Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (PG13)

I'm over a month late reviewing this, but here it goes.

Watching this movie just reminds me that the era of my life that started back when I was six or seven is finally drawing to a close. Not to be dramatic, but these books were my life when I was a kid. I would read them over and over and over again, so now that the last few movies are now being released I'm a bit sad.

I rode to the movie theater with one of my teachers (her blog is here). She was dressed like Trelawney, a sharp contast to my own muggle attire. I think we drew some weird looks on the walk into the theater, but we were among our own kind when we stepped into the theater. There were about 20 of us there together, stretched out over a row and a half. We had Tonks, Hermione, Darren Criss' Harry Potter (from A Very Potter Musical), Rowena Ravenclaw, George Weasley sans ear, Draco Malfoy, a Slytherin girl, plus many more. As I settled into my seat, I took to watched the other costumed people walking in. There was a woman dressed as Umbridge who had her outfit spot-on. The costumes are always my favorite part of midnight premieres.

When the movie itself started, I noticed immediately that this was going to be unlike all of the previous ones. The mood was darker, and not in the teenaged-angsty way of the sixth movie.

The movie was over two hours long, but I think the pacing wasn't too bad. There weren't parts that I felt like just getting up out of boredom like there had been in the previous movie.

It's been nearly three years since I last read the final book, but aside from a couple of scenes it stayed pretty true to the original. Now, I'm not one of those book purists (at least, not anymore) who cries foul if it strays even the littlest bit away from the source material. I've come to realize that the novel and the movie are two completely different media and what works in one doesn't always work in the other. I think Deathly Hallows part 1 successfully avoided the pitfalls that come with adaptations. They succeeded in making a movie (albeit a bit long-winded) that didn't completely alienate the fans of the books.

I'll definitely be staying up past midnight for the premiere of the last movie. It's the definitive end of an era in my life, and I think that justifies an all-nighter.