Harry Potter has been with us for almost 13 years. 13 years we have seen Harry Potter books and films. Harry Potter fan groups, toys, video games. The books have been released in 62 different languages, and the movies have made billions. Well now it is 2010 and the 2nd final film has just been released.
[Nathan]
I’ve read all the books and seen the movie. Unlike myself, Jordan has only seen two of the movies. I have a certain familiarity with the genre so I asked Jordan to write on the same film; to give an unbiased perspective.
The actors have certainly grown since Book 1. Everyone acted horrible in the Sorcerers Stone. We’ve seen the actors grow and become better actors. Hermione has a great ability to slow down the film, and bring emotion to the film. Without this, the film would be an action filled bore. Harry gives us the strong but damaged leader. And Ron is mainly humorous relief for this film.
As a Harry Potter fan I knew what was going on, and I understood and I couldn’t help but think during the film if Jordan had any idea what was going on. I felt they should have rehashed a few different things for the audience to remember certain things and understand what was happening. Perhaps a sentence or two to re-explain what a horcrux was and why they had to destroy the thing would have been nice. I like how the film went out of their way to make the wearing of the necklace the least amount like LOTR as possible. I couldn’t help but think about Frodo in a few of the scenes.
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The plot lines were slow and tedious. It seemed longer than needed and I felt myself stretching my legs often. But at the same time, the film was the closest to the books as any of the other films. Harry Potter fans will like this fact. I can’t think of anything the book said that was worth mentioning left out of the movie. Even small things from the book seemed to find their way to the movie. Yes the movie could have been combined with Part 2 to form one movie, but I was ok with this fact.
I thought the movie had a lack of magic compared to the other films, but I can get over that. The movie was the scariest and darkest. “These are dark times.” You could certainly tell that the world was different during book 7 compared to what it was. The scenery was spectacular, the shots was great. I’ve companied about the movie a lot so far, but it wasn’t really that bad.
Overall, yes the first part could have been better. Cutting the film into two ultimately does favor to the second part. The best part is to come. It sets the story up for greatness even if this film isn’t the greatest in the franchise. The pacing could have been better, but I have hope for the final film. I give this movie 80 out of 100.
[Jordan]
By and large, I agree with Nathan’s assessment of the film, so I’ll try to avoid rehashing any points that he made.
My personal context: I’ve read the first book and seen the first two movies. Nothing ever since then. So how lost was I?
Not very. I didn’t need to know much back story to follow this movie. True, they didn’t explain the horcrux at all, but I already knew what they were beforehand. Other than that, all I needed to know was that Voldemort still isn’t dead and is still trying to kill Harry. Other than that, I didn’t need to know much. Sure, there were other characters and storylines, but they were completely superfluous to this film. It just ties itself up in the main three characters running from Voldemort and searching for the horcruxes with the most sporadic system ever. As far as I could tell they were just transporting themselves to random locations in the hope that they’d find something.
Was this film boring?
Yeah, kinda. There is a complete lack of action. But this movie is really a character driven story, which I really like. Luckily two thirds of the principal actors were very solid. Ron wasn’t very well acted, but I did get a kick out of how much time he obviously spends in the gym to compensate for his otherwise awkward appearance. Daniel Radcliffe was solid as Harry and Emma Watson absolutely killed it as Hermione. She is turning into a very talented actress.
The supporting cast is a who’s who of amazing British actors, ranging from Ralph Fiennes to Alan Rickman to (siiiigh) Helena Bonham Carter. Helena Bonham Carter was the weakest of the bunch, and the sad part is she gets more screen time than anybody else over the age of 18. Her acting was so bad that she pulled me out of the movie every single time she spoke.
On the whole, though, I liked the movie a lot, slow though it be. I can tell it’s building for the final movie. I’m going to give HPATDHP1 75 out of 100.
For Attebiz Movie Reviews this is The Attebiz Himself and the J-Man.
Have a Merry Christmas
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