‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ Review: Disappearing Magic
Regardless of its quality, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I” will likely become a huge blockbuster. It’s the seventh film chronicling the long-running book series about a wizard named Harry Potter and his two best friends. The final book of the series was split into two films and the second part will be released in July 2011. As a long time fan of the series, I was excited to see the penultimate movie in the franchise but ”Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” lacks the magic and the imagination of its exciting prequels.
“The Deathly Hallows” begins as panic continues to brew in the wizarding world. Voldermort (Ralph Fiennes), the story’s villian, is leading an army that plans to ambush and kill Harry Potter, the young and powerful wizard. Voldermort tried to kill Potter as an infant after killing his parents but his plan failed. At long last, he’s now trying to finish the job.
As the story begins, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) reunites with his wizard friends, who know what is at stake in the battle between Potter and Voldermort. In the earlier films, Harry and his best friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) spent much of their time at Hogwarts, a school for young wizards. However, after Harry’s mentor Professor Dumbledore was killed at the end of the sixth film, Hogwarts is no longer a safe haven for any of them.
In “Deathly Hallows,” Potter’s magical friends must disguise themselves as Harry in order to move him to a safe location. Their trip is interrupted by a fierce attack of Voldermort’s minions. Even when he reaches the “safe” location, Voldermort is still close behind and his army attacks Harry and his friends. Harry, Hermione and Ron quickly escape. They begin a search for the Horcruxes that contain Voldermort’s soul. Each of them must be destroyed before Voldermort can be killed.
The trio’s journey eventually leads them to the Ministry of Magic, where a former Hogwarts professor wears one of the Horcruxes around her neck. Harry, Ron and Hermione must take on the identities of three Ministry of Magic employees to sneak into the office without getting caught. Potter is wanted by the Ministry so the three must be careful to escape suspicion. After an incident at the Ministry, the trio must go into seclusion to figure out how to destroy the Horcruxes they possess and how to find the remaining ones.
Much of the movie is spent with these three characters as they try to figure out how to destroy the Horcruxes. They seem clueless about the location of the other Horcruxes and they spend to much time moping and arguing. Ron, for one, takes on the look of a deranged serial killer as he becomes jealous of Harry’s relationship with Hermione. Teen angst becomes the main focus of the story during this long and boring lull. When the plot finally picks up speed in the latter half of the third act, the momentum of the story is nonexistent.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One” is a rare misstep in this strong series. It lacks nearly all of the magic that its predecessors arrived in theaters with. The earlier Potter films were laced with strong action sequences, a memorable sense of imagination and childlike splendor. Even in its two and a half hour run time, ”Deathly Hallows” only has a few action scenes. It lacks a sense of imagination. Nothing about this story seems fresh.
Aside from the excitement and the imagination of the earlier films, many of the best characters in the series are barely featured here. Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), only appears in a few scenes, Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) shows up but only for a few seconds and Minerva McGonagall (Maggie Smith) doesn’t appear at all. These characters added to the joy of this series and they are sorely missed.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1″ lacks some of the best ingredients in this series and is a disappointing entry in an otherwise well-done series of films.
- John P. Hanlon's blog
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Comments
Ill watch it on video like I
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 5:26pm.
Ill watch it on video like I have all the series.
Is this liberal media bias,
Submitted by Guttermouth's Return on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 5:39pm.
Is this liberal media bias, or just a straightforward movie review as it seems?
It's Friday, lighten up, and
Submitted by Radical1979 on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 7:57pm.
It's Friday, lighten up, and smile.
Wow.....
Submitted by jon_torlin on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 5:57pm.
Harsh review.
I thought the whole point of the series was that it was a "coming of age" series about teenagers who happen to have wizard powers. Just that each film got darker than the last as the menace of he-who-shall-not-be-named Voldemort became stronger.
I had a similar review about Back to the Future Part 3 which made sense if it were a stand alone film. Given that it's part of a saga, it might be best to wait for the second part, after all, they are calling this part one. For a movie series of this magnitude, it wouldn't make sense to wait till Part 2 is finished when production was done this way to get part one out. They probably didn't want to have a 5-hour long movie in the theater, that would have been a bit much.
But that's just my friendly opinion.
-Jon
Kill Bill worked well as 2
Submitted by Guttermouth's Return on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 5:58pm.
Kill Bill worked well as 2 independent films. I suspect this will do better.
It seems you did not read the
Submitted by ninerdog on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 6:33pm.
It seems you did not read the books. The middle of this book is a lot of background to get Harry to a point of understanding. He must understand that in order to win the war he must willingly sacrifice his life to rid himself of the final crux. “Nether can live while the other survives”. What you are describing as boring is in fact more a part of the story that “action” scenes. In truth the characters that you are lamenting are in fact not in the first part of the book. Snape plays an enormous part in this book but not until the last few chapters. I predict you will be complaining about him being on the screen more than harry after the next movie. All in all I find your review of the movie lacking in understanding of the books and lacking in understanding of the story line and the fact that in the past movies they killed a lot of the story line for some “action” so people like you would not get board and people like me would walk out shaking our heads saying “that was not in the book”. I suggest you wait for action till the next one. I promise you will get it.
