Unreal Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
Everyone has been insanely pumped for the return of Harry Potter, and after suffering through various Twilight entries, it was hard not to be. But I wasn’t as enthused for this day as everyone else was. Why?
It’s always a tricky task to tackle a book, as certain things will have to be cut to make it a manageable length. All the Potter films have done a decently good job of this so far, but they decided that for the last entry, it was just impossible to cut it down, and so it was split in half.
The problem? This isn’t Lord of the Rings, where the films may end on cliffhangers to make way for the next one, no, here you’re literally splitting a cohesive story in half, meaning the entire thing is more or less rising action with no climax.
The fact is, the first part of Deathly Hallows (the book), is rather boring. The gang is on the run, with Voldemort running wild throughout the land. This means no Hogwarts, no Quiddich and pretty much no fun. It’s been noted that each film gets darker than the last, but here we’re all death and gloom and mayhem, and there’s no room for any of the fun that’s made Potter such a great series.
Turning up the grittiness dial to 11.
Now, granted all the wandering in the woods pays off in the second half of the book, which features the revelation of many grand mysteries and one giant battle to end all battles at Hogwarts. But it’s not like we can see this conclusion next week, rather, we must wait until JULY to see how it all ends.
Clearly the two halves of this movie were shot together, so I really don’t understand the decision to space these films so far apart. Why spend double on marketing costs when both films could have been released within a week of each other, as everyone who saw the film opening weekend will be extremely likely to see the next film a week or month late? Spacing it out this much forces the studio to fire up the hype train yet again, and as expected, when you force part one to stand alone, it doesn’t hold up as an effective film.
Rather what we have is a lot of aimless wandering, and a few half hearted attempts to uncover mysteries that are still not realized two and a half hours later. For a movie of that length, it often feels like nothing ever really gets done.
The trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione are on a hunt for Horcruxes, items that contain a piece of Voldemort’s fractured soul. Destroy them all, and he loses his immortality. Unfortunately, the way they go about solving this mystery is camping out in a tent for weeks at a time, hoping someone drops a clue in their lap, which is actually exactly what happens. Then they’ll launch an investigation that leads them to a random place where a few more pieces of the puzzle come together. It’s all building toward something greater, but for those who haven’t read the book, it’s pretty tough to understand what the hell is going on.
“And stop calling me a ginger!”
The film does handle some scenes quite well, with Ron’s bubbling anger and jealousy toward Harry a memorable event that does the book justice. There’s also a cute scene featuring an impromptu awkward dance party between Harry and Hermione, but it’s a fleeting requiem at best. Two out of the three character deaths are executed rather unceremoniously, but the one the film ends on touched me more than it did in the book.
There’s just very little magic in this movie, and I mean that both literally and figuratively. Everyone seems downtrodden for the duration, and in two and a half hours, there’s really only one brief glimmer of hope. The rest is just sulking and angst and frankly, boredom. The film just feels empty, as the camping scenes stretch on for hours, and are only punctuated with a few brief moments of action.
At this point, spells have become machine gun fire. Incantations are barely heard and things simply just explode all around like someone has opened fire on our heroes with an AK-47. At this rate I expect the Battle of Hogwarts to resemble something out of Call of Duty.
“I’ll pop your head like it’s a balloon!”
The highlight of the film for me was a short little animated sequence that told the story of the three Hallows bestowed by death to three brothers. These items are of great significance in the coming chapter, but the presentation and animation style was incredible, and it really was the most enjoyable part of the movie.
But that’s a bad sign considering I should be focused on the characters we’ve come to know and love over the past decade. Here though, they’re given little to do other than draw pictures in the sand waiting for a lightning bolt of inspiration to strike them. I realize a lot of this stems from the book itself, but the idea to release this as a standalone movie with the next installment eight months away is the fault of the filmmakers, and one that heavily weakens this film.
I could have sat through six hours of Harry Potter, but if that was impossible, I would at least want the conclusion to be forthcoming soon. Waiting years between the films was fine when there were actual separate stories being told, but when you’re splitting one in half, there’s no earthly reason to force the fan base to wait eons for the payoff.
3 out of 5 stars
Oh, just make out already.
