Harry nears adventure's end
By Matt Grantz, Student Life Editor
December 8 , 2010
 “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1” is the beginning of the end for the Harry Potter film franchise, which will conclude July 15, 2011, when Part 2 is released.
The film begins with the Minister of Magic (Bill Nighy) announcing that the Ministry remains strong against Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). The setting then moves to a meeting of Voldemort’s henchmen, where they discuss how to kill Voldemort’s archenemy, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe).
After an airborne battle, Voldemort fails in his attempt to kill Potter, who now resides at the Weasleys’ house. While Harry is there, the Ministry of Magic falls to Voldemort and Harry and his closest friends, Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), take to the road to carry out a mission to bring down Voldemort.
This grand mission takes them across the British countryside where they encounter dangers, both internal and  external, throughout their travels. Since this movie is only the first part of the Potter finale, the audience doesn’t leave with any resolution. However, the filmmakers were kind enough not to end on a true cliffhanger leaving the viewers wondering about what happens next, not about how some immediate, dire situation ends.
The best thing about “Deathly Hallows, Part 1” is that the filmmakers didn’t cut out as much of the novel’s information as they did in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” Originally, I was quite skeptical about making “Deathly Hallows” a two-part film, and I still believe the choice was more motivated by greed than adesire to tell the story. But wrapping up the series in two parts seems to have made for a much better story, and I appreciate that. In the negative, however, a few scenes could have been more detailed and faithful to the book without extending the movie’s playtime all that much.
Just as in every other Potter film, “Deathly Hallows, Part 1” has excellent special effects that can seem magical at times. The only really major problem with the film is that anyone who depends solely on the movies to understand the Harry Potter series will be lost at sea. The absolute hatchet job on the sixth movie means that understanding the progression of events is difficult for anyone who hasn’t read the novels. The minimal explaining done in this film itself doesn’t help the situation.
All in all, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1” is a well-made film with a decently told story that will leave any viewer eagerly anticipating the final installment of the series.
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