Surprisingly impressed

Rating: 8/10 (20 November 2010)

I love the books. I like the films. They're watchable at best. Philosophers Stone and Chamber Of Secrets were faithful though lacked any particular style and fell in with most generic early noughties fantasy films. Prisoner Of Azkaban took a more stylistic approach and managed to capture a medieval look. The Goblet Of fire (the first of the big ones) in my opinion was utter shambles. The acting was inferior to the others, the style seemed to attempt to copy its predecessor with little success and the comedy was forced, staged and unfunny. Order Of the Pheonix tried to cram a lot of story into a short space of time. Clever ideas and directorial sharpness kept it from falling the way Goblet had. Though Yates had much to celebrate with Order of the Pheonix, Halfblood prince seemed to skim the book leaving gaping holes in a pretty simplistic plot. The romance between Potter and Ginny Weasley was hopelessly unengaging and both actors lacked any chemistry.
This film is probably the most faithful to the books. The books narrative is the final installment is written like it should be translated to film, so the cross over shouldn't have been as hard as the others. Being in two halves was definitely the correct approach though the end of this film annoyed me some what. I know the ending, but I am now desperate to see the next one. To me thats job well done to director David Yates, his third of four Potter films. The action is well timed, the horror is just enough to make adult feel a slight amount of dredd, and may only give kids nightmare for a day or two, which in opinion is a good thing. The "adult" cast once again tower over the teens, but with less screen time for the "adults" the teens are not dwarfed like in previous installments. The film though grim and gritty, is beautifully shot cinematography is superb once again and the special effects are amazing to say the least.
I was really not holding out much hope for Deathly Hallows part 1, but I was pleasantly surprised. Virtually anyone who has watched the others will go see this one, but rest assured to those that are let down by the films as I have been time after time, this one could well be the best outing. Bring on part 2.