HARRY POTTER &
THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 1
4 out of 5 stars

well... i’m just going to be frank, and say that i didn’t really like this adaptation at all. really really creepy moments and probably the darkest HP yet. actually those were the good moments! what i didn’t like about this was that it was just too LONG (a whopin’ 2 and a half hours, really?) and felt that the pacing was very slow. hopefully david yates (the director) will pick it up a la what he did with half blood prince? :/

for those who haven’t read the books... let’s recap for ya: HP7 is all about the horcruxes and destroying the evil wizard voldemort once and for all. the final battle between harry and voldy is going to be rough, so in order to get the upper hand, voldemort’s soul must be dealt with... apparently, a long time ago, voldemort decided to split his soul and put each piece into a horcrux, a mechanism to house it. harry destroyed one of the horcruxes AKA tom riddle’s diary when he battled the basilisk in the chamber of secrets. (book 2) so, harry, hermione, and ron are off to find them and destroy them. their journey gets thwarted by the now corrupt ministry of magic which is trying to get rid of the mudbloods AKA muggles (non magical ppl), the death eaters AKA followers/loyal subjects of voldemort and house of slitherin, and snatchers, who are bounty hunters hunting down muggles for the ministry, so they can interrogate them. the world which harry and his friends are living in is now a dark dark hell hole, and you can tell they’re a long ways from hogwarts...

maybe it was because i read the book, but i was extremely disappointed with this adaptation, as i’ve mentioned before... just too damn long and drawn out! but one thing i did like is that you realize this kids aren’t kids anymore. they’ve got to fend for themselves, and use magic to defend themselves because THEIR LIVES DEPEND ON IT. dumbledore can’t be savin’ no one this time. it’s the ultimate test of survival, and you see it when harry and his friends plan to break into the ministry of magic to retrieve one of the horcruxes or better yet, when harry and his friends are captured and tortured at the malfoy estate. one thing that bothered me a ton was dumbledore’s mysterious family history, and why the movie didn’t go too much into detail with that. strange since it’s pretty significant IMO... despite pacing issues and all, i think one of the best scenes though is the visualization of the story of the deathly hallows. BRAVO on that. for me, not as good as half blood prince, but maybe HP7 part 2 will change my mind this summer! ;)