Saturday, November 20, 2010

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS Part I



Directed by: David Yates

Most people review about the film; well I thought I shall review my journey to watch the film to begin with. It was a surreal journey as I sat on the bus going to the cinema and the bus driver is singing Bad Romance from Lady Gaga over and over again.

I have no idea what went through his mind as he torture the passengers with his very own special rendition. However that was a blast, since few days ago I hear another bus driver played Metallica on their radio.

I have no expectation on David Yates. Ever since he directed the fifth installment of the Harry Potter franchise I wish that the producer would take Darren Aronofsky or Lars von Trier as the director. His first Potter film, Order of the Pheonix is a decent installment and Half Blood Prince is a disappointment. So accompanied by that bus driver rendition of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance I have no expectation from Yates.

This one is different, the last film from an almost 10 year old franchise. We saw Daniel, Rupert and Emma grow on the big screen and time goes by, we have to bid farewell to them. By that, Warner Bros will make sure we dig deep in our pocket to bid farewell since they decided to split the seventh installment in two movies released in six month period. They even consider of converting the film in 3 D to make it more profitable, lucky for us they cancel it at the 11th hour. Ever since Clash of the Titans converted into 3 D, slew of ‘fake’ 3 D have appeared and make the audience disappointed. I do hope Warner Bros learn from that experience.

As for me, I do read the books and watch the previous films but I am not a hard core fan who watches the movie twice and point out differences between books and film while frowning, I tend to just enjoy the ride.

This one is different, the wizards of Hogwarts is no longer inside Hogwarts. They have to be out there in the wild (including in a real London instead of in magical places) surviving the onslaught of Voldemort and his follower ever growing power and influence over the wizarding world and try to destroy the remaining horxruxes (If you don't know what it is, let's say they have to destroy Voldemort's external hardd disk so he cannot backup his data in the future in case the main hard drive and CPU got destroyed by Lady Gaga). By this, the trio of wizards are exposed to new condition and Yates has manage make it as efficient and as entertaining as possible.

In terms of special effect, visual representation and music score there is no complaining at all, it all helps the understanding and by splitting this film into two makes more space for better interpretation and visualization from the book. But in terms of acting there are no improvements from Daniel Radcliffe, he look as wooden as we last saw him on the sixth installment. Emma Watson done decent job but Rupert Grint shines throughout the film. It seems if he keeps doing that he might have a better acting career post Potter fame. Unlike the yawn-ish Half Blood Prince, Deathly Hallows show that Yates has matured in his third attempt in this franchise, the viewers even can understand what a Deathly Hallows is, accompanied by a very interesting animation. Even the lengthy duration itself is not a big deal, everything moves in a good pace.

What I find to be funny is how Dobby is more similar to Vladimir Putin (this one has been a joke in the internet) and how Voldemort is like George W. Bush in terms of visual. Although the story has no allegory on real world we live in, I do hope that Harry Potter is not Tony Blair.

If you are not a Potter fan and never read the book (or at least watch the fifth and sixth installment), you might have difficulties understanding the story and this one definitely not for kids since it has harrowing scenes and some blood.

As for where they split the story, they have done it perfectly by leave it hanging in the middle, making those muggles eagerly anticipate the coming second part thus bidding farewell to a franchise more successful than James Bond franchise. I do hope that the second part will not be a 'Bad Romance' for us all.

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