In this penultimate installment to the Harry Potter series, everything has changed. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) have all grown up and matured. Hogwarts is no longer a safe haven. The trio are all on their own now. Truly, this is the darkest hour for the gang.

‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1’ is a fine piece of work. Visually, the film is beautifully dark and moody, matching its sorrowfully emotional tone. The acting by every one of the cast members is superb and the special effects are better than ever. Director David Yates, who poorly-directed the previous two Harry Potter films, has finally made a good Harry Potter film.

The plot follows Harry, Ron, and Hermione on the road and on the run from Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and his league of Death Eaters. They’ve embarked on a journey to find and destroy Voldermort’s remaining horcruxes, special objects that contain pieces of Voldermort’s soul. Undoubtedly this is the most danger the gang has ever been in. Harry and the gang can trust barely anyone and are essentially fugitives, and the forces against him have grown larger than ever.

The journey Harry and his friends have embarked on provides for the appearance of various Harry Potter characters from previous films. Old characters come and go like lightning speed, which is both a pro and con of the film. Getting to see some old favorites is exciting, but the amount of screen time and importance they’re given is disappointing. Characters that get hurt, or in some cases die, are never given a moment for the other characters, or even the audience, to take in the emotion and sadness of it all. The film pretty much goes like “Hey, so-and-so was just killed,” then the film quickly disregards the moment and goes onto the next scene.

The pacing of the film is very uneven. At some parts of the film the pacing is fast and exciting, while other parts are slow and dreary. It’s okay for films to have both fast and slow moments, but the pacing in this film continuously goes back and forth between fast and slow throughout its entirety. Scenes that take place when Harry and the gang are in the woods or in hiding are slow, and that’s okay. It conveys their emotion and isolation. However, when things get exciting in the film the pacing quickens up for a few minutes, and then immediately reverts back to being slow.

In case some of you don’t know, the post-conversion of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1’ to 3D took longer than the filmmakers thought, so they decided to release the film in just 2D and Imax. Whether or not the film will be re-released in 3D before part 2 comes out is still not known. There are some scenes in the film that were obviously meant for 3D, and seeing those scenes was annoying to me.  There are plenty of scenes in the film that were filmed or placed just for the 3D effect that the film was supposed to have. Some examples include the cliche transition scene in which Voldemort’s pet snake, Nagini, opens its mouth at the camera, or a scene in which the camera shows Harry, Ron, and Hermione at a table, and the placement of the camera seems to be on top of the table and far away from the trio. This means that the table was supposed to “pop out” towards the audience in the 3D version of the film. I just found it problematic to feature these useless scenes that could have been replaced with just normal, better-looking ones.

The cinematography of the film is, like I said before, beautifully dark. It really looks great. The actions scenes are exciting and the special effects look good. The scene at the beginning of the film where Harry and a dozen of his allies fly in the sky and are ambushed by Voldemort and his Death Eaters is a prime example of how great the special effects and actions scenes are.

I’ve honestly never laughed in a Harry Potter film as much as I did in this one. Previous Harry Potter films have had maybe one or two humorous moments each, but this one had dozens. Ron is the obviously the funny one of the bunch, but both Harry and Hermione receive their shares  at some laughs. The two characters that probably gave the most laughs, besides Ron, were Luna Lovegood and Dobby the house elf. Luna is the weird and zany character of the series, but whenever she appears on screen I can’t help but be delighted. Scenes involving Luna are nice, funny, and innocent. Dobby returns to the film series for the first time since the second Harry Potter film, and his return is surprisingly one of the highlights of the film. Dobby has been ridiculed as the Jar-Jar Binks of the Harry Potter series. I don’t remember how I felt about Dobby beforehand in the second Harry Potter feature, but after seeing him in ‘Deathly Hallows’ I definitely have respect and lots of love for that damn elf. Dobby is extremely funny and extremely loyal to Harry, and his appearance was crucial to the gang since Dobby was able to help the trio out in plenty of ways. In all honesty, Dobby was the star of the film. As cliche as it sounds, Dobby stole the show.

The best part of the film is the Ministry of Magic heist scene where Harry, Ron, and Hermione disguise themselves as Ministry of Magic employees in order to find and steal a horcrux. That part of the film was the best because it featured everything. There was humor involved with the use of some contraptions made by Ron’s brothers, as well as the humorous scenarios that Harry and Ron get themselves into. Excitement was there because the trio are pretty much in the most dangerous place in the wizarding world. The pacing of the heist was just perfect in switching the tone gracefully from thrilling to dramatic to humorous and back again to thrilling. The heist scene is without a doubt the best part of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1’.