Couldn’t agree more Paul. My favorite scene was also the fairy tale retelling. I just kept thinking I could watch a whole movie (not Harry Potter) told that way.
Anyway, I hated this director when he did the previous two films, but I thought he managed to pull off a sparse and slow story pretty well, as I only began to lose interest towards the end. I was also struck by his use of silence in many of the scenes, which just isn’t something you see much in films anymore.
Anyway, I’m sad that I have to wait half a year for the full action, but I guess it will be worth it in the end.
The only thing I didnt like about this movie was the people who were in line to see it.
The various expected middle school girls showed up with lightening bolt birthmarks sharpied to their head, the occasional sorting hat on some random person…. and finally the drunk mom who was telling some random couple that she wishes the best for their child because one of her children died 3 weeks after being born. Then she went into great detail about what happened, noticeably freaking out the young couple.
Sitting in the theater was like sitting in a high school cafeteria, various cries of “OMG!” and “Soooooo cute!” until the previews started, which were all crap (wasnt the Green Lantern a black dude?)
Finally the title sequence, which was met by claps and cheers (which was to be expected) but it didnt stop there. Every single good deed was met by cheers and applause, which resulted in missing some dialogue (nothing important, but still….) and my annoyance level going up.
I probably wouldnt have cared about a single thing going on around me if i hadn’t paid $30 for 2 tickets…. and also if I was baked.
But outside of the interaction with the audience, I thought the movie was pretty good. Sure a little slow at some times but the darker aspects of the movie (to me) made up for it.
You gave the first half of a movie a more than perfect rating!
I think it’s worth noting that the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy was also shot all at once, but it took a year to complete each one. That time is spent doing the special effects, sound, music and editing. It’s similar to how a weekly TV show episode actually takes something like 18 weeks to produce from concept to air with only a week of that time being filming. If both parts were coming out together, they’d both be coming out in July. That’s a long time since the previous movie (which I seriously can’t even picture a scene from). I can see why the studio did it this way.
I do agree that there was no climax and the movie ended quite abruptly. I was kind of expecting the bank robbery to be the climax of this part but I guess it will just make for a really great first half of part 2. What I did quite enjoy about this movie was it is the most true to the books out of all the HP movies to date. It didn’t seem to me like anything was cut at all, and that’s great. And of course, the animated story was fantastic.
Luckily, I didn’t have the experience that J5 had. We went at 11:30AM on Sunday. We didn’t have to wait to get in (the theatre opens at 11), we got exactly the seats we wanted and the theatre didn’t even fill up. There were no costumes or even very many children.
The thing is with the book there is about 1 and a half of a really excellent exciting movie waiting to be made. They couldn’t just make one 3 hour movie and call it a day, they would have to cut too much out. So we are stuck with one movie that is essentially half filler. I for one am glad we got the boring one as part one as this serious really deserves to go out with a bang.
wow, this is nearly exactly what I thought!! Even that last scene, OH YES I really expected Voldemort to give a beautiful kiss on the lips to Dumbledore. There were quite a number of sexually charged scenes in this movie actually, i.e. between Bellatrix and Hermione, Ron and Harry (joking. Maybe)
I was just kind of disappointed and annoyed they cut out some touching scenes in the book (like when Aunt Petunia says somewhat of a farewell to Harry) yet they dragged out some uninteresting scenes (like those in the tent). The movie ended without a climax like you said and the ending was too abrupt. And why did the director seem to push Harry x Hermione together? People who didn’t read the book were confused, thinking those two had something going on. The chase through the woods also reminded me for some reason of Twilight’s werewolves-running scene (not good).
I am excited to see Part 2 though… which they really should not have postponed all the way to next year.
Same here, I am not excited for this movie. But for a different reason. I don’t like what David Yates did to the 5th and 6th movies. So I am not looking forward to a great movie for the 7th one (+ 8th). He likes boring scenes and left out a lot of important details.
To me the best movie adaptation is on the 4th book. Mike Newell captured the best and most important scenes from the book. Who can forget the scene when Voldemort resurfaced at the end? That is a classic! Considering also that the 4th book is the 2nd longest, behind the 5th book, they managed to capture the magic in less than 3 hours.
So there is really no reason for the 7th book to be splitted into 2 movies. The only reason I can think is money and greed!
