Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part 1 (2010)

I was a rabid, wild fan of “LOST.” The TV show about crashed survivors trapped on a mysterious island was brilliant, fascinating, maddening and not a little frustrating. The most grating aspect of the show, though, was The Set-Up Episode. Every year, the drama’s momentum would stop dead as the writers struggled to move the myriad of characters to some exact point for no other reason than doing so helped set-up a big season finale shocker. Nothing of substance occurred. Not a “LOST” fan? How’s this for an analogy: Ever watch a choir or symphony enter and stumble around a stage, finding their assigned spots, and sit there thinking, “Get on with it!”

That’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part 1,” a 2-hour, 30-minute, set-up episode for … you guessed it, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part 2.” How long will that film be? I read all the books by J.K. Rowling, and the series as a whole is brilliant, fascinating, maddening and not a little frustrating, and also wildly funny and satirical. Reading that final book, though, I slogged through a dreary and stretched-out opening. I kept thinking, “Get on with it.”

The action, if you want to call it action, in print and here consists of nothing but moving people in place. Ad nauseam. Rowling needed a harsh editor, and so does this film. If masterpiece novels such as “East of Eden” and “Dr. Zhivago” can be successfully cut to manageable film size, so can this. But Warner Bros. is quite happy to make $40 per couple rather than $20. That’s not magic.

Now I’ll get on with it, before this review runs 2 hours 30 minutes. In this 7.0 chapter, our young magical heroes – Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) – are on the run. Or, rather, they are on the chase of a series of Horcruxes, objects that hold chunks of the soul of evil Lord Voldermort (Ralph Fiennes). Destroying the objects destroys Voldermort. (Have no idea what I’m talking about? These plots need flow charts to follow.)

The trio spends most of this chase not chasing, but hiding in a tent in either desolate woods, on a desolate beach and … yards away from the world’s most desolate trailer park not in Mississippi. As Rowling did, director David Yates and screenwriter Steve Kloves stretch out this wait camp for a good hour or more, when 20 minutes would do. When these young adults are not pondering and fretting what to do, they mourn their dead mentor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon). Then they wait some more.

This is the weakest of the “Potter” films, plot and momentum wise, but it’s not bad. Magic abounds. The cinematography by Eduardo Serra (“Defiance”) may be the best looking of the series, and the three leads carry their large portion of the film with great ease. The best is Watson, who nails the frustration of not just the Voldermort predicament, but also surviving the emotional roller coaster and sometimes childish ways teenagers act toward one another as they approach adulthood, and (hopefully) wise up. I’m still not sure about Grint, who could out pout any single character from (dare I say it?) “Twilight.” But that’s how poor Ron is written. Radcliffe is a growing star.

The best chunk by far: A short section of “Hollows” is dedicated to a tale of three brothers who challenge Death himself. Yates uses a wondrous Asian-ink-inspired animation that is a marvel to watch. It’s also scarier and more direct than any other scene in this “wait for it” installment.

Film watched, I now wait for “Part 7.5,” the finale. Bring it on and do it quickly. I hate waiting. B-