Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1

This movie was in bad need of some summary exposition at the beginning that worked so well in The Lord of the Rings. It has only been a few years since I read the books, and I was partly lost most of the time. I had a vague notion of what the main point was, but could not follow most of the major plot points along the way.

The original novel was able to pull this off, and I'm wondering if this section of the series is just too complicated with multiple quests going on, but framed as a detective story. They are trying to track down magical artifacts (for reasons I've forgotten) and in the process discover certain things about Dumbledore.

Also, what the book did was exploit the tension between the three main characters and their relationships with each other. The movie had to spend far too much time on the detective elements of the plot, that it did not really get a chance to do this.

That being said, the actors have all grown up very well, and were able to do a lot with not much help from the narrative. Also, the fight scenes are pretty cool, and if they should still be able to muster up the climax of the story, which will work well on screen if done right. Less detective novel, and more epic battle type stuff. It should be a lot easier to follow. So here's hoping that Pt. 2 will redeem Pt. 1.

3 stars out of 5.