Served on its own, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 isn’t gratifying, and it probably would have been better digested as a three-hour epic.

We get where the producers are coming from: They say because the final Harry Potter book is ginormous and complex, they didn’t wish to skip any details and therefore opted to make the movie a two-parter. But there’s so much excess fat on the screen in Deathly Hallows: Part 1 — namely, boring sequences with a lot of walking around — that it seems unbelievable this couldn’t have been just one long, fantastic movie.

‘Tis a shame, because some parts of Part 1 are pretty damn awesome.

(Spoiler alert: Plot points follow.)

Deathly Hallows loses some of its magic as Hermione (Emma Watson) wanders through the woods with Harry and Ron.
Photos courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

The PG-13 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, which opened Friday, starts with an adrenaline rush: Harry’s friends and mentors concoct a devious plan to protect him from the evil Lord Voldemort (played by Ralph Fiennes), who’s hell-bent on killing the famous wizard.

They each down a potion to temporarily transform into decoy Harrys, and, donning glasses and bright blue track jackets, together they soar into the night sky on their brooms to distract Voldemort’s army while our real hero is transported in a sidecar attached to a flying motorcycle. Voldemort’s posse and Harry’s friends shoot magic wands at each other like guns in a Western; there’s bloodshed and, later, many deaths in the movie. Exciting stuff.

After Voldemort racks up a high body count, Harry, Hermione and Ron (once again portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint) are on their own. Their mission? To find and destroy Horcruxes — relics containing fragments of Voldemort’s soul, which would grant our villain epic baller status, or immortality or something.

Seems like a promising premise, but the movie hits a flat note once it focuses on the interpersonal drama between the trio of teens searching for the Horcruxes.

One of the Horcruxes acquired by the team, a golden locket, just happens to listen to the secrets of its wearers. This way, we learn that Ron, who recently hooked up with Hermione, is insecure about his new love leaving him for the infinitely more hunky Harry (aka “the Chosen One” who’s supposed to do something really important someday, according to the now-dead, prophetic Dumbledore).

It’s understandable Ron feels this way, because he, like most of us, has probably seen how hot Trinity was for Neo in The Matrix.

Given these hormonal politics, there’s a bit of bickering and some slapping, then lots of sitting, sleeping and walking around a forest. The movie brings a few more intense moments, such as a heist to yank secret documents and dossiers from the bad guys, but otherwise not much happens.

The drama between the teens just isn’t interesting enough (in my adult eyes, at least) to keep the movie moving. At some point director David Yates slips in an unnecessary almost-nude scene — and you can’t help but suspect he added it to make the movie less dry.

Finally, after enough wandering around, there’s a climax that’s too easily resolved, topped off with a soft conclusion. It’s not quite cliffhangery enough to get you pumped about July 2011, when Deathly Hallows: Part 2 comes out; instead, it’s a tad frustrating.

Of course, that won’t stop anyone from seeing this film: Deathy Hallows is the fourth-biggest generator of advance ticket sales in history, according to MovieTickets.com. If only we didn’t have to pay double the price, and wait so long, to catch the whole thing.

WIRED Bad-ass wizard shootouts and heist scenes get two wands up; Harry and Hermione slow-dance to a Nick Cave song — good choice!

TIRED Long-winded walks through a forest are intrinsically uninteresting; deus-ex-machina conclusion feels like a cop-out.

Rating:

Read Underwire’s movie ratings guide.

See Also:

• Deathly Hallows Director Makes Harry Potter Films for Grown-Ups
• Warner Bros. Vows to Prosecute Deathly Hallows Leaker
• New Deathly Hallows Pics Present Penultimate Potter (Update: New Trailer Added)
• Deathly Hallows Trailer Shows Darker, Bloodier Harry Potter
• Video: Making Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows‘ Magical Soundtrack

Authors: Brian X. Chen

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