Magic in this movie lacks internal logic, which leads to incoherence

Rating: 6/10 (18 November 2010)

I've always enjoyed the first Harry Potter movies up to the Prisoner of Azkaban, which in its time travel twist is in my opinion the best one of the series. However after that one every subsequent film has been progressively worse. That is the case with the Deathly Hallows (part 1) too.
The reason for this are the magical rules (or the lack thereof) of the world of Harry Potter. The problem with Harry is that the magical world carries in the movies no deep metaphysical meaning. It is a concoction of quirks, popularized fantasy and easy jokes. Now this works very well with a more lightweight children's film such as the three first Harry Potters (which I greatly enjoyed), but as the story takes deeper and darker turns, the rules of the world in which it is played would need more coherence and predictability. If that is missing - as in my opinion is the case with the Deathly Hallows - you just can't take the story seriously.
The seventh movie suffers of this worst. It is manifested in most of the problems being solved - or not solved - in an ad hoc manner. Take Hermione's purse for an example. At one moment, when Ron is almost splinched in apparition, a cure is speedily available, but at other moment, when Dobby is hit by knife, no one can come up with anything to cure him. Why, after all the miraculous escapes from death by the protagonists? This is also the case with spell battles, which are completely unpredictable.
The viewer feels like one is stuffed a story, the internal logic of which one cannot justify. And because of this, who dies and who lives, when one is captured and when one is able to escape etc. seem completely arbitrary. That is just plain bad storytelling. It will work in a more light-plotted story, but not in the drama that the producers are trying to present. Therefore I cannot give this movie more than 6/10, even if I would like to.