In order to give justice to a good movie, and out of consideration for you, I will divide this review into two parts... which probably is as good an idea as dividing the final Harry Potter book into two parts.
*If you love Harry Potter enough that you already saw this movie, and you cried at the end, you may not want to read any further.
Part I: What Did Not Work.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows probably would have made an excellent film, instead it has been divided into two OK movies. Optimistic Peter acknowledges that this was probably done to make Harry Potter fans happy, two movies means twice the Harry Potter goodness. Realist Peter steps in and slaps Optimistic Peter upside the head and reminds him that "it's the money stupid!" Of course neither Peter is here to criticize good old fashioned Capitalism, obviously Peter bought tickets to both movies. The point is that good filmmaking is the process of eliminating all the elements which are unnecessary to telling a story, leaving behind only a great film. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is chock full of fat and fillers, and that excess is punctuated with an absence of music. That's right, the composer of this movie's score seems to have only written music for parts which he deemed "music worthy" and left long sections of silence here and there. As the closing titles rolled I noticed that a number of pieces were actually John William's compositions (he's not the composer this time), so this movie's composer actually did less writing than is represented in the soundtrack. Of course a discussion of the movie's score is meant only give an example of how this movie is lacking. There is not enough story and no character development to speak of, which makes this entry in the Harry Potter series only good as a bookend. Which is unfortunate, because at the other end of the Harry Potter library is one of the two best Potter movies. This magical series started out so promising and just didn't have enough depth or heart to make it to the finish line.
Part II: What Did Work
There are two things which this episode of Harry Potter did well, one of which it did amazingly. Firstly, it ended the story. Perhaps I was meant to be surprised, but overall I found the conclusion of this series to follow exactly the course that had been established quite a while ago. Everyone wins, loses, hooks-up, dies, lives, etc. just as anyone might have expected. Perhaps I'm a little slow, but is Professor Snape Harry's dad? Whether or not this is true, I kind of like the way they handled that story element, Potter's flashback into Snape's memory was one of the best parts of the movie. The second, and best part of this movie are the special effects. It is truly amazing to see the evolution which has taken place in this series alone. If you're going to pay to see this movie you'll get your money's worth in eye candy. The dragon, the smoke/flying evil wizards, fire, and Ralph Fienne's nose are all spectacular visual achievements.
Conclusion:
I am glad that we got to see the final chapter in the Harry Potter series, it's good to have closure. Yet it's kind of a bummer to see these movies end on a dismal note. The truth is that Harry Potter was never much of a hero, and I can't say these stories ever rose above the visual escape that they provided. My friend Rob made a good point; "compare Dumbledore to Gandalf"... end of argument.
Part I: What Did Not Work.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows probably would have made an excellent film, instead it has been divided into two OK movies. Optimistic Peter acknowledges that this was probably done to make Harry Potter fans happy, two movies means twice the Harry Potter goodness. Realist Peter steps in and slaps Optimistic Peter upside the head and reminds him that "it's the money stupid!" Of course neither Peter is here to criticize good old fashioned Capitalism, obviously Peter bought tickets to both movies. The point is that good filmmaking is the process of eliminating all the elements which are unnecessary to telling a story, leaving behind only a great film. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is chock full of fat and fillers, and that excess is punctuated with an absence of music. That's right, the composer of this movie's score seems to have only written music for parts which he deemed "music worthy" and left long sections of silence here and there. As the closing titles rolled I noticed that a number of pieces were actually John William's compositions (he's not the composer this time), so this movie's composer actually did less writing than is represented in the soundtrack. Of course a discussion of the movie's score is meant only give an example of how this movie is lacking. There is not enough story and no character development to speak of, which makes this entry in the Harry Potter series only good as a bookend. Which is unfortunate, because at the other end of the Harry Potter library is one of the two best Potter movies. This magical series started out so promising and just didn't have enough depth or heart to make it to the finish line.
Part II: What Did Work
There are two things which this episode of Harry Potter did well, one of which it did amazingly. Firstly, it ended the story. Perhaps I was meant to be surprised, but overall I found the conclusion of this series to follow exactly the course that had been established quite a while ago. Everyone wins, loses, hooks-up, dies, lives, etc. just as anyone might have expected. Perhaps I'm a little slow, but is Professor Snape Harry's dad? Whether or not this is true, I kind of like the way they handled that story element, Potter's flashback into Snape's memory was one of the best parts of the movie. The second, and best part of this movie are the special effects. It is truly amazing to see the evolution which has taken place in this series alone. If you're going to pay to see this movie you'll get your money's worth in eye candy. The dragon, the smoke/flying evil wizards, fire, and Ralph Fienne's nose are all spectacular visual achievements.
Conclusion:
I am glad that we got to see the final chapter in the Harry Potter series, it's good to have closure. Yet it's kind of a bummer to see these movies end on a dismal note. The truth is that Harry Potter was never much of a hero, and I can't say these stories ever rose above the visual escape that they provided. My friend Rob made a good point; "compare Dumbledore to Gandalf"... end of argument.
1 comment:
Looking forward to the DVD set so that I can catch-up on the whole series... haven't watched one since maybe the third.
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