Carl Jones on the new Harry Potter epic, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. Is it a Harry Houdini or a Paul Daniels? Find out here.

With the great magician Dumbledore no longer around to protect them, Harry, Hermione and Ron (Radcliffe, Watson and Grint) head off on a perilous quest to track down the mysterious Horcruxes, where evil Lord Voldemort (Fiennes) has stored parts of his soul.

Destroy them, and they’ll destroy the dark lord too.

But the evil master and his followers, including Bellatrix Lestrange (Bonham Carter) and Lucius Malfoy (Isaacs), continue to grow in power, and are hell-bent on stopping them.

With Hogwarts in disarray, and Voldemort’s army of Death Eaters trawling the land looking for Harry, can the youngsters stop the forces of darkness from taking a stranglehold over the wizarding world before it’s too late?

THE VERDICT

As every self respecting Muggle knows, JK Rowling’s final book has been somewhat controversially split into two films, relegating this adventure to a tantalising cliffhanger.

But The Empire Strikes Back was the unresolved mid-chapter of the first Star Wars trilogy, and that didn’t stop it being the best of the bunch.

So, opportunist, money-grabbing studio motives aside – there’s nothing wrong with this two-part strategy.

And in fact, far from diluting the impact of the mega-hit franchise, this is probably the best of the seven Potter films.

Emotional

The three child stars, who have often appeared to be mere merchandising pawns, actually get chance to show some fleeting personality and emotional depth this time.

A scene where Harry dances with Hermione is particularly moving, and is ironically one of the few not lifted directly from the Rowling book.

The gloomy tone – and believe me, it really is gloomy – is occasionally broken with moments of humour and adolescent sexual tension, but the mammoth 146-minute film still feels unrelentingly dark.

Several scenes were clearly designed with 3D technology in mind, but the fact that Warner Brothers couldn’t convert it to the new format in time for the release date doesn’t truly matter.

The young actors aren’t going to win any Oscars, and there’s possibly one visit too many to the forest wastelands where they spend much of their time hatching their plans, but the stunning visual effects do justice to the producers’ vivid imagination.

With good and evil finely balanced, the Deathly Hallows climax (this time, we’re promised, definitely in 3D) can’t come soon enough. I make it 238 days . . .

RATING: 8/10