Sunday 21 November 2010

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hollow: Part 1

Hard to believe that we are almost at the end of the road for the world's most famous young wizard and his journey from naive schoolboy to manhood. Split into two films, J.K. Rowling's final book is possibly the most anticipated movies of the year. The second part is released next July, so here is part one. Unfortunately I found it very underwhelming indeed.

The dark forces are one step closer to taking over the world and it's only Harry Potter who is the last chance to stop it from happening. He must find all the Horcruxes that belong to his arch enemy Lord Voldermort in order to have a much better chance of beating him. So Harry, Hermione and Ron must set off to find them and the truth behind the Deathly Hollow.

The film starts off with great promise. Bill Nighy's Minister of Magic announcing that 'These are dark times', signs a darker movie. We then get a terrifically scary scene in which all the dark forces are brought together and Voldermort's snake made even me jump out of my skin. The scene in which Harry is escaping the country reminded me of a scene from a wartime dogfight, as good and evil fly around all over. However, the promise is short-lived, as the film then starts grinds to a casual stroll more than a gallop.

The problem I had with it was the repetition. We have a wand battle in a cafe in Shaftesbury Avenue (since when have you ever seen a greasy spoon cafe in Shaftesbury Avenue?); running through the woods, in fact, the only action is the occasional wand battle. The search for the Horcruxes is more like Harry and friends go camping, and while this is suppose to develop the characters, it only really shows Ron as a jealous guy who is bitter over Harry's relationship with Herimone.

Then there's the final 25 minutes in which the we get a little exciting scene but this seems tacked on, as if director David Yates decided that we've had enough character building, better have some action, and it is rushed to the finale that doesn't really go anywhere because it is to be continued.

The special effects have become less than special. It's as if the series has come to a stop when it comes to production values, and I just hope that the final part will have much more imagination than on display here.
The performances are fine, this time concentrating on the three main characters. Rupert Grint, who has always been the better of the three, gets a little more dramatic scenes than usual but he is still the comic relief and thank goodness he is around otherwise this would have been a dull old affair. Daniel Radcliffe has become Harry to the point it might be very hard ever to shake the character. The most improved has to be Emma Watson as Herimone, who, if you remember from the first film, had drama school brat written all over her performance. She has now proven herself as a reasonably good actress.

As always the film is littered with the cream of British acting, including new comers Nighy, Peter Mullen and Rhys Ifans. It does miss having Maggie Smith and some of the other characters have become nothing but extras (John Hurt doesn't even say a word).

I feel as an audience member who has followed this series a little cheated by this, making me wonder if it really was worth splitting the book into two. Maybe they should have trimmed the fat in this won and just made one big, spectacular ending. Instead we have a heartless, rather dull film that doesn't really build the excitement for the finale.

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