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Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

I suppose I should get it out of the way early and say that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 represents only my second experience with the Harry Potter franchise, so I’m going to talk about this film in the strictest terms possible, as a movie created for the purpose of entertaining folk and making money. I’ve never been the kind of person who was terribly concerned with the usual hullabaloo surrounding book adaptations large and small. A movie is a movie. A book is a book. The two meet, but their effects on each other are largely ephemeral. In the greater scheme of things, a review of the seventh movie in a phenomenally popular eight movie franchise on a blog in the back corner of the universe has literally zero effect on both mediums, but I figured I’d come clean before anybody happening upon this begins pointing their internet finger at me.

Regardless of my experience with Harry Potter, nothing in the first part of Deathly Hallows is at all hard to comprehend for anybody who’s read a story or watched a movie involving a Chosen One and his friends, a dead mentor, an ugly bad guy, and a litany of colorful supporting characters who, depending on allegiance, either want to help or hurt the Chosen One. If Star Wars or Lord of the Rings were beyond your grasp, then yeah, Deathly Hallows isn’t going to be an easy watch.

The chosen one here is, obviously, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), who, in the way of all generation-defining heroes, has grown considerably since his first days at Hogwarts. The world, it seems, has grown darker, more threatening as the years passed. Harry’s mentor, Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), was killed by Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), and here, in the aftermath of that event, the world is no longer a safe place for Harry and his friends. Hermione (Emma Watson) is shown erasing all traces of herself from her family home. The Order of the Phoenix must secret Harry to the home of Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint). They are besieged on all sides by the Death Eaters, a gang of rogue witches and wizards led by Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), who killed Harry’s parents and now seems on the verge of discovering how to kill Harry.

Since Harry is the Chosen One, a whole legion of good witches and wizards have decided to align themselves with him, but there’s a mole in the group, which makes hiding Harry a difficult prospect. When the Minister of Magic (Bill Nighy) is murdered, a puppet of Voldemort takes over and immediately makes radical revisions to the Ministry of Magic’s worldview. Harry Potter, no longer the Chosen One, is Undesirable No. 1. Witches and wizards are routinely dragged to a courtroom to be questioned as to their status as pure-blooded magical beings. A giant statue is erected in the foyer, displaying a horde of muggles being crushed, put in their rightful place. Things are pretty bad, generally speaking, and to make matters worse, Harry and co. aren’t exactly sure what they’re supposed to do to stop Voldemort.

They have an idea, I suppose, but they’re working at a distinct disadvantage. The key to beating Voldemort lies in collecting and destroying pieces of his soul that are lying around the world in various forms. They could literally be anything. Dumbledore seemed pretty good at finding and destroying the things, but he’s dead now and, in death, has left our heroes with a series of clues that are couched in riddles, symbols, and memory. Voldemort is after the same things Harry, Hermione and Ron are looking for, but he knows what those are and can strong arm weaker beings for the information he needs.

Eventually, Harry and friends come into possession of a locket that contains a piece of Voldemort’s soul. Not knowing how to destroy it, the three take turns wearing the locket, which is evil and causes them to say terrible things to each other. In a movie mostly absent of giant action pieces and magic spells, growing up is the enemy of this film, as the locket brings out the petty jealousies of the group and amplifies them. Ron loves Hermione, right? Well, while he’s wearing the locket, he sees the two walking through the woods and his mind starts to wander. What if…what if Harry had something for Hermione…and what if she had something for him?

These scenes comprise a large majority of the film, and they’re largely frustrating affairs. Lots of yelling and huffing and storming off into the great unknown. Hidden from the Death Eaters and largely out of the picture for most of the combat going on off-screen in the film, Harry, Hermione and Ron enter the wasteland and must find themselves, love and understanding being the first steps towards conquering evil. That’s great, but it’s a plot that has been recycled thousands of times, and often better than what’s on display here. I understand that camping is really only fun the first two or three nights, but at times it seems that Ron Weasley wants to yell at Harry due to things he can’t control, the weather or the fact that Dumbledore told them literally nothing about the last remaining pieces to beating Voldemort. Yes, I know: Ron is jealous and must deal, but the ensuing will-they-won’t-they dance scene between Harry and Hermione is more than a little pandering and none of the issues bandied about in the woods are particularly penetrating or insightful.

But none of that really matters. It’s eventually back to business as usual for everybody, at which point we’re left with a cliffhanger for part two, which hits theatres in 3D next July (because splitting the last installment of the franchise into two movies apparently wasn’t a decision made to double the bottom line and a different cash cow had to be found). As far as movies go, this wasn’t a very exciting one. It seemed to rush along at some points and stall at others, idly watching as the clock ticks down to the end of the franchise. Hearing the applause of the midnight audience, I got the feeling that I wasn’t the film’s target demographic and probably never was. A film about what the likes of Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy , Rhys Ifans, Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes were up to while Harry found himself in the woods? Now that I would have gotten into costume for.

Rating:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One. Directed by David Yates. With Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort), Alan Rickman (Severus Snape), Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange), and Bill Nighy (Rufus Scrimgeour). Released November 18, 2010, by Warner Bros.