Rowling increased the
Submitted by Radical1979 on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 7:57pm.
Rowling increased the complexity of the stories as the series progressed. After the third movie, I felt you really needed to read the books to understand and appreciate the movies.
But I'm generally a book person. Like the movies, but the books provide background. Nothing personal ADK.
Anticipation
Submitted by KC Mulville on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 8:00pm.
I loved the Harry Potter series. It succeeded in the most important challenge of all fiction: to get the reader to care about the character.
However, for as much as I loved the series, I didn't like how it ended. I was anticipating that the story would be resolved by some lesson that Harry learns about growing up, which he uses as the key to defeating Voldemort. Instead, the series is resolved because of a mere plot twist. I won't give away the ending, but it was a twist that really didn't satisfy me.
In the books, the story becomes teen angst. Well, great, but the whole idea is to get past that annoying stage of life and learn something about how to be an adult. I was hoping the kids would learn how to combine their magic to become something greater than any of them could achieve individually, and thus overpower Voldemort (who is the ultimate narcissist individual), but that wasn't in Rowlings' story. There are other possible story endings that would have been dramatically powerful, but it turned out to be a plot twist. It may have been a device to say that you have to put away childhood (h/t St. Paul) but it doesn't say how to be an adult. Ah well.
And again ... why does Harry Potter (or any other being endowed with magic) need glasses?
KC regarding glasses, when
Submitted by Radical1979 on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 8:12pm.
KC regarding glasses, when Harry and Ron decide to disguise themselves as Crabbe and Goyle (?) in the early books, they need to drink a potion which expires eventually. Perhaps in this fictional world magic cannot disguise who one really is forever.
I thought the lesson had to do with Snape, and what Harry learned about his parents. In the adult world, no one is completely good or bad (except Voldemort). It takes a maturity to recognize this in ourselves and others. That's my opinion anyway.
Broken arm
Submitted by KC Mulville on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 8:46pm.
Yes, but remember when Harry broke his arm playing Quidditch? That was a permanent fix. Doesn't the wizard world have anyone interested in eye health? (LOL - just having fun.)
Hey, I'm open for alternative interpretations. Maybe I just missed the meaning. (Won't be the first or last time for that.) But I tried to figure out what possible allegorical meaning the ending could have had, and I've speculated on several different ways to interpret the events. For me, the most likely explanation is that it was a plot twist, thrown in the end because Rowling didn't really know how to bring it all together into a coherent ending. In this case, I would dearly love to be wrong, but I don't prefer any other explanation.
"A Rare Misstep"? What About The First Two?
Submitted by TheReal7Sticks on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 9:24pm.
As good as Chris Columbus was at writing films like The Goonies and directing the first Home Alone, he was only chosen to direct the first two Harry Potter films because he seemed a safe bet. Sure, he established the actors, the look and style of the series, but story-wise, he was simply directing the book and not willing to take any chances on giving the films a voice of their own. It changed when Alfonso Curon and Mike Newell added new life in their respective chapters of the Potter series with their own flourishes and character development. And David Yates seemed to be doing just fine as well with the last two films before this one. So it's hard to say that the Potter series has never had any missteps before this one. Of course, I haven't seen the new one yet, but having read the entire book series and watching all the other films, I'm gonna give it the benefit of a doubt and take a look at the theater.
action
Submitted by ozarkian on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 3:43am.
I've seen a few comments now about not enough "action." I was starting to think for awhile that the characters and story, the magic and the mystery were being left out to include more "action." The quick cuts, running scenes, and people having wand fights doesn't do the same for me as getting to know the alternative reality of the Harry Potter World. Seems like CG was used to move people around the screen more quickly to please short attention spans than to create a world where magical, impossible, yet parallel-to-our-own-world, things happened.
I was a bit afraid that the directors worried too much about losing their audience as they grew unless they included lots of fighting and jumping around, even if it meant leaving out important plot and character development. But it sounds rather like things are changing again with this new one, and I'm looking forward to seeing it Wednesday.
(Agree about the book's ending. And the written scene where Harry meets the dead Dumbledore in a kind of "heaven" didn't do it for me. But, in contrast to some, I liked Christopher Columbus's exact portrayal of the books and definitely felt let down with the more artsy feeling of number 3. which seemed to concentrate more on style than story)
$60 million opening day box
Submitted by Guttermouth's Return on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 11:20am.
$60 million opening day box office.
The fans don't seem to care for the reviews.
What film were you watching?
Submitted by jdripper on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 4:35pm.
In my opinion this is the best of the Harry Potter films to date.
First did you read the books?
Second this is the film that has to tie up the loose ends, and fill in the blanks as well as introduce the deathly hallows itself.
Third if you kept abreast of what was happening in the films the last film is almost non stop action.
Fourth this film was necessary because the characters were finally allowed to be yound adults instead of just teen agers. This was a coming of age film where the characters were bereft of any guidance, succor or comfort. The institutions that had protected them were gone and they were on their own. That takes time to develop and mature.
Fifth to make the seventh book into two films was brilliant. They should have made the last tour into two films each. Book four should definitely have been made into two films.
Jack