A different "Harry Potter" and an exciting set-up for the final fight...

Rating: 8/10 (29 November 2018)

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I" took up many difficult challenges such as tying up elements from the previous chapters together while not relying on expectations from fans with encyclopedic knowledge. Speaking for myself, as a "newbie", I enjoyed that penultimate film for what it was: an entertaining action-packed opus full of quiet and engaging moments.
The film also prepares us to a spectacular finale people have been waiting for during half a decade (half a month for me) without exhibiting any hurry to get into it, as if it took the proper time to tell its own story and as if the last book was too important to condense it into a three-hour format.
Now, there are additional objects of praises: the film allows us to get us a full view on every character who took part in Harry Potter's journey: Hagrid, the two good Defense Against the Dark Arts Teachers Rupin and Moody, the Weasley family (including Harry's sweetheart Ginny). And yet the film essentially focuses on the Power Trio: Harry, Ron and Hermione, taking them to locations they've never been in, as if the priority was to evacuate a few demons and seal their friendship first before they would find the definite strength in unity, to combine with the skills cumulated over their adventures at Hogwarts. I liked that aspect of the film.
And by the time it ended after two and half hours, I totally forgot there were still four or three Horcruxes to find and many obstacles paving the path to Voldemort. I don't know how this is going to be handled in Part II, especially in two hours and ten minutes (a rather short time by the series' standards), but I can't wait for the final round of the 'Harry Potter' series, a saga that defined a decade and where we literally saw three kids growing up before our eyes, while their world of wonder faded out, making way to the Dark Side.
Yes, long gone is the whimsical wizardry and its streams of spells and curses. The crucial moment occurs in the first act when Harry leaves everyone after the death of a few regulars (no need to spoil their name but surely you didn't expect a clean death toll?). He's intercepted by Ron who tells him to get off his high horse and stop thinking as the chosen one; this is no melancholy time when the Evil force commits mass killings and kidnappings, it's time to fight and everyone is on the same boat. Ron developed some maturity like Harry facial hair and he found the properly humbling words.
Which takes me back to the first film, I remember my first question was "what is a Muggle?". I initially thought the series was set in parallel universes (sort of) and there had to be zero interference between. "Deathly Hallows" opens with a nightmarish apocalyptic vision à la 'Dark Knight' proving that not only the Muggles aren't immune to the wrath of Voldemort and his minions but that they're targets as well. And speaking of Voldemort, from the table scene reuniting all the main villains, with him as the master of ceremony, we also understand that the line between good and evil is now clearly drawn.
There are degrees of vileness though, some are more reluctant than others, but when you look at the top "management", you know no quarter won't be asked. "Deathly Hallows" is different in tone but made me retrospectively understand the tragic climaxes of the previous chapters, it was all leading to it. Whether J.K. Rowling had that scenario in mind when writing the first book, one can be dubious, but there was no way that such a set-up couldn't lead to a larger-than-life exploration of the dark side of wizardry.
And not only the film inspires such expansion but it also allows us to have a subplot revealing the deepest motives of Voldemort: his quest for the Deathly Hallows, three old relics that might allow him to become the Master of Death and whose symbol echoes some conspiracy imagery. Rowling had a wide enough universe and such a rich gallery of characters she had quite a toolbox to build an inventive adventure, but she still had room for new stuff, including the infiltration of Voldemort in the Ministry of Magic through a corrupt member named Plus Thicknesses (Guy Henry).
But the heart of the story is the adventure in the wilderness lived by Ron, Harry and Hermione sealing their friendship and testing their mutual trust. There are moments of tension (sometimes sexual), moments of fun and relief and there's also a part where they simply walking down the street in London (and I expected a Rowling cameo). I appreciated that for all its richness, the film didn't get too thick and took the time for some long panoramic shots and extended scenes with the trio, as a last brief halt into our most beloved characters before the final action.
There was action all right in the first and ending sections but this is a film quietly introspective and often captivating. I concede sometimes, many devices seemed too far fetched but the pace is so fast that you don't have time to step back and think of the flaws, our minds are set in the quest for the Horcruxes and the defeating of Voldemort. And the series has turned into such a dark tone that for all I know, Harry might lose the fight or have a Pyrrhic victory.
I personally believe the film owes us a happy ending by now so I'm looking forward to have my expectations fulfilled in "Part II".