some nice highlights, but overall disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (6 February 2011)

Looking back on the whole HP series, I must confess, that each and every time I had left the cinema disappointed. And it wasn't different this time.
However, this installment was quite different from the previous movies. I loved the scenery and the visuals in general. For the first time, I was actually scared in one scene: Nagini simply is an amazing digital creature (and has almost become my favourite "HP-movie-character" by now). --(I am not going to repeat, what many before me have already written about the individual scenes etc etc)--
Overall, the director fails to convince me with his interpretation of the magical world. It isn't a whole, thought-through global fantasy in which the audience is invited in the first scene and then continuously drawn in further along with the developing characters. And thus, it isn't surprising that emotions and tension aren't carried over to the audience. Sometimes, I would have wished for more "meaning" in the all the background scenery: If it is difficult to translate fantasy to the screen, why put the focus of the film on three young actors that are never able to capture in their dialogue the general desolation and danger in which the whole world is in and not just them: I could have imagined flying-camera over villages where the death-eaters or werewolves have clearly left their bloody trail: some global context !? Same goes for the side-characters: why cast a good fraction of Britain's finest actors, if you don't use them? Apart from Fiennes, who never managed to frighten/intimidate me as Voldemort, the actors Rickman & Co could have improved the depth and coherence much, had they not been treated as "occasional accessories".
Concluding, I found it an unsatisfying movie where the many ingredients add up to less than their sum. Individual performances are mostly good, there are some very nice scenes, but the overall screenplay and directing seems immature, sometimes even amateurish.