Another important scene that should be recognized is the reciting of ‘The Tale of the Three Brothers’, which is story of the creation of the Deathly Hallows. Instead of merely having one of the characters read the story aloud, the filmmakers brilliantly depicted the the story in animation. The animated story was gorgeous and it’s definitely a highlight of the film.

This film is only the first part of the two-part finale, and when part one ended I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. I was disappointed because the ending seemed kind of rushed and anticlimactic. The final  scene involving Voldemort split my opinion – was it cliche, or was it a good cliffhanger? Another disappointment stems from the realization that part two doesn’t come out for another 8 months! And I’m disappointed because part one of ‘Deathly Hallows’ should have been better.

I love that the final book is being split into two movies because it provides for better storytelling and faithfulness. This film is definitely more faithful to its source than some of the previous films (the first and second films were pretty much faithful to the book and still wonderful adaptations), but it could have been better. Maybe it’s the book’s fault for having some dragging parts in the middle just like the dragging middle parts of the film. Whatever the reason is, I stand by my claim that it could have been better. It’s certainly not the best Harry Potter film. That spot still belongs to the third and fourth films, wonderfully directed by Alfonso Cuaron and Mike Newell respectively.

When I came out of the theater after seeing ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1’, I was extremely satisfied and excited. However, I’m pretty sure it’s because of the fact that I went to the midnight premiere of the film. Being one of the first people to see it, with the added fact that I was seeing the film with my close friends and hundreds of Harry Potter fanatics, just added to the film. To explain this in simple terms, the experience of the midnight premiere was awesome and fun, but the film wasn’t awesome. It was simply good. With an awesome beginning and an ending that made me wanting more, but with a dragging and uneven middle part, ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1’ is simply a good Harry Potter film that could have been great.

Three out of four Kents.

Extra notes: ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’, the third and fourth films respectively, are the best Harry Potter films in the series. I believe so because the direction of the films changed with the third film. Christopher Columbus’ Harry Potter films, ‘Sorcerer’s Stone’ and ‘Chamber of Secrets’ were wonderful. However, starting with Cuaron’s ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’ the film series branched out more towards the general audience. Cuaron’s Harry Potter film wasn’t just a great Harry Potter film, but it was a great film in general. Those who weren’t familiar with the previous Harry Potter films were able to follow ‘Azakaban’ throughout. It was wonderfully paced, had an awesome twist and climax with a great denouement. Mike Newell’s fourth Harry Potter film, ‘Goblet of Fire’ continued what Cuaron started, and made a Harry Potter film that was easy to follow, again wonderfully-paced, and made an effort to keep the uninitiated entertained. ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ was the very first Harry Potter film I saw (and I didn’t start reading the books or watching any of the movies until I saw ‘Goblet of Fire’) and that’s what made me fall in love with the series. If I was able to be entertain and love a film that was already four movies into a series, without having seen the three previous films, then the director did something right.

I’ve never reviewed any other Harry Potter film before, but the first four films were all great. Starting with the fifth film, however, the films started sucking, mainly because of director David Yates. His direction of the series didn’t work with ‘Order of the Phoenix,’ and that film is currently the worst Harry Potter film to date. It had bad pacing, no character development, and it was just plain boring. Yates’ second Harry Potter film, ‘Half-Blood Prince’, was an improvement over ‘Order of the Phoenix’, but it was still bad compared to the first four films. Yates finally did something right with ‘Deathly Hallows Part 1’, but one of the problems he had in his other two Harry Potter films is still here in this one, and that’s the lacking ability to entertain the uninitiated. The Harry Potter films that David Yates has directed do nothing to bring in the uninitiated, and that’s a problem because a great adaptation is evident when both fans and non-fans of the original source material can thoroughly enjoy it. To be honest, even for someone like me, who has read all the Harry Potter books, had trouble following some things that were happening in ‘Deathly Hallows Part 1’. I had to Wikipedia the film plot to understand some things, and I’m still confused about certain things. I mean, c’mon. If even the Twilight films are able to keep me entertained and following though I haven’t read the books, then the obviously better Harry Potter books should have film adaptations that can entertain those that aren’t initiated.