why they decided to end it there. The audience has most of the pieces in their hands (again, more so for folks who have read the book) but are left holding them until part 2 comes out.

It’ll make much more sense when Part 2 comes out in the Summer and there is no reason not to think it’s going to be fantastic. It’s a real treat the the series has gotten such a good movie translation.