You might want to consider a refresher course before embarking on this journey, otherwise you might find yourself dizzy trying to keep up with all the obscure magical trinkets(all of which are ungodly powerful) and rarely seen but amazingly important characters. With Dumbledore out of the way, Voldemort and his legion of doom have taken over Hogwarts and the entire Ministry of Magic. Now his evil has spread into the the real world, our world, raising the threat of his ascension to greater levels. Harry's friends are all in danger. There are spies lurking around every corner, and so the only thing left for him to do is flee and find the Horcruxes containing pieces of Voldemort's fractured soul.
No easy task. The pressures of their mission are driving a wedge between the tight knit trio. Hermione, in what is to me the most powerful scene of the film, is forced to erase her very existence from the minds of her family. Ron has seen the people he loves most gravely injured and forced into hiding all because of Harry, who seems strangely detached most of the time. And Harry is still struggling with Dumbledore's death. We've literally seen these kids grow up right before our eyes, and at this point it's painful to see them fight amongst themselves. As with all of the Harry Potter movies, they live and die by the performances of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint. Each has grown so comfortable in the skin of these characters that when they hurt, we all hurt for them. We desperately want to know if Hermione will ever give in and be with lovestruck Ron. Will Harry ever overcome his own personal doubts and defeat the ever powerful Voldemort?
Director David Yates isn't a natural when it comes to capturing the quieter moments, but he's now had three stabs at it and he's finally nailed it. In a lot of ways, The Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince were the perfect training courses. Phoenix began the dark turn the series has taken with the unexpected death of Sirius Black, while Half-Blood Prince was the awkward middle child, as Harry and the gang tried to juggle their grave duties with the on set of raging hormones. Now Yates is firmly in his element, making Deathly Hallows arguably the most beautifully shot film since Prisoner of Azkaban. There's absolutely no sunlight, everything is covered with a thick grey smog. The once colorful world of Potter has become a place totally devoid of joy. In one of the few truly thrilling sequences, Harry and his friends are hunted down like prey through a blackened forest, Yate's camera in a flurry to catch the pure anxiety of the moment. It's a sight we've never seen in seven years, these powerful but still vulnerable kids being fleeing for their lives.
The problems with Deathly Hallows have nothing to do with direction. Yates does a masterful job giving us exactly what we expect from this dark chapter. It's the source material that is the deadweight, as J.K. Rowling's story drags with an undefined middle sequence in which absolutely nothing happens for 30 minutes. You might think that Peter Jackson has quietly stepped in and started making another Lord of the Rings flick for awhile, as Harry, Hermione, and Ron sit around on stony ledges and stare off into the distance to ponder the weight of their mission. Occasionally they teleport to another dull, flat valley to ponder some more. It's at these times that I couldn't help but wonder why the entire book couldn't have been crammed into one movie. If there's nothing to do, then why not speed things up a bit? I don't want to spend the entire movie watching them camp out in the woods.
I get it, though. Harry is as clueless as to his next move as we are. We need to see just how aimless he is without Dumbledore at his side. But do we need that much of it? More time could've been spent following the machinations of Voldemort and his legion of doom(who look mighty impressive when gathered together), who are on this Aryan inspired mission to cleanse the world of muggles and half-bloods alike. Maybe I'm whining because I just want more Bellatrix Lestrange(Helena Bonham Carter). In some ways I think she's even scarier than Voldemort because she's such a powerful wild card.
As you might expect, Deathly Hallows ends with a shocking cliffhanger, and the death of a beloved character. Obviously I won't spoil who, but for me it was a letdown. With the "hurry up and wait" pace this film sets, it's clear that all the really intense stuff was being saved for next year. All of the Harry Potter movies in some way can be considered setup flicks, but this is the first that actually felt like one. There's no overarching narrative, and little progression to the big showdown.
These movies continue to truck along at their own momentum. For all my criticism, I still enjoyed a lot of it, but my praise is primarily towards the actors and Yate's inspired direction. I got nothing to say about the story itself, which has left me a little cold. Ultimately, this is the Empire Strikes Back of the Harry Potter franchise. The bad guys are on the verge of victory, and the white hats are reeling. These are the movies that most appeal to me, and yet I really just hope that next year's finale will be great enough that I won't mind watching this one again as part of a complete set.
