Saw Deathly Hallows part one last night.
Despite having severe grievances with the book, I found myself really enjoying the film a great deal. By presenting it at length rather than cutting out a huge amount of material as the previous entries have done, it allows each scene and the story as a whole to develop at a better pace and make much more sense, resulting in a film with quite a different feel than any of the others (quite aside from the extremely dark and grim tone). If only they had been able to do all the movies this way!
I think part of the problem with the book is that it isn't a story particularly suited to being written out--in many places it feels much more like a movie script that has been adapted to book form, with additional unnecessary padding. Seeing this same story actually presented as a produced script, it unsurprisingly comes across as if it were in its natural state, as if it were meant to be this way all along. It also helped that the parts that didn't work originally were often subtly altered in the movie into forms that improved upon the source, as I had hoped. Highly recommended, and it's going to be tough waiting all that time until part two next summer.
If John Williams had never done any of the HP scores, I wouldn't really have any complaints about the music, but it's just that he set the bar so high initially that his absence is all the more noticeable. For instance there will be a scene near the end of part two that would be a perfect place to use the lovely 'A Window to the Past' theme from movie three (the theme for Harry's family), and this will undoubtedly pass right by as a wasted opportunity, as it did throughout movie five. Also, six and seven could have had a romance theme for Harry and Ginny, in the vein of Han Solo and the Princess from ESB, or Indy and Marion from Raiders. (I ended up composing one myself a couple years ago since I knew such was not to be.) Ah well . . .
Sorry if I'm turning this into the 'hairy_hen talks Harry Potter' thread. lol It's just a subject I have at various times invested a lot of interest in.