Before going to movie, I wondered how I would start this review. I thought my first lines would be, “Really? Do I really have to review Harry Potter? You already know it’s amazing!” Surprisingly, I can’t do that…I didn’t like this installment in the magical series. I know I’m going to get a lot of flack for this, but let me explain myself. I’m a huge fan of Harry Potter and have enjoyed every film so far. They’re great examples of film making, including this one, but Harry Potter 7 was missing one very important ingredient: substance.
I don’t think I have to tell you who Harry Potter is or what the movies are about, but just in case, we’re talking about the fantasy world of wizardry created in the books of J.K. Rowling. I’ve grown up with this group of characters and they truly have grown up with the story as well. This is definitely the darkest of all the films so far. From the first faint sounds of the piano notes of the Harry Potter theme, you instantly disapparate from the real world and apparate into this wonderful world that has been created over the years. You are greeted with a couple quick shots of our favorite characters: Harry, Hermione, and Ron. The mood is incredibly dark and tense. A little after, however, we’re joined by the familiar laughs and fantastic feel-good mood from the original movies and storyline. But then almost every scene following is awkward and lacking. There is no sense of the epic feeling that the Harry Potter franchise deserves. All this movie does is set up the dominoes for the finale which is known to come. It’s almost as if they could’ve packaged together anything to connect the dots and satisfy the appetites of the wanting fans before Part 2 comes out in 6 months.
What!!??
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 for the most part was boring and lazy storytelling. I think if you got the script and read the dialogue alone, it would only fill about an hour. The rest of the 150 minutes is filled with dull silence and music. There’s plenty of running through the woods and hiding out which was to be expected but I feel like they could’ve done something more to move the story along. Instead, there were a lot of fade outs and dis conjoined scenes. The action is few and far between but there are some surprises that will make you jump out of your seat.
Almost got hit by a....ahh no, they're alright
There’s plenty to make any Harry Potter fan rejoice though. For the girls, there are plenty of “aww” moments between Hermione and Ron. If this was a tv series, this movie would’ve been that couple’s spin-off sitcom. The special effects, visuals, and production as a whole are still top notch. I want to congratulate the location scout because the backdrops in this film are breathtaking and stunning. Thank goodness they couldn’t finish the 3D conversion in time and kept this movie 2D because there were only a handful of scenes which would have benefited from the glasses. Sadly though, Part 2 will be completely converted to 3D and I fear that it’ll just be a waste.
The relationship between Hermione and Ron will make any tween squeal
My friend who went to the screening with me actually had not seen any of the Harry Potter films or read any of the books so I thought his perspective would be interesting. He liked it. He confessed that he was confused with a lot of what was going on and knew he had missed the back stories and that there was one more film to come. But he loved the effects and magic especially when characters turned into other characters which proves that the fascination of magic and the world of Harry Potter is still there with this film. However, he saw that there was no real character development because the characters were already who they were. I asked him what he thought of the movie by itself without knowing there were other films and he agreed that there wasn’t much there. Nothing really happens in this movie.
Oh, and Dobby stole the show, love that little guy...
Basically, Harry Potter 7.1 did a good job of setting up Harry Potter 7.2. For me, it didn’t add anything to the series and will probably be the one film skipped over in Harry Potter marathons. I wonder if Part 2 is going to have a “on the last episode of Harry Potter” recap in the beginning like on a tv series. I bet the 5 minute recap would be a lot more entertaining and cover the same amount of detail. It makes you wonder, did this final installment really require 2 movies or was this just a concoction to make the franchise last as long as possible. Hopefully Part 2 will trump Part 1 and every other Harry Potter film for a glorious finale but for a franchise that has just been golden until now, I was disappointed =/.
Tags: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Rupert Grint
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
