If you've read the book, you already know that much of the first half of the story is spent waiting, thinking and planning. As such, it's not a surprise that this film moves along at a slower pace than some of the previous Potter installments. For casual fans, this might be a negative, but for fans of the books, the slower pace (and extra time allotted by the fact that the book has been split into two movies) allows for many welcome details and intricacies that would otherwise have been passed over. As a standalone film, it's good but not great, but when you consider that it's simply laying the foundation for what should be an epic conclusion, it achieves its goals admirably.