My Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
4/5
Opening Statement: The 7th installment to the epic series based of the book series written by JK Rowling. Harry and friends are back but this time things aren't so jolly. Voldemort is a lot more serious about his mission to find a destroy Harry Potter and to start his evil reign. Harry is on the run, searching for he hocruxes to destroy the bits of Voldemort's soul.
What's Good: Just a fair warning, some of the things I find good about this movie, you will not. First thing you need to FULLY UNDERSTAND before seeing this movie is that is only half of a story. A prelude, if you will, that goes soft on action. That is the point that will drive people to dislike it, the lack of action. I liked that they traded eye candy fast-paced action into eye candy dark visuals that help bring out more character development and make us feel strongly toward our protagonist. Now once the film abruptly ends (which you should know is going to happen) you really care about our heroes, you care about the mission and it still feels Harry is far from defeating the dark lord. Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson are all excellent in their roles, probably achieving some of the most top notch action seen from them in the series. We deal with some lustful sensuality between our protagonist when in Ron's dark vision we see a very naked Harry and Hermione in a sexual embrace. Elements such as this show us that we have entered a very PG13 Harry Potter. The film series that appeals to the audience that is the same age as the protagonists (such as myself who has grown up with the series.)
All in all, since the story is divided in half (which could be good, could be bad) we have to move a little slower. Fans of the book complained that previous films didn't translate enough onto the screen, these films also felt fast. This time it feels a little slow building a crescendo up to the high point of the orchestra that is Harry Potter. Speaking of orchestra the score is hauntingly beautiful. Such a fantastic series, with such a fantastic addition.
What's Bad: I liked that the film slowed done for character development and emotional nuance, you may not. It is unlike any other Harry Potter film. The other criticism, which I will just talk briefly about, is that there is a chance they divided it in half for more money. That'd be awful for Warner Bros. to squeeze money out of us, however we don't know the full intention. Maybe they wanted the full impact of the book in the final story, so they divided the movies.
Oscar Possibilities: Art Direction, Editing, Cinematography, Sound Mixing/Editing, Visual Effects, many of the technical categories. I'd like to say this could squeeze into the 10 for best picture, but it's looking highly doubtful.
Consensus: The division of the story causes Part 1 to move much slower than we are use to a Harry Potter moving. However this is a chance for the Yates to develop character, emotion, and really make us feel for these characters who will be enduring the ultimate peril soon. One of my favorite of the series.
OTHER HARRY POTTER REVIEWS:
Sorcerer's Stone 3.5/5
Chamber of Secrets 4/5
Prisoner of Azkaban 4/5
Goblet of Fire 4.5/5
Order of the Phoenix 3/5
Half Blood Prince 3.5/5
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