“A GOOD TRY”
Starring: Daniel Radcliff, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson
Directed by: David Yates
MPAA Rated PG-13 for some sequences of intense action violence, frightening images and brief sensuality.
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Sequel
Running Time: 2hrs 26min
Release Date: November 19, 2010
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
By John Delia
Going over in my mind the adventures of Harry Potter who gets thrust into wizardry in a strange school never knowing what the future will bring, I found the first six films increasingly enjoyable. During each year at the academy of dark arts, Harry and his friends fight their way out of perilous situations. With this final book the boy wonder is now an adult and is still trying to figure out his destiny, but this time Harry and his friends are on the run from ‘you know who’. Will this be the end of the chosen one? You’ll have to wait until July 2011 before the crowning blow is revealed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.
But, for me it is hard to say goodbye to a great adventure and probably so for the filmmakers as witnessed by the first half of The Deathly Hallows (Part 1) . The first half of this film, that covers about 300 pages of the final book by J.K. Rowling, is long and drawn out loosing the luster that made the franchise a hit. Much like the second book of Lord of the Rings, we are treated to travelogue cinematography, painstaking shots and long winded prose that to me felt like a fisherman letting out his line with a huge bait on it’s hook, letting us have a few nibbles of excitement, and then reeling it in before we can take a big bite. You may feel disenchanted as I did.
Those who have read the book have the upper hand in the story knowing the outcome of Harry’s future. So those of us who have chosen to see it in film have to wait many months before we know what characters won the Quidditch game of life and who bit the dust.
The film focuses on the group of the most important members of Harry’s story including the dastardly. Continuing from the Half-Blood Prince where Harry became aware of Horcruxes, devices that store a portion of Voldemort’s soul to allow him to live indefinitely, he now knows what he must do to kill Voldemort. In this half of the book we find him seeking out and attempting to destroy the Holcruxes needed to make Voldemort vulnerable enough to kill. With both Harry and Voldemort having equally as strong wands containing the same center (this makes it almost impossible to kill either one), Voldemort puts his aside and goes looking for the most powerful wand in the wizard world that’s embedded in the deathly hollows.
The acting is as steadfast as ever when the script allows important plot dialog between Radcliff, Watson and Grint. But it looses conviction as most of the time the trio is being whisked off to places like the White Cliffs of Dover, downtown London, railway stations, riverside settings, wooded landscapes and snow covered towns. Sure each does have meaning, but if I want a tour of the English countryside it’s not during a film that provided most of its adventure in a wizardry castle called Hogwarts. The most exciting scenes in this film take place inside buildings like the Weasley’s homestead, Voldemort’s table gathering, Dolores Umbridge’s courtroom and Bellatrix Lestrange’s dining hall. But you have to wait until director Yates gets a lot of shots of the trio in tents being pulled from Hermione’s bottomless handbag.
That noted, I did enjoy most of the 146 minutes (2hrs 26min) of the film however with the now adult figures of Harry. Hermione and Ron fighting themselves out of one dangerous situation then another. Much like the stories that got them this far, the trio keeps plugging away determined to defeat their foe and go on with their lives.
Except for the long sometimes boring shots at the camps and the shoreline, director Yates does a good job of bringing the first half of The Deathly Hollows to life. His ability to make a lot out of quick tussles with Umbridge, Lastange and the Death Eaters does bring the needed excitement to the film. His insertion of the elf Dobby does give the movie some pathos while the mostly embarrassing scene of Harry and Hermione naked in a lover’s embrace does nothing for the movie other than give it a PG-13 rating.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt 1 puts most new viewers in a question filled quandary and us die hard wizard lovers squirming in our seats for nearly 2 1/2 hours and hoping Yates and Rowling have an amazing ending in store.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt 1 is rated PG-13 for some sequences of intense action violence, frightening images and brief sensuality.
FINAL ANALYSIS: Not the best but a necessary bridge to the finale. (3.5 of 5)