Average additions be gone, things are starting to get magic at last.

Rating: 8/10 (28 November 2010)

No-one was forthcoming about OOTP and HBP. They have succeeded in the infamous Potter manoeuvre of neither being wildly brilliant or atrociously laughable, but always being huge box office phenomenon's that have now outdone the likes of Star Wars, so they must have been doing something right, right?
Well other than being the best franchise rights attained by Warner Bros. for being such a successful series, they always were inviting to people new to the experience, specifically those who hadn't read the books. The problem? The people who are fans of the book (including your dear critic) are always spotting the missing scenes, the awkward relationships - that aren't supposed to be awkward and the rare but recent addition of scenes that had as much logic and point behind them as singing into a turned on Hoover nozzle.
So being the best book, (arguably) the routinely depression encased within the restriction Hogwarts has lifted, as has the more customary check list. Big castle, problem, another problem, acting sad, kissing, wand walloping, morning, end. For once the relationships, like the plot, aren't constraint to the walls of Hogwarts, they are free at last.
Though Yates has been irksomely juggling the same premise for two films too long he makes up by, fi-na-le being faithful through the decision to cleanly cut the film in two. He also includes additional scenes (wait for it) that aren't unlike the characters motivations; HBP had the attack of the Burrow scene with no motivation from Death Eaters what so ever. In Deathly Hallows there are emotional additions that aren't hosted in a sulky and heavy atmosphere, such as when Harry is trying to console Hermione.
The film also amplifies its standard of being funny, something which the books only mildly covered as a quick disengagement from the 'fun'. And for the first time in history, when the newly instated Minister of Magic quotes: "These are dark times, there is no denying." the theme turned cliché of diluting the lighting for the gazillionth time so it's darker therefore 'more rugged and scary' - lives up to its sense of impending doom, without having the usual buzz of hopeful expectancy followed by obvious disappointment - like the lottery always does.
It's quiet easy to be bitter about the fact the best director, Alfonso Cuaron, never got the chance to make another instalment that could have established a new high point of the relatively indistinguishable mountain but saying that, Yates would never have got the chance to prove he can make one of the best additions to the series, that wasn't even close to being the money-grabbing, giant tease it could have been. If Part II can be this enjoyable to all audiences, then the Potter finale will rouse as much love as when he was first seen branded with his slogan scar and if not, it would at least be well-deserved to see Part I make the top 250.