Yes, waiting for the Part 2 will be torturous but on the upside, the splitting of the book in to two parts made the first part seem less rushed than the previous movies. In other words, they weren’t trying to rush through the events of the book so as to cram it all in one movie. I enjoyed the pace of this movie compared to previous HP movies. More time meant that certain pivotal scenes were given the attention they deserved and it allowed for the director to set up the necessary tension and ‘atmosphere’ surrounding that scene. I loved the oerall feel of this movie and loved how the movies have grown up with the actors playing the parts. Can’t wait for Part 2!
i thought that the ending came like a badly done the empire strikes back kind of thing. you know trying to put the heroes in the worst possible situation while the villains seem ot be winning.
the thing is that the movie works in the ways the movies are meant to work but i believe that they forgot the dursley, and the fact that the scene that humanizes them is taken away seems, well weird. now you forgot to mention that it’s not so much that they’re hunting for clues, but you know trying to keep themselves alive because voldemort took over and etc.
now the second apart seems a little bit apart (hell, one of my friends asked me to spoiler him just because he couldn’t wait)
but that means they can get the hype up and let’s be honest they have a lot of subplots to deal with. and eally it’s not like the first part cut just in the middle in the book it was kinda like 3/4 in.
Problem with this show is simple- Daniel radcliffe and Emma Watson aren’t the most compelling actors, yet we’re forced into watching them for large parts of the movie silently emoting- not their greatest strengths..
This is a shame, given that the director has some of the finest actors of the uk at his disposal – Ray fiennes, Helena bonham Carter, Alan rickman… The list goes on.
By pandering to the audience’s perceived demand to “watch these kids grow up”, the movie invariably suffocates the depth and layered detail Jk rowelling brings to her books.
Let’s hope part 2 utilizes its time more wisely!
I loved the movie, but I agree about the splitting being kid of odd. Someone who hasn’t read the books was asking me if i liked the movie. I had to tell them that i enjoyed it, but that I wasn’t sure if they would. I basically told them that since they didn’t know what the build up was coming to, then they wouldn’t appreciate it. I guess because i know whats coming, it’s fine. But from a reviewers point of view, it could be disappointing.
While I admit to being rather bored as those two hours seemed interminable, I like that the story was stretched out in order to make understanding part II more clear. I stopped reading Harry Potter after book II so watching the film, I was at a bit of a loss since nothing much seemed to be happening other than the trio camping. However, other than the understanding that the studio wanted to squeeze as many pennies out of this franchise, I also left with the understanding that the good stuff was coming in part II. I like the treatment because I thought that the last film so failed in giving me the story of the half-blood prince and instead was a Hogwarts 90210, as it focused more on the budding romances of the main characters.
And watching this film, other than the Twilight-like chasing scene in the woods, elements of LOTR was also pervasive: a nicer Gollum-like character (whose death really was poignant) and the whole pernicious nature of the ring /Hurcrux on its bearer thing.
Like you all, I also liked the animated story of the Hallows. Beautifully done.
@dani
I didn’t get confused about Hermione and Harry, as it was made clear that Ron and Hermione had something going on and Harry and the redhead he made out with were together. Very early on (with the doey looks, hugs, and fingers touching while they sleep thing) Hermione and Ron were shown to be enamored with each other. So as I watched the film, I understood that Ron was simply jealous–which provided me with quite a bit of laughter really–in a good way.
I haven’t read the books since third grade, but I REALLY loved the way this part came out.
I’m one of those people that pretty much stopped going to the movie theater because of all the shitty movies that they’ve been shelling out, but was genuinely excited to go see this.
The pace was great, and I didn’t feel that it was too slow at all. It’s a nice change compared to almost everything else out there. They’re showing you what the characters are going through, and you’re almost feeling what they feel. Hermoine, Ron, and Harry are camping out for months.
I expected this is how it would come out. The, not so much action, stuff, because I KNOW the book is so big.
I’m really glad that they are actually trying to involve and derive from the books as much as possible. There are way too many Television/Film adaptions from books that are just awful, because they refuse to follow them.
And as for the 8 month thing, I feel the exact same way. I’m good with maybe…two months. I can do that easy. But…why 8?