Harry Potter, now officially a man, now out of school, now hopelessly without direction. Intimately aware of his goals but completely oblivious as to how to attain them. At last I can relate. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 our hero finally grows up and finds the experience even bleaker than six years in a school fair-teeming with murderers, monsters and those most mysterious and magical creatures of all: girls. It’s a film that fairly portrays the fear, despair and even malaise that comes with being old enough to be the master of your own destiny but too inexperienced to know what to do with it. As in the book, that part drags a bit. But, also as in the book, there’s so much badass brouhaha that you’ll forget all about the slow parts by the end.
The Potterverse is pretty damned screwed by the start of Deathly Hallows, Part 1: Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes, clearly enjoying himself) has risen to power, the Ministry of Magic has been corrupted and Harry Potter is now Public Enemy #1. Before long, H.P. (Daniel Radcliffe) is on the run for his life with Hermione and Ron (Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, respectively). They have no backup nor any sage advice to go by besides the elliptical hints left for them by Albus Dumbledore, now dead. Our hero is at his lowest ebb, from which he’s unlikely to emerge until well into the last film. Vast swaths of the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 are spent with our heroes actively fleeing from their enemies, which does wonders for suspense but also leaves the film feeling pretty dry most of the time. Luckily for director David Yates, J.K. Rowling moistened her tale of youths camping out in the woods with some of the coolest action sequences in the series’ history. Elaborate heists, creepy monster women and a deeply unsettling climax make this the most pulse-pounding Potter yet, even though the series has never felt dourer.
Splitting the final film in two may have seemed like a shameless attempt to milk a little cash out of this particular cow, but the upside is that for the first time since Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire this movie doesn’t feel rushed. Yates’ previous two installments in the franchise were slaves to their plots (particularly Order of the Phoenix, which had so much plot that the characters barely had time to poke out their heads and say “Howdy”), but doubling the running time allows for loads of little details to come flooding onto the screen, whether they were properly established or not. Fans of the books will be happy to see that the wedding of Fleur Delacour and Bill Weasley has survived the adaptation process intact, even though none of the previous movies introduced their relationship or even hinted that they mattered to the series. Mundungus Fletcher shows up for two scenes because the book told him to, without so much as an explanation of who he is and why he’s worth putting on film. It’s likely to be a strange experience for casual fans, but at least it’ll be better than Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which managed to get through the entire film without telling us what the hell a “half-blood prince” actually is.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the most mature film in the franchise thus far: assured and confident and even a little meaningful. It’s superb entertainment, even if it’s too dark for your wee ones. Its flaws are in the service of the story, and its story is in the service of the characters... Sounds to me like one of them “good” problems. Fans will be elated, noobs will be a touch confused, but everyone will go home happy. Except for Harry Potter of course.
CRAVE Online Rating: 9 out of 10
