Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

A Good Kind of Magic

Doing a movie about the last book in a well beloved series takes a lot of emotion and talent to pull off. The makers of this film knew that, and showed us how much they did. The opening with not-so-little-anymore Hermoine wiping her parents memory catches the heart of the audience rather nicely; it makes us cry, but we know it's all for the best. This series may have started out for children only, but those children have grown up, and so have the films. Blood is shown on screen a fair amount, and in heavy doses. Hermoine nearly gets her throat slit, and we even see a small cut on it, which truly proves how serious the threat to cut her throat truly was.

I do actually like the whole 2-part idea. As this is an adaption, this gives the film a chance to use more things from its source material as well as time to add in whatever they wish. Considering how many fans of the series, including those who love the films, have said that quite a few too many scenes from the book were removed from the film, this is going to please a lot of fans. Also, some of the key moments in the books that were forgotten in the previous films are touched upon in this film, without feeling too forced or confusing.

It's nice to see pratically an encyclopedia of characters, and none of them end up over shadowing the other, excluding the main trio. Ron, Hermoine, and Harry take up most of the screen time, but they all share it quite well, giving each other enough important scenes and times for their character to shine through. Ron even goes away for a good portion of the film.

As for the special effects, I liked them, but was afraid in the beginning that they may go a little too far. Despite that, I was wrong. They were used to their potiental, and not overbaring, which has happens to more films than one can mention, mainstream or otherwise. But the biggest and best effect the movie had was the shadow and paper animation used during the three brothers story. That was animated just beautifully, and it was nice to see such animation again. Shadow animation in general is no longer common, and even if this was just CGI made to look like shadow animation it was still impressive and a little heartwarming to see that style again. I hope to see a full feature length film from the people who animated that sequence some time in the future.

I'll always love the book more, but the movie earns a solid 3 out of 5 stars. It's very good, even if it does drag a little, and sets us up for what's in store for the last movie.