Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows - Part 1

by Racheal Rauch

Comments on ‘darkness’ is what I heard from people talking about the new Harry Potter movie. When a movie comes out that I want to see, I try not to hear people’s reviews until I watch. Yet I still managed to pick up that “it was heaps dark”. It’s a film essentially about evil taking over the world, how can that not be dark. Unless you read the first book and then have been under a rock until this film, you can’t really be surprised that the film has gone to the Dark Side, it’s been building up to this over the years.

After I watched and made up my own mind, I hit up other reviewers, good ones like NY Times, The Guardian etc to see what they think, and even they were all raging about the ‘darkness’ of the film, one bringing up a good point, what is ‘dark’ anyways? I really don’t know why this film is coping so much negative talk for being ‘dark’. Yes the colour palette is bleached and they wouldn’t know a rainbow if they smacked into one and yes the colour high point is the evil Dolores in her baby pink dress but the visual dreariness mirrors what the characters are feeling, what they are going through and thus helps us to emotionally connect with them. This, according to Aristotle, is the main thing we get from a story.

Being visually dark is fine. The problem comes when there is no light and shade, our emotions need to be squeezed and released. They take us to 10, drop us to 5, then slowly up and back down. Like on a roller coaster, it’s no fun if it plateaus. HP’s peer in supernatural hysteria, New Moon and Eclipse(which also shared the same composer Alexander Desplat), did not do this. These films are also about the end of the world for a bunch of vamps, wolves and one oh-so-lucky chick that seems to get all the hot guys falling for her. These actors only hit one note – intense. Lesson number one for acting in Twilightis frowning = acting. There where attempts to lighten the mood, when every one’s not fussing over Bella, but it felt like the characters had to hurry up and get back to the job of being distraught.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows gets off to a flying start – literally. I loved the opening sequence with everyone having to leave their families behind, and the owl coming to Harry’s rescue. Who would have thought an owl dying to save you could be so touching. The only part I thought may have been “too dark” was the animation of the Deathly Hallows – with all those skeletons, and talk of death, but I really didn’t care, I just thought it was so well done; I was too busy admiring it.

Just when I was beginning to feel like ¾’s of the film was spent in a tent in the wilderness, and I was thinking someone get that dam tent off screen, Harry tries to cheer Hermione up, he silently takes her hand and they dance. I liked this scene and yes it was a little corny but the only thing which ruined it was a bunch of 12 year olds who thought this was HILARIOUS. I couldn’t help but think if Harry and Hermione became the ultimate power couple, they’d ooowwwwn the world.

Plus this film is way funnier than the Twilight’s. The only joke that springs to mind there, is when Edward takes a stab at Jacob because he mustn’t own a shirt. Like that’s a bad thing. I watched Harry Potter in a full cinema, and everyone was laughing regularly, at all the appropriate moments, unlike the 12 year olds. When Ron isn’t saving the day, or being Hermoine’s White Knight, he’s comedian.

It is highly confusing to the very few people in the movie-watching world who have had no exposure to Harry Potter. It does assume that we’re all walking around with a top notch recall of HP characters. Within the first few minutes, the room is filled with all these people who we are meant to know. I’ve read all the books and seen all the films and even I needed to pause the film and consult a HP encyclopedia. But then some fans would have gotten a kick out of that. When dealing with a series, people are always going to have different degrees of knowledge, so you can either satisfy the know-it-all’s or the rest of us. They chose to go for the hectic Harry Potter fans.

So while many reviewers ripped into it, let’s be honest, recent films which slaughter the box office, don’t usually win over the critics and rarely become an model for film making. Just like Pirates of the Caribbean, Avatar, Spiderman, Lord of The Rings, Twilight stuff, etc, no one expects a film studies course to use HP to teach something. Avatar, would only be a model for its breakthrough technology not for its story telling ability. So cut Harry some slack. These films were made in the first place because the books were so dam popular, the movies would be a gold mine. The quality of the film needs to be between average and high, not the highest.

The figures aren’t in yet, but I reckon this film will have the biggest opening weekend of the year, possibly cracking the top few ever. And just for the record, this is probably a better film, but if I had to pick which one to see, I’d leave Harry for Jacob.

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