The Failures of the Previous 3 Films Bring It Down.

Rating: Null/10 (17 August 2011)

Being a fan of the series (not that big) I've read the series and seen the movies a few times. It was inevitable the longer the books of J.K. Rowling's fantasy world got the more difficult they'd translate to the big screen. Ultimately Harry Potter is a series and this means the stories carry the weight of information learned in the earlier books into the next one. This is where the great fault for the overall dull and butchered adaptation of Harry Potter series lies.
David Yates the director of the last 4 Potter movies is the biggest flaw in the series. While it did create a better continuity directing style it allowed him to change priorities in story. Half Blood Prince the book was about Voldemort's past and his desires, but Hollywood saw fit to turn a small side plot of Harry's love for Ginny into a romantic comedy with a little magic mixed in. By not establishing the details on the horocruxes and other significant charterers everything in this movie and the 1st part seem random , silly and illogical. At points in the narrative it looks like the actors are simply making it up as they go and guessing there way to the next clue using no knowledge.
Now onto the film itself, essentially this is a bank heist ( with a dragon) followed by a battle to end all battles. 99.9% of the story by this time is told and its basically all fighting and destroying horocruxes from here on out. Unfortunately the battles never capture the epic scope of the bigger LOTR battles and are poorly constructed. The main bad guy of the entire franchise Voldemort is a complete bore doing just about nothing until killing one of his henchmen for some silly reason.
Another big problem with this movie is too much attention on Harry, Ron and Hermoine. There are a ton of good characters in Harry Potter and they merely are seen as cameos they have so little screen time ( Lupin , Every Wesley except Ron, Tonks).
While I may make it seem like this movie was awful it really isn't accurate for how I felt. Its only a disappointment but some of what it did was really well done. Snape's character throughout all 8 movies was played and used flawlessly, he ends up having the best scene in the whole film by a mile ( which was done brilliantly). The scene not only steals the audience emotions revealing Snape's past it also does what the rest of the film failed miserably at doing, slowing the pacing down. The visuals are stunning and although the scope isn't as big as LOTR it still feels grand in its own right. Its a massive undertaking adapting books to film and Harry Potter did above average all together.
Overall this movie was a disappointment because of the failures of the previous few movies. But when the director did those himself, ultimately the fault is solely on David Yates. Congrats you have brought the world of Harry Potter to life with your amazing visuals, now how about you bring the story to life? In the meantime one can only hope Peter Jackson comes and does a more faithful reboot this franchise deserves .
Final Vote 6/10