Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
Release Date: November 19, 2010
(Click here for more info on my rating scale)
This is it, the beginning of the end. I remember buying and reading the seventh book when it was released (around the time the fifth movie came out), and I loved it. Now it has finally come to the screen, split up into two movies. It may seem like it’s getting split into two movies to make a little extra cash, but after seeing the movies myself, I see that’s not the case. The “Deathly Hallows” story is really two big and complex to be fit into one two-and-a-half hour movie. With the story split up, there is a lot more room for story and character development, among other good things. I saw “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” in the theater during Thanksgiving weekend last year (2010). I have to say, I was pretty impressed.
The movie covers the first two thirds – the first and second acts – of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” In the previous six films, there has been a major story constantly developing. However, each individual installment has stuck to more or less a standard formula: stuff happens before Harry goes to Howgwarts, then Harry and his friends go to Hogwarts, new teachers are introduced, we see a few classes, some story is developing all the while, eventually climaxes, etc. There have been different twists and turns in each of the individual stories, each getting more and more drastic, but they’ve had that very basic formula underlying deep underneath. Wow, I am a horrible explainer sometimes, but I think you can definitely tell what I’m saying and agree with it. In this installment, Deathly Hallows Part 1,” the story has taken a drastically different turn. In fact, Hogwarts is not in this particular installment at all. Then when it comes back in Part 2, it’s nothing like we’ve seen it before, and a totally different plot formula even there. Also, Harry and his friends are now young adults, as opposed to the eleven-year-old kids they were back at the beginning of the long story. Back then, it was a young light-hearted story, and it has now grown into a deep, dark, mature story suitable for all ages (and Harry Potter is also a story about growing up).
Harry begins to prepare to leave his familiar life behind and to go on his adventure (with Hermione and Ron, of course) to find and destroy the horcruxes. However, Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters, conquer and take over the Ministry of Magic, and all chaos breaks loose as Voldemort begins to terrorize the wizarding world, and even the non-magic world. Harry is forced to flee along with Hermione and Ron, and he begins his long and dangerous race against time and the Dark Lord to find and destroy all the horcruxes. There is also one more thing: there are these three objects called the Deathly Hallows that Harry eventually learns about, and which he must find in order to obtain the power necessary to defeat the Dark Lord once and for all.
Director David Yates directed the Harry Potter films from the fifth all the way to the end. The fifth movie was okay, but I felt that David Yates had taken a step in the wrong direction in many ways. The sixth film (Half-Blood Prince) was a little better, and David Yates seemed to be improving. However, he was still doing some things with the moive that I wasn’t really impressed with, and he didn’t have quite the right tone. Therefore, I was a bit unsure whether or not the seventh film would have the tone and intensity it needed. It did. David Yates finally knew what he is doing, and he delivered the first part of the final chapter well.
The film has just the right combination of action, adventure, suspense, drama, emotion, character development, and everything else. I was especially impressed with the action scenes. The action scenes in the Half-Blood Prince were a bit dry, but the action sequences in this film actually had high-energy action, which would increase drastically in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.” Also, this being only the first two-thirds of the story, David Yates and Steve Kloves structured the film’s plot very well, and it actually climaxed pretty well, while also leaving a giant cliffhanger for Part 2. The film doesn’t zip by quickly in it’s long length like Part 2 does, but the pacing is very good, the fluidity is good, and the movie is not boring. It does not slog at all (yes, Peter Travers – Rolling Stone – I’m talking to you). It leads well into the last film, and is a good beginning to the end of the great ten-year-old Harry Potter saga.
Cast and Credits:
Harry Potter: Daniel Radcliffe
Hermione Granger: Emma Watson
Ron Weasley: Rupert Grint
Lord Voldemort: Ralph Fiennes
Bellatrix Lestrange: Helena Bonham Carter
Draco Malfoy: Tom Felton
Lucius Malfoy: Jason Isaacs
Rufus Scrimgeour: Bill Nighy
Ginny Weasley: Bonnie Wrighty
Molly Weasley: Julie Walters
Vernon Dursley: Richard Griffiths
Severus Snape: Alan Rickman
Warner Brothers Pictures presents
A film directed by David Yates
Screenplay by Steve Kloves
Based on the novel by J. K. Rowling
Music by Alexandre Desplat
Running time: 146 min.
