Having just seen the film I remain, as usual, relatively unimpressed but not particularly disappointed. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that extremely cryptic comment is not enough to really explain what I'm talking about so let's go into a little more detail. The narrative is choppy and jumbled, seeming in places to make random asides and not really know why it's doing it, in fact on more than one occasion I think that if I hadn't read the book I would have been a little unclear what was going on as the film was in no rush to explain itself.
On the positive side it's pretty faithful to the book whilst still cutting it down in all the right places and it kept me enthralled enough that it didn't feel as long as it actually is. It's all very watchable if a little plain, it certainly kept me entertained enough to keep me in my seat. It didn't excite me into wanting to watch the next installment though I imagine I will anyway. Huh ... I guess I ran out of positive points earlier than I thought I would.
It's easy enough to predict that most people will love the dark imagery and how mature the series has gotten and blah blah blah ... but I don't. It works fine but it doesn't strike me as creative it just strikes me that they do it because they don't know how to do anything else. This is punctuated by how flat most of the comedy falls in this film, and indeed that's true of the previous two, also directed by David Yates and not a problem the other Potter directors had. Yates has mistaken being dull for being grown up, a common mistake but for me a greater sense of fun and more lovable characters makes for a bigger heart wrenching experience when that world goes sideways.
Visually it looks really rather average, no particular image stands out for me and the story is even more focused on Harry complaining how much having to be a hero sucks making him a somehow less endearing version of Peter Parker. I can't be the only person who finds being repeatedly beaten over the head by a mallet with the words "HAVE SYMPATHY" written on it extremely annoying. The biggest mistake of the series as a whole is somehow assuming that Harry is the most interesting character, even pushing Ron and Hermione into the background so he can vomit his feelings into our eyes. Ironically he's probably the most boring character though to be fair the "hero" often is (Bruce Wayne anyone?), and once you understand the idea that "parents dead, Harry sad, magic real, Harry confused" you've pretty much got him down. He's the tortured hero who was never very tortured and doesn't really want to be a hero, so I suppose he's not really a tortured hero but they're certainly trying to drill it into our brains that he is. In short I feel that his emotional problems are getting a little old now considering the support network around him, but maybe that's just because I have a soul filled with cynicism and evil.
It's not a bad film but it's Harry Potter for fucks sake, it's a global phenomenon, if the films aren't every bit of awesome imaginable then something very wrong is going on, and in short something very wrong is going on. If it wasn't for the attached name of Harry Potter then 'Deathly Hallows' (another David Yates installment) would be just as forgettable as the jumbled nonsense that was 'The Half-Blood Prince' (another mistake by David Yates) would be, when compared to most any other fantasy series. Bizarrely Yates' Potter directorial debut, 'Order of the Phoenix' was fairly good, still a little jumbled in the narrative but the fight between Dumbledore and Voldermort at the end was a highlight of the series if only for the visuals and choreography, and on the strength of this he seems to have tricked the franchise into signing him up for the rest of the films, cunningly hiding the fact that he is simply not a very good director.
For more specific points the music is bad and even when it's not the cues and it's placing is terrible. The last time I remember being so distracted by bad music was in 'Van Helsing', granted 'Deathly Hallows' is nowhere near that level of terrible, but this is the last example I can think of. Bigger problem is that unlike the other films the very fleeting cameos by the seasoned professionals populating the older cast (they have maybe two or three scenes each if they're lucky) meant we spent the majority of our time with Harry, Ron and Hermione and those three just aren't cute any more. They're not kids trying their best who can be forgiven a few minor indiscretions, they're adults whose inexperience stands out like a sore thumb against the more experienced famous faces surrounding them. They aren't terrible, they've been playing these characters long enough to be able to do it competently but whilst Yates' bland directing style works fine with the experienced cast who know what they're doing these three desperately need a good director to take them by the hand and as I've already stated, they don't have one. I was very much aware that I spent most of this film stuck watching the three weakest characters trundle along.
On the whole the film looks fine, the acting ultimately is fine, the writing is fine, it's just ... fine. It's okay, it's average, and that's the problem because it should be great. They really screwed up by making a run of the mill distinctly British movie and I really hate to say it but I think it needed to be way more Hollywood. I have nothing against British film but Harry Potter should be big and flash and fun (even when emotions are running high) and this isn't any of those things. Harry Potter is an imaginative though relatively unoriginal, somewhat cliche fantasy story designed to amuse the young and young at heart, which is perfectly capable of having all the entertainment value of most any other action blockbuster and concentrating on the characters and emotion of this world is a bit of a mistake, even more so considering the only really interesting element, Voldermorts backstory, has been almost completely overlooked. The only characters I find with any believable depth are the Malfoy family, in fact I'd much rather watch Draco's story arch than Harry's any day. Actually maybe that's it, maybe focusing on the characters is fine but they've just focused on all the wrong characters and missed out the best bits.
This is all largely irrelevant as the film will succeed regardless because it's too late in the day to persuade the fans things aren't as rosy as they think they are, and at this point the haters aren't going to give them a chance. If you're undecided that means you probably won't bother and if you do there's still six films to get through before this one so you'll know which of the other two categories you fit into by the time you get here. It's not great but as it goes we're stuck with this version now and it's all right I suppose.
I don't have a star or points system so assign whatever system you like and give it an average score, dead in the middle, and that's my rating.
Mediocrity thy name is Potter, which I think is a shame.
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