4 reviews

One of the more difficult Potter books to turn into film, the director and editor of this one succeed in making a right pig's ear of it.

The narrative structure is just bizarre. The director doesn't seem to be able to tell a story. Some scenes drag on, whilst others seem to be missing some explanatory dialogue, yet there are parts which seem to be completely out of place and add nothing.

Some of the younger actors are a little out of their depth, whilst Gambon seems to keep having to be reminded that he is supposed to be doing a Richard Harris impersonation, as his Irish lilt comes and goes. Broadbent comes through well, as does Grint who is probably the one child actor who will come out of this series with a solid career ahead of him.

Overall a bit of an anti-climax.

Gremlin 26 Jul 2009

Not having read the book, I went along to the HP franchise with a friend who had and who was keenly anticipating a good night out.

I'm a mini-fan of Harry Potter, so I was surprised to be so disappointed with this one. Harry gets a good kicking at the end, and appears to have lost his spunk entirely; the last few scenes where a famous character meets his end, is again hard to swallow, as Harry looks on and does sod all - what happened to his clever magical abilities which have served him well in dealing with every other nasty situation prior to this?

Apparently this is because of the editing out of several scenes, so I think book fans will by disappointed.

The snogging element and teen lust/love angles did detract from the whimsical whackiness of Hogwarts and what was meant to be going on there - so overall, the film lost out on plot and character for fairly tedious love scenes which weren't very believable in most cases.

Fans will never be disappointed with a HP film, but if you expect less than the others, you might come away a bit more pleased.

Roz 21 Jul 2009

A seriously decent addition to the Potter canon. Yes, there is teen romance but it's all much less cringeworthy than, eg, the infamous disco scenes in number 4. And, to be fair, it's a substantial part of what the books are about. Adult Potter fans, pace Mr Damage (review below), do have to bear in mind that they're gatecrashing a cult aimed at children.

Having said that, the film is appropriately darker and the sense of menace and chaos builds up pleasingly: especially effective are the opening scenes of Voldemort's forces ripping into the muggle world. There are a indeed a couple of daft bits (Ron's broomstick posturing, the Glastonbury-style raising of wands at the end, and as ever, the baddies' lines), but the chemistry between the stars feels solid, the special effects are seamless and exciting and the overall effect is colourful, scary and fun.

So how are the key actors developing? Daniel Radcliffe seems to be finding his feet - much more control of his voice and face than before. He's also allowed a bit of humour, which helps. This performance convinced me (once a waverer) that he could carry the final films. Rupert Grint is excellent, specially in the love potion scene, and, as always, has an ability to convince, express and entertain far beyond his years. Michael Gambon's accent as Dumbledore has settled into a touch of brogue rather than the awful faintly American twang of number 3. And he is of course flawlessly professional in other respects. Tom Felton manages Malfoy but the basic problem of seeming fundamentally a nice boy makes him imperfect in the part. Alan Rickman continues to be superb. Emma Watson continues to be gorgeous in an underweight way. Evanna Lynch continues dreamy and fun as Luna Lovegood. James and Oliver Phelps are spot-on though all too brief as the twins. Helena Bonham Carter, I entirely agree with Brian Damage, is thoroughly overdoing it. Bonnie Wright is getting too tall for Harry. Hero Fiennes-Tiffin and Frank Dillane as the younger and older boy Tom Riddle are absolutely brilliant: pathetic in the first case, urbane in the second, very scary in both.

I thought it was highly satisfactory, which at this stage of the game is a phenomenal achievement. Given that everyone knows what's going to happen in each film, and the sheer number of installments, and the fact that each film has to slightly outdo the one before it without raising the bar too high for the next one or changing the nature of certain special effects too much from the earlier ones, the pressure is possibly unprecedented in the history of film-making. And I think they've lived up to it. It's better than 4 and probably better than 5. All coming together nicely, in my opinion, and boding well for items 7.1 and 7.2.

LovePuppet 20 Jul 2009

It's difficult not to compare this unfavourably with the book. So difficult, in fact, that I'm not even going to try.

It's hard to imagine anyone familiar with the printed version not being disappointed about what has been left out. By the end, Harry knows what horcruxes are, and how many remain, but, crucially, has no ideas about the likely nature or location of the remainder, since many of the "memory" scenes, fleshing out the picture of Voldemort, are simply omitted. I'm curious to see how the next installment will gloss over that.

Also left out are Dumbledore's enchanting conversations with the Dursleys at the beginning (replaced by a spurious scene of Harry flirting in a café), much of the subtlety of the sequence with the luck potion, the whole battle at the end, and all mention of Fenrir Greyback save one small wanted poster.

What's left? Lots of teenage almost-romance, in the foreground and played for laughs, including some OTT phallic posturing with broomsticks, and just enough plot to make sense, with a few minor liberties taken.

It's all perfectly enjoyable, but barely retains any gravitas, any sense of ordinary(ish) folk with their world at stake. The heinous miscasting of Helena Bonham-Carter as Bellatrix doesn't help at all. A truly nasty character is reduced to her familiar gothic cartoon.

To be fair, given the book, I'm not sure how it could have been done better. Audiences seem impatient with the planned division of the last installment, and there was no suitably climactic half-way point at which to send people away. What I'd have liked would have been a four hour film, in two halves, with a thirty minute break for loos, gossip as required, and more popcorn. There would have been room for many more of the nuances of one of Rowling's better crafted works.

But, hey, it's ok. Kinda.

Brian Damage 16 Jul 2009