Best friends Harry, Ron and Hermione have moved past the Slytherin vs. Gryffindor rivalry and Quidditch tournaments to face their most difficult task yet in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.”
Being a diehard Harry Potter fan, it’s difficult not to nitpick about small details, but as a whole the film was one of the best, presenting a new type of mood in the series. The tone is set within the first five minutes of the movie.
Harry must leave his one safeguard, his muggle home, in order to flee from Voldemort. Harry, Ron and Hermione then must begin trying to find and destroy all the pieces of Voldemort’s soul scattered across Europe in order to have any chance when the real battle comes. Lack of trust and flowing teenage emotions in the 784-page book were stuffed into the two-and-a-half-hour film, with acting that has never been seen in the previous movies. Comedy from the core cast flows smoothly, bringing a small touch of the younger films into what could have been a smothering, emotional movie.
The movie is the darkest Harry Potter yet. After all of the near-death mishaps in Hogwarts and the Ministry, there was always a helping hand right behind. In this movie, however, the teaching of magic is done and the fate of the wizarding world is about to be decided with the skill and brains of Harry, Ron and Hermoine alone. Voldemort is right on the cusp of reaching the goal he has been attempting for 17 years — the brutal death of Harry Potter. Staged as more of a horror film, there is more suspense, scenes of cold loneliness and moments of fright. I kicked the back of the chair in front of me as I jumped when Nagini, Voldemort’s gigantic pet snake, flew through the air to devour the teacher of muggle studies at Hogwarts.
The one thing that was terribly flawed in this movie was the lack of genuine Harry Potter-esque magic. Director David Yates took a nasty turn that even made the heart of the wizarding community, the Ministry of Magic, not magical at all. Ministry officials wore business suits and then proceeded onto a rickety elevator that not even a muggle would deem worthy of using. Casual wand-work seen in previous films was nowhere to be found in part one of the “Deathly Hallows.” While new characteristics of the series were done well in the movie, the original Harry Potter magic was completely lost in this film.