After the disappointment that was Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince, I was excited yet hesitant about part one of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. While I felt that the HP and the Half-blood Prince stumbled and missed the overall feeling of the sixth book and gave us a movie that focused to much on the romantic relationships. I am pleased that they got back on track with Deathly Hallows Part One and captured the feelings of uncertainty, loss and even the mounting darkness of the book.
The decision to split the Deathly Hallows book into two parts is what made part one work so well. While I have enjoyed all of the Harry Potter movies, as the books got longer I have felt that the movies lost some key points that at first glance seem irrelevant but truly end up really helping to tie different feelings in scenes together. This feeling has been lost because in order to tell all the main points the movie had to have a quick pace which ended up causing us to lose a lot of the depth that has made the books so successful. With this split the audience is able to feel the despair that the Harry, Hermione and Ron are feeling throughout as Voldemort and his supporters become more brazen and daring in their taking of power. I loved the way Voldemort and the Death Eaters are portrayed in the movie. No longer do they settle for being anonymous caped figures with masks. Instead they are out in the open and are willing to discuss whatever they want with no fear of any repercussions.
The crux of the movie lies in the relationships between Harry, Hermione and Ron as they set out on their quest through the bleak English countryside to discover the locations of the remaining Horcruxes. Being on the run from Voldemort and the Death Eaters along with the immensity of their journey, begins to take a toll on them. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson are perfect in their roles as they all give the viewers such strong emotions of fear and frustration with such a natural realism that I myself could not help but be pulled right into the English countryside.
While I am sure some may find the middle part of the movie to be slow and tedious as Harry, Hermione and Ron fail to not only figure out a way to destroy the Horcruxes, but they also are making no headway into finding any of the other Horcruxes. This lack of progress slowly mounts between the trio and truly tests the friendships they have been building the past six years. Through all of this the audience is left in their seating feeling like the movie is going nowhere. This feeling of going nowhere is the point that is being made, because at this point Harry, Hermione and Ron are truly going nowhere themselves.
While the film gives the direction of going nowhere, it still provides us with some great action sequences that do not disappoint. Whether the action sequence is that of multiple Harry's, a wild flying motorcycle chase to even Harry, Ron and Hermione's daring movement into the Ministry of Magic this only builds up to a lot of anticipation for what should be some amazing action sequences in part two. While the action sequences as well as the feelings of despair as Voldemort's power grows could have really bogged down the overall mood of the audience the film makers bring in moments that definitely help to lighten the mood and bring hope that good can win out in the end.
While amazing visual effects have been a true staple with the Harry Potter franchise. Aspects of the seventh installment of the franchise go above and beyond anything that has been done previously in the franchise and to make a comparison is simply not fair to the previous installments. The crowning achievement of the effects happens with the telling of the story of the Deathly Hallows. While the direction of telling this story could have gone various ways, the direction to use shadow animation was brilliant. The shadow animation not only told the story,but because of the black and white feeling to me it gave it a feeling of how someone might imagine the story within their own head. The visuals are so stunning that in essence words would truly not be needed to tell the story of what is taking place. This animation if it was eligible for Oscar consideration would have been able to win an Oscar on its own.
The only drawback or disappointment of this first installment of the final book is that it did not end up being in 3D like it was originally slated, but even this was very slight because I am not sure that it being in 3D would have brought much more to this strong film.
I was truly happy to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One rebound from the disappointment I felt from the sixth movie. This installment gave the audience a great depth of character which only draws the audience further into the feelings of despair and frustration that Harry, Ron and Hermione feel throughout. I simply can not see enough about the shadow animation visuals and hope to see it employed some more in future film making. I am giving Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One four buckets of popcorn out of five. While I know it may be out of theaters soon I would highly recommend this movie to be one that gets seen in the theater for the first screening. Which can definitely be possible because I expect part one to be re-released in theaters a couple weeks before part two is released this summer.
-The Movie Man
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