Delightful, in general-but lacking a little je ne sais quoi

Rating: 7/10 (17 November 2010)

Just got back from a midnight preview of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
In general, I thought it was an alright film- just not quite up to Harry Potter standard or my expectations, either. From the trailer one would expect lots of action; don't get me wrong, there IS action-rather abundantly too, but it feels like they crammed all the edge-of-the- seat, get-your-heart-racing scenes into the trailer, so I didn't feel like there was anything especially surprising about the film. Everything that was anything was in the trailer.
That said, it does stay rather true to the book, certain scenes are almost translated word-to- image on the screen! I suppose certain fans would say 'Bravo, Yates!', but I beg to differ. Because the scenes were so similar, I knew exactly what was coming next and it filled me with a sense of dread, and I couldn't smile, much less laugh, along with the rest of the cinema-goers. (There was a certain scene where this was particularly apparent, but I shan't spoil the fun.) Thus I felt the film lacked the element of surprise; there were few, if at all, new and refreshing interpretations of the seventh book. I do realize it's difficult to interpret a book (especially one as complicated as Harry Potter), but after all- this is Harry Potter, not some half-rate film, so it would have been very nice if the film had been a little more creative while still staying true to the book.
Also, another notable mention would be that many people in the cinema expressed tremendous disgruntlement 'What? It's ending here?' 'What a cliff-hanger!' 'How CAN they stop here' when the movie ended (quite abruptly, in my opinion) with Voldemort. In fact, it felt almost like that scene was deliberately crafted and pushed forward simply to mark the ending of the 'first part', which further added to my personal feelings that the seventh film should have been a mega 4 hour marathon with a no-stops-allowed and no-holds-barred kind of pace. Perhaps this is why the film didn't leave me trembling with tremulous emotion or anything particularly thought-provoking to think about. It just felt like another Harry Potter film- acceptable for the first couple but not quite for the last. (However, I acknowledge that they had to end SOMEWHERE, given that they split the movie into half. Though if they made the decision to separate the parts, the least they could was to make well sure that the ending was satisfactory and not quite nonsensical, in my opinion. Or else keep it as one. Difficult leaps build up immense anticipation-and they didn't quite live up to mine.)
Hats off to you, J.K Rowling; Yates- not bad, but definitely lacking mystique-wise. One has to wonder, has David Yates and the screenwriters lost their steam?
P.S In fact, one would say, the film lacked that spark of 'magic' (pun intended) that the books have in abundance, and unexpected turns of events (which the film conveys too blatantly and in a slightly in-your-face style, in my opinion) are what makes Harry Potter one of the most ingenious series ever written in our time.