Don't expect me to get excited over another damn thing we need to find.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I

(2010)

The first hour is wonderfully pacy, tense viewing. Then they start camping, go somewhere, camp again, go somewhere else, camp again. With several rather bollocksy motivations thrown in to manoeuvre our heroes into danger. As usual, it's the feast of Brit luvviedom that holds the attention more than the thesping of the leads.

Particular highlights in this one are Peter Mullan giving it his all as a Death Eater and Rhys Ifans as Luna's dad (Evanna Lynch is still magnificently kooky is as Luna). And Bonham Carter on raving loon form, taking a break from playing raving loons for her husband. And the Queen Mum. A shame that Rickman's hardly in it, although the opening banquet scene with Voldemort is one of the best scenes here.

This could definitely have benefited from pruning, though, as it's both unwieldy in shape an encumbered by characters we've not seen for films and films (Dobby the House Gimp).

***1/2

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