A gorgeous bunch of nothing

Rating: 5/10 (28 June 2018)

There is no doubt that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is the weakest entry in the Harry Potter franchise, which furthermore makes me doubt the weird decision of splitting this adaption into two separate films, since basically nothing ever happens in its 2 hour 26 running time.
The cinematography is once again astonishing. While not as good as Azkaban's or Half-Blood Prince's cinematography, cinematographer Eduardo Serra does manage to create some beautiful images in this film, but in truth these are images for the sake of being images and not much else, since our three heroes spend hours in some forest in the outdoors while the direction focuses on a couple bits of melodrama & inner struggles, which ofcourse succeeds greatly as a time filler, but in the end it has little context. It starts off with this weird escape from the Dursleys towards the Weasley home ( which i thought was destroyed in Half-Blood Prince, but i guess nothing has to make sense in this movie ), even though the Dursleys was not the place we left off in Half-Blood Prince, making me even doubt how they got there in the first place without the death eaters interfering. Ofcourse, with tension for the sake of being tension they somehow do manage to find the crew when they travel back from the Dursleys, and after some death and injuries they afterwards decide to have a wedding party, which in itself is ofcourse asking for trouble, and it makes little sense in the context of what is happening.
We also have a scene at the start to show how 'evil' Voldemort is and how we are supposed to hate him, with some unknown woman who is supposedly a teacher at Hogwarts as captive being killed for liking muggle-wizard connections. Unfortunately, this is not a very subtle way of forcing the audience to direct their emotions of hatred towards him, and since films should always leave that choice to the viewer themselves, or atleast pick a known character to be killed, this scene, like most in Part 1, is a time filler and nothing else.
It is a film that is very different from previous Potter films since it seems to be a documentary about forests and outdoor scenery instead of something that is supposed to have an actual plot. The connection between the three main characters has never been worse as it was in the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. All three of them bicker and argue amongst themselves and none of them create any sympathy for the viewer, except maybe Hermione ( Emma Watson ). The biggest problem with this motion picture is that it is simply going nowhere. All the melodrama between Harry, Ron & Hermione is just such obvious filler while they try to charm the audience with its cinematography that it becomes an obvious wasted effort, and after the ending you will probably wonder 'Is that it?', since absolutely nothing happens.
It has often been cited as 'Too slow', but that is not the problem at all. The problem is the entire plot is so vacuous of structure and payoff, and while most slow movies have a general core for its narrative or seem to be going somewhere, literally nothing ever brings a payoff in Deathly Hallows Part 1, it simply drowns in all its melodrama and the need to split the novel into two parts. The few action sequences that are there feature a lot of shakycam like Harry Potter has turned into a Jason Bourne film so you can no longer have any idea about what is going on. It hurts the eyes to watch, and it also hurts the eyes to witness this sluggish bunch of nonsense that never goes anywhere.
If you enjoy documentairies with great cinematography about forests and general outdoor scenery, this is the film to watch. Otherwise, as something that is not intended as purely a time filler, and having an actual narrative structure, it fails on every aspect, since absolutely nothing seems to happen during the entire course of the film.