harry potter deathly hallows part 1 review

Crucially, this being a film formed out of half a book, they distract from the fact that there’s no real climax. Though they’re small fry compared to what’s still to come - an audacious heist of Gringott’s bank and Voldemort’s all-out assault on Hogwart’s - these action sequences are orchestrated by director David Yates with brio and inventive effects. A fracas near the end even has bonus Jason Isaacs, always a good thing, as Lucius Malfoy gets his sinisterly-manicured hands on the Boy Who Lived. There’s a Mission: Impossible-style infiltration of the Ministry of Magic, now a fascist hub churning out propaganda leaflets with titles like ‘When Muggles Attack’. An early broomstick battle takes place in a raging thunderstorm, as Harry and several faux-Harrys (transformed by Polyjuice Potion, which, according to Brendan Gleeson’s Mad-Eye Moody, “tastes like goblin’s piss”) get ambushed by dive-bombing Death-Eaters. And an invented-for-the-movie scene in which Harry and Hermione enjoy a dance inside their tent (which, being regular size on the outside, cavernous on the inside, may be on loan from Emilio Estevez’s character in Loaded Weapon) is both baffling and cringey. The lead actors do things they’ve never done before - Radcliffe and Watson share a topless clinch (no wand-flashing, thankfully), while Grint has to play jealousy and paranoia - but there’s no real sense of weight to the breaking of this fellowship. Much of The Deathly Hallows: Part 1’s swampy middle stretch involves friends wandering through forests, emotionally manipulated by the jewellery they’re carrying (here, said locket) and starting to fall apart.

There’s a further unflattering parallel to be drawn with Peter Jackson’s films. Rowling had the luxury of hundreds of pages to explain it all delivered as movie exposition, it makes you yearn for the chuck-a-ring-in-a-volcano simplicity of The Lord Of The Rings. The Resurrection Stone, the Elder Wand, Godric Gryffindor's Sword, Salazar Slytherin’s Locket… at times it seems like the characters are outnumbered by the MacGuffins. Then there’s a sub-quest (find and combine three ‘deathly hallows’, objects that give their owner power over death). There’s a main quest (find and destroy several ‘horcruxes’, objects containing fragments of Voldemort’s soul). Yet what should feel fresh and urgent, a cross-country chase flick, is bogged down for long stretches by a curse of Excrucius Overplottio. For the first time, the cosy trimmings of a Harry Potter film - train to school, lessons, quidditch match, Christmas - have all been Avada-Kedavra’ed into oblivion. Even Hogwarts has been overrun, meaning Harry, Hermione and Ron must take to the road as fugitives. Yes, the penultimate Potter quickly leaves us in no doubt that this is The Darkest One Yet, the film in which the phalanxes of evil rally and all looks lost. Bill Nighy intones, “These are dark times, there is no denying.” Good people look anxious and pale.

Harry potter deathly hallows part 1 review