HP7.5 - definitely the last one.
By Jack Leahy –
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2
Release Date: 15th July 2011
Running time: 2 hours (without advertisements)
Before I get into this, it is necessary to clarify my position; while I read all of the books within a week of release, queued at midnight for some and have seen all the films, I am no means a Potter nut who, like some of my friends, owns anything that even resembles a costume or a stuffed owl.
That said, you don’t need to be a Potter-nut to appreciate the occasion. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was released in 1997, when our generation were still in the earlier stages of our primary education. The books ended in 2007, but our tears were restrained by the promise of more films. Then, when it looked like there would only be one more film to go, JK Rowling made the entirely non-commercial decision to split the final film into two separate parts and prolong Harry’s involvement in our lives. In that sense, the ‘end-of-an-era’ feeling surrounding this film almost renders the act of reviewing redundant, as pretty much everyone who has followed Harry’s journey since the release of the first book will come to see the final installment regardless of critical opinion, and probably more than once.
But I said ‘almost redundant’, so on we go, and as always I’ll go through the good, followed by the not so good. On arrival at Cineworld Parnell Street for the specially arranged press preview, I was handed a pair of 3-D glasses and wished an enjoyable morning. My first thought was ‘great, 3-D; the unmistakable hallmark of big-budget mediocrity’, guffawing as I did at my quick-fire turn-of-phrase. However, I was quickly corrected, as the quality of the 3-D was, for the most part, excellent throughout, and the special effects were striking without venturing over the top. Such is the trend with most 3-D films that the 2-D version is never that different, but I can safely say that an experience in any other number of dimensions would have been a lesser one.
What’s clear from the beginning is that this is the darkest installment of the series, in both tone and subject matter. The opening scene depicts a military-like procession into a grey Hogwarts, in marked contrast to the vibrant scenes of revelry in the colourful dining-hall of the previous films. As always, the film is a delicate – but ultimately successful – balance between high-drama scenes, punctuating banter, and poignancy, but because it’s the last film, there is a more direct experience of death and mourning throughout. The balance between humour and seriousness is well-reached to afford comic relief in an otherwise intense film; in one of the early scenes, we see Hermione (Emma Watson) attempt to manage Bellatrix LeStrange’s awkward heels across the floor of a silent yet industrious Gringott’s, before barely ten minutes later we have the extraordinary scene of Lord Voldemort walking bloody- and bare-footed across the same floor, wading through dead bodies while whispering in Parseltongue.
Another first achieved by this film is the genuine fear that Harry’s life is in danger. I put this to some other reviewers after the screening, all of whom agreed and one of whom added that this was a particularly impressive achievement given that the entire audience knows the script before they see the film. This intimate knowledge, developed over seven books and eight corresponding films, ensures that the relentless plight of the three protagonists Hermione, Ron (Rupert Grint), and Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) only serves to further increase our emotional involvement in the film as we bid them to kill this dragony thing or escape that falling rock.
For all of its high-octane encounters and expensive special effects, however, this film also has to contend with the fact that, for a while at least, the book allows for a period of quasi-existential reflection on Harry’s part as he comes to understand some pretty ground-breaking stuff about his own life and purpose. To be fair, this 20-minute period of realisation, absorption, reflection, and reaction is not rushed, and is afforded the crucial plot role it serves in the book as opposed to, as previous films have done with book content, being used as a means to a cinematic end. Nor does the barnstorming exposition come to a thundering halt to make way for the sentimental; the timing of this particular shift is excellent.
The Harry Potter film series has never been famous for the acting ability on display, and as a result the genuine talents involved often go unnoticed. In particular, the charming Dame Maggie Smith excels in her limited role as benevolent Professor McGonnagle (‘His name is Voldemort. You might as well use it, he’s going to try and kill you anyway!’), and Alan Rickman once again brought the potent combination of extraordinary eloquence and unadorned malice to the role of Professor Snape. Of the protagonists, the most impressive is Grint, and I’m not just siding with the fellow ginger. In a film that focuses almost exclusively on its title character and sidelines his companions, Grint manages to maintain the deceptively wise and charming demeanour of Ron’s first seven films, with well-delivered ‘that’s unfortunate’s and ‘that doesn’t sound good’s at some of the more bloody and dark moments.
A lot of higher-ranking critics with whom I shared Screen 14 of Cineworld this morning came out talking only of the negatives, of which there were admittedly a few about this film. That does not change the fact that this is, in essence, a very good work. Such is my medium that I have as much space as I want to tell you about any number of scenes that impressed me for their intense and genuine-feeling emotional quality, small features that made for cinematic excellence (watch for the second scene with Neville Longbottom defending the bridge – fantastic stuff), well-timed humour and plain, unadulterated drama that makes Philosopher’s Stone‘s ‘contains mild peril’ look like a pleasant cream tea on College Park. But, despite the fact that 9.9 of every 10 of you who read this review will have read the books, I have to leave some things to the film itself.
But, as I say, there were a few negatives that need citing. As the heading of this article declares, the film is about two hours long. Its problem is sustenance, and the final fifteen minutes seem to lose the level-headed direction and containment of the previous 105. What could be a great scene in the enchanted forest as Harry is surrounded by his loved ones is ruined by a directorial insistence on milking the poignancy for all that it’s worth, its eventual end a minute or two overdue. That said, there are no token homecoming celebrations as before.
One particular scene milks the audience’s involvement to the point of shamelessness. Type ‘heaven’ into Google Images, and there you see the kind of borderline offensive stereotyping to which the director resorts for the scene in question, with Albus Dumbledore’s words sounding more appropriate for one of those cheesy voiceovers Morgan Freeman does now that he doesn’t look enough like Kofi Anan anymore. As before, I’ll leave to the cinema. But it really annoyed me.
I haven’t said much about Emma Watson’s performance, purely because there is nothing of which to write. A key figure until this point and Harry’s high-intelligence ‘Jimminy Cricket’, Hermione plays almost no part in the film other than shifting a ginger in what is a complete and disappointing character change from the previous seven films. Of course, the diminishing importance of omnipresent counsel could point to Harry’s maturing as a wizard, but I have a feeling that a few Hermione fans will leave disappointed and a little surprised at her lack of involvement.
Radcliffe, the main man, was decent if a little unspectacular. I mean, the guy’s not a great actor and performed well within his limitations. His biggest problem, which is also that of Grint and Watson, is that he cannot communicate in anything but big lines, of which there are many in this film. Otherwise, he seems unnatural and wooden, and of the three is the least believable when he attempts to conduct ‘normal’ conversation, if such a thing exists for a horcrux-chasing, lightning-scarred wizard. Outside of the Harry Potter franchise, he may struggle; as he has gotten older, he has made it harder for the audience to love him as a hero in the literary sense, only lovable when part of the magnificent threesome whose importance as a unit was undermined by this film.
Finally, the ending. Even if you’ve read it, you don’t want to know that much about it, but suffice to say ‘come on, I’ve seen less cheese in a Gorgonzola factory, when did that ever feel like a good idea?’. This is even worse when preceded by three or four too many dramatic slow-motion shots of a wizarding scramble. Come on, even Harry Potter can’t get away with that.
Those few negatives cannot undermine the overall strength of the film, however. Action-packed, cinematically sound, balanced and entertaining, Potter fans won’t be disappointed.
Verdict: J.K. goes out with a bang: 4/5.
Harry's last ever film is a good 'un
Watch the trailer here and get even more excited!
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt.s 2 Trailer
