DVD Extras

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 Maximum Movie Mode

The final forty minutes or so, then.

It's a pretty good track when it's actually sharing info, and sometimes the flow of information is quite constant, but there's the odd long stretch which you feel could have been filled. Surely someone involved had an anecdote or production snippet to slot into all the dead time? This is particularly annoying when the track offers you the option to leave the film to watch Focus Points -- short featurettes, only a couple of minutes each, on specific elements of the production. Invariably the MMM track itself offers nothing else for several minutes after the offer, so why not just play the full featurette PiP instead of a bitesize 'trailer' and forcing you to exit to watch it?

Also, the MMM is often used to fill in backstory or impart trivia, reminding us of events in previous films and extra detail from the books. It's nice, but also a shame: there's plenty of room for more behind the scenes information, be it director's/writer's/actors' intentions or how-they-made-thats or anything else along those lines. Even stuff familiar from the countless making-ofs we've almost all seen in the DVD era would be more welcome than the silence (well, "just the film") that this track ends up reverting to; and I'm sure there's actually plenty of unique stuff that could be discussed, if they put their mind to it.

So the track starts well but gets thinner as it goes on. That said, a couple of the best bits emerge late on. For instance, there's a good selection on the making of the Three Brothers animated sequence, plus the reveal that the film's ending was originally placed earlier -- when Harry & co arrive at Malfoy Manor and Bellatrix sees his scar -- but was moved to capitalise on the emotion of Dobby's death. Smart move.