The worst yet

Rating: 1/10 (22 April 2011)

Without a doubt the worst Harry Potter film yet, and this is somebody who didn't like the last three entries in the series, either. The decision to split the seventh book into two parts mean that this one is long winded and preoccupied with needless trivia. The first, better half is similar to ORDER OF THE PHOENIX and HALF BLOOD PRINCE in that it tries to cram too much into too short a space of time. It's all about the detail, and any attempts at atmosphere or suspense are bypassed in favour of storytelling (and don't get me started on the lameness of the horcrux plotting). The second half of the film involves one long camping trip in the woods, spicing things up with a little sexuality and violence. It's as dull and pointless as it sounds.
The worst mistake is wasting one of the biggest ensemble casts in British film history. Why cast the likes of Alan Rickman, Brendan Gleeson, Robbie Coltrane, Rhys Ifans, Jason Isaacs, Timothy Spall, David Thewlis, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter et al when none of them get more than a couple of minutes screen time apiece. Daniel Radcliffe appears bored, itching to take on more adult roles, while Rupert Grint barely registers. Hermione turned from an engagingly cute bookworm into whiny, frowning, petulant little character a long time ago and I ended up praying that the scriptwriters would change the story and kill her off. No such luck.
Add in some poor editing, seen-it-all-before type special effects and poor action sequences and you have an aimless, disappointing movie with a tired feel. Take, for instance, the wand battle: it's filmed like a gunfight. Gunfights have been filmed in thousands of movies, wand fights in only a few, so why go down the dull and clichÃ©d route instead of thinking of something more spectacular? Just one example of the deficit of imagination found everywhere in this film.