FINALLY! Yates gets it!

Rating: 10/10 (21 December 2010)

Having been a huge Harry Potter fan for the past 10 years (I finished the 2nd book just before the 1st film came out), my relationship with the films has been rather rocky. The first two, I thought, captured the whimsical essence of the first two books. The third managed to make itself the director's own without taking away from the original novel. From "Goblet of Fire" on, however, the HP films began to go downhill. And once David Yates signed on, I began to lose faith in the art of adaptations.
The 5th, 6th, and 7th Harry Potter books are my top 3 favourites in the series (not in that order, mind you), and after the butchered story & characters that made up "Order of the Phoenix", I wanted to die. Yates had taken the book and made it his own, all right... but not in a good way. He turned "OotP" into a self-indulgent montage of Harry's angst. He cut all the important back-story and information in "Half-Blood Prince", and turned it into a romantic comedy with magic. The man simply didn't understand that, in order to make an adaption good, one must first and foremost please the FANS.
But, hallelujah, with "Deathly Hallows", the man finally got it! Capturing the grit and dark tone of the novel without focusing on the angst as he did in Movie 5, Yates' latest film has managed to stay (thankfully) close to the book. Obviously, some things were cut - but considering that most of the novel's first half consists of strategies, flashbacks, and repetitive hiding out, this really isn't an issue. And taking into consideration how much Yates had to throw in last-minute due to their absence in the other films (Mundungus Fletcher, Bill & Fleur's relationship and wedding, additional Horcrux information, etc.), the 2-and-a-half hours they had were put to extremely good use.
My beefs were petty, few, and far between. First among them is the already infamous dancing scene between Harry and Hermione. It irritated me at the same time that it entertained me, only because it was pointless and only served to give pathetic hope to a ship that will never sail (seriously, all the directors seem to be Harry/Hermione shippers). My second irritation actually has a name - and that name is Bonnie Wright. Ginny never quite did it for me in the books, but at least she had a personality; Wright plays the snarky spark-plug like so much dead wood. As a result, we care just as much about her (and her relationship with Harry) as we would any random extra. Luckily, she doesn't have that much screen time in Part 1.
All technical things aside, when you get right down to it, I'm just relieved. Relieved that David Yates finally gets it - with something as widely-loved as the Harry Potter franchise, one cannot screw around. The director of an adaption has an obligation to the fans of the original work - and Yates has FINALLY acknowledged that obligation in "Deathly Hallows: Part 1". If you're a fan of the books, or even if you're not, you'll love it!