Sadly the poorest in the series. Proof they dragged this into two parts to make cash

Rating: 5/10 (20 February 2011)

I love the Harry Potter films. I have never read the books and probably never will. The films have been breathtaking, brilliant, beautiful, with one of the greatest ensemble casts I have ever seen. They didn't just play their roles but single handedly embodied them. So I was excited and sad to see this second last instalment of the last great fantasy epic. How disheartening to discover that this was nothing more than a forced first part to the two part finale to squeeze more money out of the franchise. 95% of all the characters that made this series incredible are gone. The action, special effects, and brilliant fantasy is practically nil. I read several reviews on IMDb and some loved it and many hated it and the ones who hated it said the same things I thought about it. The starring cast spend the entire film 'warping' out of trouble and into forest. "Harry Potter goes camping" as one reviewer called it. The amazing supporting cast from previous instalments get virtually no time on screen and the entire 2 1/2 hour film could have been summarized into a half hour before the final film. I can barely summarize how disappointed I was in how they created this filler film.
The three original stars return and are fortunately as good as ever. The thing that holds this sub-par entry together is bringing back our favourite characters. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint are in full form. The best part of the film is the continuing and growing relationship between Grint and Watson's Ron and Hermione. The rest of the cast are as good as they have ever been. The cast is not, and never has been the issue as I still stand by previous statements by me that this is the finest cast in a film series ever. They truly breath life into this series. Unfortunately the supporting cast shows up for barely minutes. The amazing Robbie Coltrane has less than five minutes as Hagrid, in what could have an A+ addition to the cast, the amazing Bill Nighy spends five minutes on screen as the Minister, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, and even the amazing big bad Ralph Fiennes is so sadly underused. The Harry Potter franchise has always been as much about Hogwart's School and the teachers as any other part of it and for Deathly Hallows every aspect of that is gone and instead you are left with teleportation to the same forest again and again.
I'm wondering if its a coincidence that the series has been on a bit of decline since director David Yates took the helm. It could also be pointed out that by the time you hit the fifth instalment of the series its hard to keep things fresh but I feel like its more than that when it comes to Harry Potter. Two major plot points happen in this film with the death of two characters and it happens so quickly and with such little fanfare that it feels unemotional. Honestly, I think you could literally skip right over this instalment and miss out on nothing. Its really hard for me to write a review like this because I do love this series and I want to re-iterate this cast is amazing as always which is why I'm scoring this a 6 as opposed to a 2 or 3 which is what the story is worth which is downright side when the entire series thus far has been made up of films worth 8-10/10 easy. This one was a stumble and let's hope they can finish the series worthy of what it is!! 6/10