Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

The end is nigh, my friends, and wonderfully so. That Harry Potter movie that actually lives up to the book—the one you’ve seen in the Mirror of Erised for the past 10 years—is finally here. Well, the first half of it, at least.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 focuses once again on Harry, Ron and Hermione (Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson) as they pursue Horcruxes, Hallows and that flighty temptress, adventure. The trio ventures forth into a world of “magick moste evile,” discovering Lord Voldemort’s (Ralph Fiennes, who deserves a Best Supporting Actor nod for this role at some point or another) hidden secrets, harrowing encounters with death and the heart of their friendship.

Although past movies have felt like drinking the Draught of the Living Dead, this installment is by far the best in the series, putting the audience under its Imperius Curse from minute one. The film mixes big-budget action with dramatic subtlety, beautifully blending explosions and effects with the best dialogue thus far. Not only does the panoramic, Oscar-worthy cinematography go wand-in-hand with the scope of the hero’s journey, but the film also transfigures the trivial into the substantial. Director David Yates captures the propaganda books in Umbridge’s drawer, Ron’s eternally screeching radio and Hermione’s torture with all the pizzazz and depravity of Rita Skeeter’s Quick-Quotes Quill.

Although it can’t help but feel like the prelude to a bigger movie, Part I still stuns the viewer with everything from superb acting from the entire cast to a N.E.W.T.-level animation sequence—my second favorite “change” from the book, behind the dancing scene in the tent. It is a fantastic, frenetic and frightening film that will charm and disarm you faster than Harry himself.