Deathly Slow But Decent

Rating: 6/10 (21 November 2010)

HP 7 Part 1 is rather like the first two movies in the series: the pace often flags as the film-makers now have the time to expand the story into two parts, including much stuff that would have been cut if Deathly Hallows were a single movie. I must admit I found the movie would have been better if it had been 30 minutes shorter.
Saying that there is room for more character exploration here; much of the middle section revolves around Harry, Ron and Hermione on their own looking for clues to discover the location of Voldemort's Horcruxes, and it's this part of the show that's least likely to please the average cinema-goer compared to the ardent fan. It's slow, talky, and has a scene between Harry and Hermione that actually suggests some sexual tension. I have to admit I didn't go for it for a minute.
Some of the plot, when translated to the cinema, also feels a bit forced - Ron's explanation of how he comes back is probably the least convincing moment of the entire series so far.
But there's many good things here, too. Virtually all the actors from the earlier instalments make a reappearance, even John Hurt appears briefly, and Ralph Fiennes is given a little more to do here as the villainous Dark Lord. I particularly liked a splendid sequence where Harry and Co infiltrate the Ministry of Magic, now under Voldemort's control. The whole thing has a strong echo of Nazi Germany's racial policies, and there's even a sequence towards the end where Hermione has "Mudblood" carved into her arm. Her torture sequence isn't convincing, though, and the death of a character at the film's end is a bit of a damp squib. The animated story of the Deathly Hallows is brilliantly done, however.
All told, this a good, if deathly slow at times, lead-in to the final film, which I'm guessing will be more action-orientated.