Immensely good start to a two-parter

Rating: 9/10 (14 January 2011)

It's sort of unfair to have to do a review to the Part 1 of a movie since there were a lot of plot threads left hanging (as intended) but for the most part, it stands on its own as a fairly decent film. It's probably one of the most faithful in terms of adaptation to the novel (with a few extra scenes added in for emotional and dramatic effect), which has the dual effect of being very good for the fans but not necessarily the most coherent for people who haven't read the books. That's why I gave it a 9 out of 10 for the most part.
The movie starts off on a strong note, more or less where the novel began (with a short, rather shocking prologue where Hermione wipes her parents' memories to protect them) at Malfoy Manor, where Voldemort discusses how he wants to kill Harry Potter, and so on and so forth. For the next thirty minutes or so it follows almost *exactly* from the novel in terms of events progression (though they cut out a few relatively disposable characters like Tonks' parents). There's a fantastic aerial battle over the skies of England (and oddly on the streets as well, apparently us nonmagical people don't notice anything), with the aftershock and the reading of Dumbledore's will, etc, etc.
Then this is where the movie REALLY begins - the Ministry is taken over by the Death Eaters, Voldemort's faction, and they start a manhunt for Harry and his friends, and begin to round up "undesirables" in what is basically a campaign of genocide. This is an eerie depiction for Harry Potter novel fans and a chilling one for those who have read stories of the Nazis, Stalinists, etc. as they realize just how evil Voldemort's plans really are. I was a little amused to see they played the trope straight and installed a cadre of blackshirts in the new Ministry of Magic, ready to carry out their shadow Fuhrer's orders.
There's a lot of complaints about the second half of the movie, which slows down considerably, with Harry, Ron, and Hermione getting lost in the woods as they are forced to run and hide in any way they can but without any sort of real plan of action - and this definitely induced some ennui. Even I was forced, at times, to push myself to keep watching the scenes with the understanding that it's going to get crazier and crazier.
Unfortunately a few things aren't handled properly; Firstly, the whole subplot about Dumbledore's childhood and past, and his relationship with Grindelwald is sort of rushed and mangled as though they had saved it up for an "extended version". I doubt most of the viewers who haven't read the books know who the heck Grindelwald is (basically the magical equivalent of the German Fuhrer during the Second World War) and how he figures so importantly into the plot; I'm HOPING they make that more clear in the second movie. The other thing that wasn't properly explored was the concept of the Deathly Hallows (again something I'm sure they'll give more time to in the second film), since they sort of went from having it explained to them to being bombarded by Death Eater explosives and then going on a chase through the woods and then holycrapthemovieisalmostover.
Anyway... remaining cautiously optimistic for the finale, I'm sure it'll be fun, but hopefully it makes clear some of the weaker points of this film.