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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Part 1
(David Yates, 2010)

3 Stars

It’s a sad truth that the Harry Potter films never quite live up to expectations. Sure, we love them, but mainly for those oh-too-brief cameos of much-admired British stalwarts camping it up to kingdom come. So we read the books, we see the trailers, we wet our pants a little, and are inevitably let down by the end result. Which is why, for the first time in the HP film series, I feel that a movie has entirely captured its namesake. The first half of The Deathly Hallows is just as long, drawn out and entirely unfulfilling as the first half of the brick of a tome on which it’s based.

Having decided to release the final tale in two parts (Why? Oh yes, that’d be a case of keeping the franchise going as long as possible…) Warner Brothers have, this winter, given us two and a half hours of Harry, Ron and Hermione wandering around, bickering. Which, to be fair, is exactly what Rowling gave us in the book. So kudos to director David Yates (who also did the previous two movies) for giving us what we expected.

But perhaps I’m being a little harsh; despite its meandering, obsession to unnecessary detail here fore unseen in Potter films, and, of course, Bill Nighy’s godawful Welsh accent, The Deathly Hallows actually stands up as a pretty good film, and a decent precursor for what’s inevitably to come.

The kids, arguably for the first time, all put in great performances, though, as ever, I would have liked to have seen more of the older members of the cast (this is a MOVIE for Christ’s sake; we don’t have to follow the book narrative word for word! Show us what’s happening in the rest of the world! Show us what’s happening in Hogwarts for crying out loud!), and could, quite frankly, have done without the ridiculous bit with the naked vision of Harry and Hermione at it… just my opinion though. I’m sure there’s fanboys across the world who had to change their trousers after that brief few seconds.

One thing that really works, however, is the “greatest hits” feel to the whole proceedings. Think of a character from the last six books, and if they’re not currently at Hogwarts (roll around Part 2 please!), they’re here in full couple-of-lines glory. John Hurt’s Olivander, Imelda Staunton’s Umbridge, the Dursleys, even a cheeky little “blink and you’ll miss it” from Miranda Richardson as the wonderful Rita Skeeter. Come July, I’m pretty certain that every character that we’ve grown to love, or hate, over the last decade (unfortunately excluding myself as “Slytherin Prefect 1”) will be coming back to pay a visit. Let’s just try and give them some lines this time, eh chaps?

Oh yes. And it’s dark. Anyone mentioned that yet?

Thought so…