Prior to this film, my only experience with HP had been the 6 previous movies. For me, they were all about on equal footing. They all gave you fairly interesting characters, solid visuals, some funny moments, and an intriguing overarching story with Harry vs Voldemort, with each individual installment offering its own interesting plot. I didn't fall all over myself in love with them, but I enjoyed my time with them.
This summer thanks to the suggestion of a friend I decided to read the books. I enjoyed them all very much and not only did it remind me of all the important plot points I had forgotten over nine years, but it filled in lots of story elements left out of the movies.
As I've said in numerous previous posts, I don't like to compare films with their literary sources beyond whether or not the motion picture encapsulated the spirit of the written word. It should be commonly accepted amongst all society that the book will be better than the movie with almost no exception (I can only think of 2 - The Green Mile and The Lord of the Rings). So I won't do any comparisons here. What I will say is that for me, HDHP1 does capture a bit of the spirit of the book, even though I think that spirit is a bit hollow. I thought the first half of the book was a bit meandering and unfocused; this book took me the longest to read because I had a hard time really getting fully invested in the first half, and I think that is because that's what Harry was going through (in the book, Harry and Ron's big fight is around this entire concept). I think that if the book had been just a bit more focused, it would've made for a more focused movie. Alas, twas not to be.
HPDH1 does what it is supposed to do: it gets a bunch of the exposition about why Harry, Ron, and Hermoine are on their quest out of the way, it sets up what many characters are going to need to do for the final chapter, and it also puts Harry and Voldemort in a collision course for their inevitable showdown. While I thought the place where they decided to end the story, with Voldemort finally acquiring the Elder Wand, was a curious choice, as I thought the book presented lots of other more suitable stopping points, I think hindsight may show more insight into the filmmaker's thinking.
Anybody with no previous knowledge of HP will be hopelessly and utterly lost. The filmmakers have wisely decided that anyone interested in HPDH1 is already a fan and, at a minimum, seen the previous 6 movies, so they jump right in with the story and keep it moving. I appreciate that, as some studios try to re-establish certain characters or ideas in the hopes of orienting new audience members. This keeps the story moving forward. While at times it did feel like the filmmakers were trying to check off all the events in the plot like it was a "to-do list," the film, for the most part, kept rolling forward.
Honestly, there's not much more to say. If you love HP and you were excited about HPDH1, you should be satisfied, as the movie did everything it was supposed to; yes, some character points or plot events from the book were modified or combined, but nothing that was detrimental or mangled the storytelling. If you have no interest in HP, you probably aren't even reading this. Here's hoping HPDH2 is a magical finish.
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