Tweet

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Review

These are dark times (to quote Rufus Scrimgeour) for other movies aspiring to get a slice of the money pie, for the latest edition of the adventures of the boy wizard hit the screens yesterday. Not surprisingly, it has made brisk business with some $24 million odd on the opening night, but still could not beat those darned twilight flicks, as nerdiness is still in short supply compared to chick-flick-iness(?!).

This time around, David Yates (direction) is probably at the wrong end of the gun for mistakes he did not make. To be fair, critics have been generally quite positive, if not gung-ho about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, or to use the most popular cliche, ‘the beginning of the end’. However, those who have been disappointed or downright irritated raise similar issues over the movie, and most of those issues are essentially baggage from the book world. Yates must be thinking, ‘Rowling giveth, and Rowling taketh away’. I shall explain myself in the following passages.

We were kicking ourselves yesterday night for going just 30 minutes early for the first show screening of HP7. Evidently, the crazyfandom had descended into AMC Lincoln Center IMAX hall a good 1-2 hours early. All good seats were already taken by humans, backpacks, jackets, pop corn bags, footballs and in one case, just thin air (“sorry dude, these seats are already taken”. “but I don’t see anyone here!”. “so what? Its all taken. Now move on, will ya?”). We ended up in the front row staring into the vast expanse of the magnificent IMAX screen. That the movie still managed to keep us completely hooked should in itself be a great compliment. The audience reaction was excellent throughout, much more than what I expected. They screamed sufficiently in the beginning, laughed at every joke thrown at them and were generally very appreciative of every plot point portrayed onscreen.

Let us get the obvious out of the way. Casual movie watchers who stumbled into the movie hall: you might choose to stay and baffle yourself for the next two hours or leave peacefully and catch up with whatever it is you catch up with when you are not watching incomprehensible movies. This is for people who know the franchise, preferably through the book. If you haven’t read the books, you must have at least watched the previous 6 movies keenly and should generally recollect points like Hagrid is good and horcruxes are bad. This is one HP movie that stays true to the book. It does try a few jumps here and there for effect, like the little nervous dance of Harry and Hermoine, but overall it is a very faithful portrayal of whatever happens (or doesn’t happen) in the first half of the book. No cut shots here to summarize the story so far, and rightly so.

This is also a road movie where Dan Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint get the maximum screen time, followed by gloomy and ominous forests and apparition shots. No sign of Hogwarts here and many of the accomplished actors, who usually provide brilliant support to the top-billed, just make cameo appearances here and some don’t even show up (Prof. McGonagall comes to mind). One wishes one could see more of Alan Rickman, but it is understood, of course, that we have to wait for Part 2 to see more of Snape. For minutes together, we see the three young actors get ample scope to emote, do close up shots, utter heavily accented dialogue and generally try hard to wrench the story forward from the vile grip of Rowling. Let us be clear: it is not Yates or Steve Kloves (script) who is responsible for the perceived drag in the middle. It is purely Rowling with her meandering writing who stalled the progress of the book for pages together.

Even with these limitations, the three do a commendable job of engaging the audience, supported by a reasonable screenplay, surprising humor, sometimes lacklustre dialogue and a seemingly tiny handbag. Watson is clearly the best of the lot. What a fine prospect she is turning out to be (not to mention the hotness)! Grint, a tad too big for his on-screen age, manages to be quite funny at times. Radcliffe gives a typical level-headed (some call it boringly predictable) performance. Thankfully his scar does not hurt in the movie. The book was so full of piercing pains, I started to feel those pains myself sometimes. Between Watson and Radcliffe we get some excellent vibe, their depiction of friendship and affection sometimes shadowing the portrayal of love interest between Watson and Grint.

The movie has a few great sequences, the best of which is a brilliant, sepia-hued, Tim Burtonesque animation telling an important tale. The ministry sequence is nicely conceived and the actors deliver a great performance. The movie also has a few well-positioned scares, but it doesn’t execute some of its chases well. The multi-harry mid-air mishmash is spectacular though. The ministry is darker, Bellatrix is scarier, the elves are busier and the countryside landscapes are more breathtaking than ever. No shortage of deaths here, a couple of which strike a chord with the audience, but the real deal is going to be in part 2, as far as deaths are concerned.

I did feel disappointed or puzzled with a few things. Voldemort is looking less and less scary. It is almost as if the essential goodness of Ralph Fiennes is oozing out of the evil exterior, slitted nose notwithstanding. I fear that by the time the Dark Lord presents himself to the final showdown, Harry might look the more sinister of the two. Yates and Kloves obviously decided to cut short some back stories in the interest of time, but that leads to just plain roll-calling of characters like Grindenwald and Peverell. Those who have read the book will immediately realize how some important plot points and cues might have been missed. Also, those elaborate volde-scope harry-vision scenes have been reduced to cut shots lasting few seconds in the movie. All this make for the requirement of a very interesting screenplay for part 2, to satisfactorily pull off the famous ending. I was also looking for some secondary aspects like the bonding with Kreacher, the quote about a ‘free elf’ etc, and sadly couldn’t find them in the movie.

In terms of the overall package, it does seem like this is the best HP movie so far. I am also planning to try another viewing of the movie, from a better seat in the same hall to better appreciate some of the visual effects. Being a strong follower of the franchise (books, movies, extras, Orlando wizarding world – the whole shebang), I enjoyed every bit of it, and of course, I would recommend the movie to anyone who knows the franchise well. The build-up is good, the payoff is reasonable (considering it is a penultimate movie) and the cliffhanger ending is sufficiently tantalizing and nicely poised to deliver a dead(th)ly finale. The most beloved boy wizard, the most popular literary phenomenon and the most accomplished movie franchise of the decade deserve nothing less!