To say I was pleasantly surprised by this movie would be an understatement. While I enjoyed the first three (and most of the fourth) it's seemed to me that the longer the books have gotten, the worse the movies have as well. As a big fan of the novels, it's hard to be pleased that they removed so many great moments in exchange for a lot of stuff that wasn’t there, and also failed to translate some things as well as they could have. While I was sort of pleased to hear that they would be splitting the final book into two movies, it's pretty obvious that there's a big financial motivation behind that decision, and so I was worried that many reviewers would be right and that this would actually be a little boring.
I'm pleased to say that at just under two and a half hours, it surprisingly wasn’t! Considering it's the second part of the novel where pretty much all the exciting set pieces and big moments happen, director David Yates did a great job of making this an interesting movie. The best part of the past six movies has always been the adult actors and it's a pity that you don’t see that much of them here. When you do though, it's a real treat. Despite the fact many of them have no more than a few lines, everyone from Ralph Fiennes to Alan Rickman and Helena Bonham Carter steal the scenes they're in with the quality performances you'd expect. In this movie though, it's left up to Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and
Emma Watson to hold the movie. Once again, I was very pleasantly surprised.
I've got to admit that I've never really liked Radcliffe and Grint (Watson has always been pretty good as Hermione) but they both did very well here and enough to put aside my previous feelings about them. Are they great actors? No. I do however look forward to them stretching their acting chops in the next, and final, movie as well as other projects in the future though. It's hard to pick any faults with the supporting cast. As I've said above, compared to the three leads, everyone else doesn’t really get much screen time but new cast members like Rhys Ifans and Bill Nighy do well with what they're given to work with.
This really is the "darkest" Harry Potter movie to date and Yates does a good job of keeping that tone throughout. While fans of the past movies and the novels will surely enjoy it more, I think it would also be fairly easy for anyone to get some pleasure from this movie. With some truly amazing action sequences (the CGI is tremendous throughout, never suffering from any weak moments) and a fantastic animated scene near the end of the movie, it's hard to fault the director. The main problem with
The Death Hallows though is the fact it's only half a story. Maybe it's because I already know how it all ends, but I found it incredibly frustrating throughout knowing that there would be no
proper conclusion. And there wasn’t! The cliff-hanger wasn’t really that gripping, and the eight month wait for the next instalment almost makes me wish I had watched this on blu-ray the day before I see that.
Overall, I think it's fair to say this is a great movie. With a great mix of action and emotion, it's hard not to find something to like, especially with such strong performances all round. The problem for me however is the fact that this all feels a bit dull and flat when I know what's coming next. It's great that they've decided to tell the story properly, but with the majority of the movie set in the woods and limited screen time for the best cast members, I can’t help but shake the feeling that this could have been better. However, it would be unfair for me to mark it down for actually faithfully adapting the book and while it's really only the starter, it's a tasty way to get ready for the main course next year.