Harry Potter and the Triange-Circle-Line Necklace!: Part 1

Okay, wrong movie poster, but that's the triangle/circle/line thing!  I would tell you what it means, but I wouldn't want to ruin the only plot point of Part 1.  

I want to establish that I really enjoyed the Harry Potter books.  When Voldemort returned due to the ineptitude of all the main characters, I was still figuratively screaming at the top of my lungs that this shit is on.  (I was actually in marching band practice at the U of M.  The conductor was working with the woodwinds.  I don't really know what I was supposed to be doing.)  So, hell yeah to Harry Potter.

However, I must add that my own personal reception to the movies has been reserved at best, cold to disappointed at worst.  However, for most of the movies, I've been willing to simply shove this off as the fallout from a person who read all the books and enjoyed them.  Movies just can't compare with the excitement a person's own imagination can conjure.  

All that on the table, I finished the First Part of the 7th Movie last night, turned to my roommate and said, "I didn't think this was very good."  And you know what, I still don't think it's very good.

Harry Potter on the whole is a simple hero story wrapped in a complex and interesting universe.  Surrounding Harry, the red head, and the girl is a setting filled with political strife, undercover rebellion, romance, and thick backstory for most, if not all, characters.  All of which this movie pays lip service to, but otherwise pretty much ignores.  

What's in the movie instead?  Well, a nice, formulaic structure based around Harry and his friends being scared and a myriad of chase sequences.  To be honest, I would be less judgmental if they had cut some of the junk from the movie.  But hey, of course I needed a chase sequence on a motorcycle, a chase sequence through the ministry of magic, and a chase sequence through a forest.

Cap this all off with Harry stroking an elf as it dies, and you have one of the weirdest, least climactic endings to a movie I've seen  in a while.  Here's the ending: Voldemort gets a wand and an elf dies.  Wow.  What will happen next?  I think I'm most excited to see how they transition from being on the beach to another chase sequence.  I'd ask JK Rowling, but she's too busy bathing in money to answer.  

SCORE:  I would not watch it again.