Strong beginning guaranteeing excitement however forgetting that 20 minutes in

Rating: 5/10 (23 November 2010)

Harry Potter was always a hit and miss franchise (at least in movie format) however what it lacked in being technically 'good' it was always fun and filled with enough excitement that it instilled a sense of magic within me. Deathly Hallows part 1 however seriously failed to meet my expectations. The film starts off with and awesome shot of Bill Nighy promising magic and fun and a battle between teen wizards and the gestapo, what we get however is 2 hours of extremely slow paced plot dabbled with wizarding fights. Don't get me wrong I LOVED some of the parts though the parts that I did love were so few and far between that at times it seemed like a chore to watch. I understand that this film was setting up everything for part 2 and that they wanted to split the book into 2 fairly lengthy films BUT this really wasn't necessary if it meant losing the thrilling nature of the film. I would've been perfectly happy to sit through 3 hours of fast paced frivolity compared to 2 hours of dribble that MAYBE will pick up in part 2.
As always my respect for Daniel Radcliffe flies out the door the moment he opens his mouth. If you were expecting great acting from the guy then I seriously pity you. That being said there was some STUPENDOUS acting from Rhys Ifans, Ralph Finnes, Alan Rickman and Bill Nighy. They stopped at no expense to get the best English actors in this film to play supporting roles. Throw Daniel Day-Lewis into the mix and I would've forgiven everything else about the film and given it a 10/10.
I seriously hope that part 2 does live up to the fast paced thrill ride that the rest of the series has been, If not then Part 1 has completely gone to waste.
I'm afraid I can only give this film a better than average. 6.5/10