The signs that a franchise has maybe gone on for a bit too long should not only come about when you have more movies than the amount of fingers one has on one hand, but also when it has to be stretched out so much that it needs a film that requires TWO parts to complete it effectively, case in point, Deathly Hallows Part I. With a world cowering to Voldemort (played by Ralph Fiennes), the main trio; Harry, Ron and Hermione (played by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson) have gone from simple high school students to magical fugitives as they start to trek across the world to search for Voldemort’s horcruxes’, items that contain part of his soul as a way of keeping himself immortal. Facing death at every angle and with Voldemort searching for the strongest wand in the world in order to kill Harry, the three have to search for the items and discover how to destroy them, and Voldemort, once and for all.  As most teen based fantasy novel stories go, the penultimate book often needs the most time to wrap up the important elements, therefore making it a two-parter. Unfortunately, like this movie demonstrates, these examples spend so much time wasting on more set-up that it just feels like a prologue for the next one to rush things later. It’s confusing how this movie seems to accomplish next to nothing by the film’s conclusion, yet its also packed with padding and excess material. Much like the rest of these movies, it has intelligent people behind and in front of the camera working to make this story work, but with how slow-paced the books and these movies are, it’s hard to get invested in a movie that’s essentially filler.

This movie feels like the final push from a creative magical story to nothing but a war movie, which is nowhere nearly as fun. The movie’s tone’s never quite balanced together and the darker elements would become less creative and blander as each one progressed, so the conclusive one which happens to be the darkest, is fittingly enough also the blandest. Opposing the original film’s cheery atmosphere for a much bleaker fantasy novel setting, the content within is equally as unimpressive. The movie is not only too harsh and unpleasant to watch in moments, the progress gained from this two hour long movie is very little if anything of worth, all the important stuff would later be squeezed into the final movie as the laborious pace left what could have been done earlier in the franchise to the last moment where everything would have to be rushed to completion. Putting that aside, the movie is home to some decent ideas for scenes as well as decent presentation of said scenes, enough to leave an impression on the viewer and keep them watching. While its structure is off as none of the scenes really connect very believably, they are entertaining in their individual moments and if fleshed out better and had they made more impact, they may have worked. While some can be pointless and drag out too long like a pointless break-up fight between Harry and Ron in the middle of the movie that comes out of nowhere and resolves itself just as quick, this movie feels like its getting through its forced plot points so quickly to make up for how little was done earlier. Since the film isn’t restricted to a location, it allows the world to feel a bit bigger and more open than previously, expanding the location list to more than just run-down cottages and a big castle.

At this point, it’s too late to give these characters chances to be interesting as it’s the final film and the audience will have to deal with what they’re given with. It never feels like theses characters are much more than cardboard cut-outs of typical fantasy characters, and since the development in these movies have been non-existent, that’s all they are. Some of the characters they bring back are either pointless or underused as its solely focused on the main three, and any new characters introduced are brought in so late in the game that they feel like afterthoughts introduced just to push forward new plot points. Since the movie’s have gotten to a point where war is ongoing, its at a point where characters happen to die a lot more often, which would be far more effective if the characters that do die were more than just famous actor cameos. Very little of the deaths that happen feel weighty enough and it never feels like the main characters are ever at risk of death so the tension isn’t as high as it should be. The acting is actually an element that does feel improved upon from most of the other movies, particularly with Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson. While the three have been passable throughout the entire franchise, at this point in time where the acting has to be taken to the next level, they have a better grasp on how to do more than just simple child acting. They convey a lot more emotions and for the most part they do a decent job, especially when any of them are acting angry which they handle surprisingly well.

Since the movies are given a heavier budget from the original since the popularity boom, it means that less and less practical effects have been used and it falls into the all too comfortable route of easy CGI to use for most of its action. What manages to balance this out is that some of the effects are not as cheap and lacking effort as expected. While it doesn’t need much CG, what it is used for actually does work in its moments, particularly with the house elves that look legitimately good, especially a scene near the end where it’s clear they had a physical puppet during the film which help the effect out more. There’s also a beautifully told tale about three brothers detailing out the origins of the so called ‘’Deathly Hallows’’; it’s well read, the story is legitimately interesting and far more so than anything else in this franchise, the animation is creative and leads to some very unique imagery for the series, and even though its purpose is meaningless, it’s one of the highlights of the movie. While the film doesn’t have much physical action, its enough to be more than the previous films. The change in tone is so unbalanced that anytime they shoot spells now, it feels like they’re wielding guns rather than magic-creating wooden sticks. There’s an effective opening action scene involving a flying chase through a highway, but the chase scene that is in all the trailers and is on the cover art of the DVD case is extremely hard to get through with horrible shaky cam.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I is exactly that; Part 1 of a story that would get told later, but not in a way that would want people to see more. This was used more as a tool to get some of the exposition and slowly developed plot points done and over with so it can get to the finale much quicker, but because of the overall story’s bad and slow way of telling its story, this feels like the best that they can do, and for that, the people behind the movie deserve some credit for making it as serviceable as it was. It’s not a great movie or even that interesting, it’s essentially ‘’The Blair Witch Project: Potter Edition’’ but for what it could have been, it’s perfectly serviceable to watch. This was probably the first time where every element of the movie moved from a kid’s movie to an adult movie, and while that’s not done essentially in a good way, it did take that step. Pretty much worth skipping, but for a few choice scenes, check it out just for that. Not so much a wonderful world of witchcraft and wizardry, more a passable world of shooting and politics, it’s clearly a mixed up movie.