Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1

The Magic Is Back!
I'm so very happy that I can recommend this one without any hesitation at all!

The last couple Harry Potter films disappointed me in a myriad of ways. My disappointment didn't cause me to hate them, but I did feel let down and I have to admit that I found Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince pretty forgettable. But, being a Potter fan, I still found myself rushing out to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I today. And to my great relief and happiness, I loved it - really loved it! Yeah!

The chase of the Seven Potters by the Death Eaters and the trip to the Ministry of Magic are tense and exciting, the endless camping trip is just as effective at portraying the helplessness and frustration the characters are experiencing as it was in the book and the scene that gives us Hermione reading Beedle the Bard's "Tale of the Three Brothers" is riveting and wonderfully creative - much, much better than I would have thought it could be. We finally get to meet...

Great Movie, TERRIBLE transfer / picture quality!!!
Great road trip movie. A bit slow at times, but excellent character building, and even some decent acting by the main three. They really have come a long ways. Especially Harry / Daniel who over the past few films has grown immensely as an actor.

However, I am SO, SO sick of the studios PURPOSEFULLY doing a bad job on their DVD transfers only to promote Blu-Rays. The explosion of combo packs has driven this further, because many folks with a 32" or smaller 720p set can't see the difference between a Blu-Ray and upcoverted DVD...UNLESS the DVD is a *terrible* quality source. The studios are now MALICIOUSLY doing horrible transfer jobs in order to make the Blu-Ray look better. This is not conspiracy theory. Watch for yourself by comparing HP7 with HP4 or 5 on DVD!

There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON that the HP7 DVD should look this bad. First off, it is only using a fraction of the available DVD dual-layer space available, and as such is *riddled* with...

A necessary and fitting buildup to a hopefully grand conclusion
Walking out of the screeing, one of my friends remarked that he hated this Harry Potter film, stating it is the "worst" in the series. I disagree, but understand exactly why he thinks this way. As anyone who has read the book knows, a large part of the seventh book is buildup towards the definite battle that awaits. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Pt. 1 is just buildup.

If you have read the book, you will enjoy this film as it is faithful to the spirit of the book; if you know Harry simply through the films, you might be disappointed. For it is filmed with camping in deserted locations, forests, and other odd locations to escape from Voldermort's grasp. This is really why some critics absolutely hate this film as they can not fathom the amount of buildup this film does. However, if they want to criticize anyone, they should critique Rowling as this is a faithful adaption of her book.

Radcliffe and Grint are great as always, but the welcome surprise is Emma...

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