Nothing is more fun than watching a Harry Potter movie with your friends. You dress up, you get into character, you get comfortable in your seat with your snacks and Coca-Cola, and you watch. That’s exactly what I did this Saturday for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.
Before I get into the movie review, here’s a little paragraph of what I like to do when I’m at the movies: my favorite snack to buy at the concession stand is the gourmet pretzels. My favorite soft drink of all time is Coca-Cola, and I can’t afford to splurge on anything bigger than a small. I only like 3-D if it’s an animated movie. My favorite seat in the theater is the one smack-dab in the middle, so I snag that one whenever possible. Guess who got to get her most favorite seat in the house AND her favorite snacks AND her 2-D-ness? Me! This is where you imagine little hearts and flowers floating around my head as I grin brightly at you.
Now let the review commence! Ahead are SPOILERS!
As far as the quality of the past Harry Potter movies are concerned, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is phenomenal! It’s by far the best one out of the series. All seven books being out is certainly an asset in this regard. Granted, parts of it won’t make any sense if you haven’t read the book beforehand, but the same can be said of the third, fifth, and sixth movies.
The cinematography is amazing. The times when it was at its best was when Harry was having his visions. They have never looked so good. It’s incredible how much creativity and artistry is in those scenes. The one thing I don’t particularly like is the new versions of the Patronus charm. Kingsley’s is supposed to be a giant cat, but it’s more of a ball that depicts events as Kingsley’s voice is narrating. The mysterious doe Patronus doesn’t take its doe form initially, despite it having been cast some time ago for Harry not to have seen who conjured it. It looked more like smoke than a corporal form, and that’s not what a proper Patronus is like. Aside from that, I have nothing to complain about, special-effects-wise. I will say that environmentalists probably hate Hagrid’s motorbike. You could practically see the ozone layer falling to pieces!
As far as characterization goes, it does good with some characters and not so good with others. Those of you who were looking forward to the dramatization of Kreacher’s tale or Lupin’s issues, I’m really sorry. Lupin and Tonks don’t even get to properly announce their marriage or Tonks’s pregnancy, let alone Lupin’s fears for the child. The scene where Kreacher tells them about the locket isn’t anything like it was in the book. However, Hermione gets incredible character development that makes up for Watson’s bad acting in the fifth movie and Hermione’s cattiness in the sixth movie. Ron’s character development is so true to what it was in the book, it’s incredible; the way it’s presented makes it even more powerful. I fell in love with Dobby all over again. I cried at parts I hadn't cried at when I read them. It's a wonderful movie.
If I had to fault the movie for anything, it would be for making us laugh at parts that most certainly weren’t funny in the book. Part of it is additional lines they gave Ron, and part of it is just how awkwardly entertaining the execution is. However, it does make the suspenseful and sad parts of the movie even more so.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is a definite must-see for any Harry Potter fan, even if they aren’t a fan of the movies. Be sure to go in costume! It’s more fun that way.
BONUS SECTION: There were three trailers to movies that made me want to see them when they come out.
The first one was Red Riding Hood. It looks like an interesting take on the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, with Riding Hood being a teenager instead of a little girl and her village being on edge about a werewolf being on the loose. From the trailer, I can guess that it’s probably her boyfriend who her family has forbidden her to be with. It’s from the director of Twilight, though, so I’m not entirely sure whether it’s going to be awesome or going to be a flop. I am going to borrow The Nativity, also by the same director, from my school library after Thanksgiving, so maybe I’ll be able to judge it better after seeing that one. (The Nostalgia Critic gave pretty big props to The Nativity.) I'll probably see it regardless because it has Gary Oldman, and I adore Gary Oldman.
The second one was Green Hornet. When the trailer first started playing, I kept trying to remember where I had heard the name Kaito before. I knew my dad had talked about a movie with a character named Kaito in it, but I couldn’t remember what movie it was from until the trailer told me the title. Then it clicked. Aside from that, it looks like a good action flick. I know my dad will probably want to see it, and I’ll certainly be happy to see it with him.
The third was Green Lantern. I’m simply a fan of superhero movies, and I really like the DC universe. (It’s so hard to become a comic book geek when you have no idea where to start, but I watched Batman: the Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Superman: the Animated Series, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans and Static Shock when I was a kid, so I know I like the superheroes from that universe the most.) The only thing I don’t particularly like from the trailer is what the Green Lantern’s costume looks like. It looks more like he’s standing there in his black underwear with the rest of the costume simply painted on, and the few Green Lantern comic books I’ve read have never had it looked like that. Sure, every superhero has highly-defined muscles that are clearly seen through the fabric, but we couldn’t see their abs flexing as they breathed.
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