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

While Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth movie in the nearly completed Potter franchise, it’s the first one I’ve seen. While I can certainly see an argument that an absolutely fair review would only be possible had I seen the previous five films, there will be some people like me who, for one reason or another, are seeing this movie with only a minimal amount of pre-existing knowledge. That being said, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a beautifully shot, wonderfully atmospheric movie that, at times, looses track of what matters in an ill-fated attempt to be a teen comedy about coming of age while trying to retain some semblance of the thrilling adventure stories you’d expect from a movie about a gaggle of wizards. It is easier to spin both plates in a full-length novel, but, in a movie based on beloved source material, one adapts and hopes for the best. Subplots and characters are buried or given small moments in an effort to create a coherent movie that will please fans. Here is a movie that seeks to give each part equal time, but something is still missing.

It could be that the plot is put on the backburner so that Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) can come to terms with puberty and grow into being upperclassmen at Hogwarts. After the first act, it seems like the actual story arc is interrupting the high school stuff, which is content to hold itself to snogging, conversations about snogging, and moments of awkwardness.

There are two things I really like about all of that. In the movie’s opening scene, Harry Potter is reading a newspaper that mentions him as the possible Chosen One. He wants to (and does) ask out an incredibly cute waitress, but then the movie happens, and no more cute waitress. Harry spends the rest of the movie pining after Ron’s sister Ginny (Bonnie Wright), who, no offense, is a serious downgrade from the waitress. There is also a scene where Ron eats a box of chocolates meant for Harry. The chocolates have, of course, been imbued with an incredibly powerful love potion, which is exactly the sort of thing I’d expect a young witch to imbue her gift to a young wizard with. I thought that was cute.

Unfortunately, that’s one of the few times that the movie allows itself to smile at the thought of magic. Sure, it lets Harry strut through Hogwarts not unlike Peter Parker with the Venom suit on underneath his clothes, and yeah, a bit of magical gibberish results in a powerful burst of blue energy or some other effect to come forth, but there is almost nothing charming about magic beyond the chocolates. Harry’s wand spends much of its time masquerading as a flashlight.

The movie’s real purpose is to move everything closer to the final battle between Harry and Voldemort. To get us there, Harry and Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) hunt for a particular memory belonging to one Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), who may or may not have told a very young Voldemort,then known as Tom Riddle (Frank Dillane, whose haircut, I’m sorry to say, reminded me of Hitler), the secret to eternal life. Once they have the memory, they must search for the means to destroy Voldemort, who is content to wait until the final movie to make his presence felt.

Instead, Harry and Co. must deal with threats much closer to home in the form of Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), who has been charged with the task of killing Dumbledore. He goes about doing so in less-than-effective ways, in moments designed to remind us that serious things are afoot at Hogwarts. One of the toys he plays with throughout the movie is a teleportation device, which is amazing even if the movie doesn’t think so. I’ve heard that an earlier movie/book’s gadget was a time machine, which means that the wizards simply aren’t thinking hard enough in their quest to defeat Voldemort. They have The Twilight Zone in their closet, but are content to let it gather dust.

Harry is on to Draco’s scheming, but Severous Snape (Alan Rickman) is always there to vouch for Draco who, at the very least, looks like he’s due for an appointment with the school counselor. Why would Snape continuously stick his name out for the young Malfoy? You probably know, but I’m not telling.

There’s plenty to like about this movie. Jim Broadbent is his usual, whimsical self; balancing between bumbler and troubled man, though his penchant for stealing biological samples of things in the name of science comes from nowhere. If Alan Rickman were to narrate the audiobook, I’d buy it just to hear him twist every word to its utterly macabre end. It’s a crime that Helena Bonham Carter, playing Bellatrix Lestrange, exists merely to yell things and point her wand at stained glass windows Hogwarts would likely rather not replace, but she looks like she’s having fun.

I adore how everything looks. Hogwarts is gloomy, cavernous, and mysterious, though individual rooms have an undeniably homey feel to them. The special effects are (mostly) clever—I like that photographs in newspapers and on shelves move like newsreel footage, and the zombie-like creatures who attack Harry and Dumbledore look like they crawled out of a Mike Mignola comic book. The cinematography is spectacular, always finding a way to capture the larger-than-life qualities of the school and Harry’s adventure. An unexpected Die Hard tribute had me absolutely giddy.

But I get the feeling that the people responsible for the movie’s plot were burying their lede. The title mentions a Half-Blood prince, but the movie only does so maybe five times. I don’t know if it was a larger subplot in the novel or not, but I felt that the movie cheated, ignoring what mystery there could have been right up until they absolutely needed to pull the curtain up.

The fact that the movie didn’t end there was also a bit of a puzzle. I don’t understand this trend in movies where the decision is made to drag on after a logical ending point instead of rolling credits. The revelation of the Half-Blood Prince, combined with the fact that he appears to be an incredibly powerful threat, was a gut punch. It’s a down note, but life isn’t all sunshine, rainbows, and conversations about kissing. I’d much rather walk out of a theater wondering how a character is going to get out of a situation he wasn’t expecting than watching said character discuss his plans for the future. Imagine if Rocky ended with Rocky Balboa in the pet shop, telling Adrian that he planned on facing Apollo Creed again after such an incredibly emotional post-fight scene. There’s no way anything that came after that scene could top it, so why even try?

Rating:

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Directed by David Yates. With Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Michael Gambon (Dumbledore), Jim Broadbent (Slughorn), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), and Alan Rickman (Snape) Released July 15, 2009, by Warner Bros.