Wizard Week: 'Deathly Hallows' is Certified Fresh (so far)

It's still really early, but as of today, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 has a rating of 79% on the website Rotten Tomatoes.  That means the movie is not considered a "rotten tomato" but is "certified fresh!"  Every Harry Potter movie has been a "fresh" one, with the lowest rating being a 78% (Sorcerer's Stone, Order of the Phoenix) and the highest being a 90% (Prisoner of Azkaban).

Not very many of the top critics have weighed in yet, so that percentage can still go up or down.  Let's hope that it goes up!  I'd hate for the finale of the series to be the worst-reviewed so far...

Here's what some of the critics are saying so far, both good and not so good:

• "The first and third acts are over-busy; the middle one moves like an arthritic house-elf.  Still, a decent smattering of magic moments and tension's pumped up sky-high.  Bring on Part 2."  --Nick De Semlyen, Empire Magazine
• "Lumbering and gripping by turns, and suffused with a profound sense of solitude and loss." --Justin Chang, Variety
• "The most memorable sequences in the film are not, for once, the action scenes but the acting ones." --Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail (UK)
• "It's gripping all right, but ends all too abruptly."  --Melanie McDonagh, This is London
• "The final story may well be colourful and complex, but, on this evidence, there's absolutely no artistic justification for a two-movie split."  --Dan Goodswen, Total Film
• "It's hard to mourn the demise of a franchise that was never more than half-alive to begin with."  --Xan Brooks, Guardian (UK)
• "We have watched these three growing up and their performances have never been better--particularly Grint, who gets the opportunity to do more than just play for laughs."  --Anita Singh, Daily Telegraph