In Cinemas: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two

He’s after you, Mr. Potter. You really don’t stand a chance.

It’s strange coming to review a film that’s been out for nearly a month and feeling as if most of the discussion about it has already happened, as if you’re here adding your own thoughts and feelings to a conversation that died down a while ago. The nature of film conversation on the internet means that there’s a surge of interest pre-release and almost immediately that interest dissipates once it’s reached theatres. So if you’ve read most of what I’m going to write already, I apologise, but Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two is a confident, engaging and emphatic end to a very consistent franchise.

Picking up where Deathly Hallows Part One ended, Harry, Ron and Hermione are on the search for the last remaining Horcruxes (parts of Voldemort’s soul which he sealed in objects to attain immortality) finding and destroying these objects will allow them to defeat Voldemort once and for all. Knowledge of the Part One would be helpful since Part Two doesn’t offering the uninitiated a “previously on” that many may require in order to decipher what’s happening. If Part One acted as the slow build-up then Part Two is the third act climax that gives the series the send-off it deserves.

Most of the film revolves around the Siege of Hogwarts, a visually fantastic spectacle involving nearly everyone who’s appeared in franchise. It’s frantic, explosive and the sense that this wizarding world is finally clashing in a meaningful way is apparent as explosions rock the school and characters we’ve known since the very start meet their fates. It’s suitably dramatic and climatic with a finality that series up till now has always been lacking. It’s epic but doesn’t lose sight of its  characters, with some like Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis) and McGonagall (Maggie Smith) shining in and amongst the rubble of Hogwarts.

What disappoints is that some of the fringe characters never get their due with deaths and injuries happening off-screen. Perhaps it adds to the surprise and shock of the moment but it also takes something away that I can’t quite find the words to explain. It’s like these deaths are a footnote to the central narrative, not incidental but an attempt to wring an emotional reaction that could have been far stronger had we seen them fall in battle. I never particularly liked how Rowling handled specific deaths in the book and I still don’t like how Yates handles them here. On death in particular seems far, far too easy considering her (cough, Bellatrix, cough) reputation.

Still all the actors, even Radcliffe, Watson and Grint handle the material at hand with aplomb with their best performances in the series. Radcliffe especially looks more confident and assured when he’s not throwing tantrums or generally looking like he’s a little confused. Because of its climatic end, everyone has a purpose that drives the film and the performances in it, towards its emotional resolution.

Even the epilogue, replete with some odd makeup (Draco Malfoy, with a goatee?) had me feeling a little sad. It really is the end. A fitting send-off then, to an enduring franchise.

8/10

Poster Roundup – Straw Dogs, Harry Potter and John Carter

The week’s not over but posters have been coming in at least one a day. Featured posters are for the Straw Dogs remake, Harry Potter (which I doubt will be the final posters, consdiering how many they’ve been doing over the last few weeks) and John Carter, which isn’t on my cinematic radar yet.

Starting with Straw Dogs, it’s a film directed by Rod Lurie (2008′s Nothing But the Truth starring Kate Beckinsale) and co written by Lurie and David Zelag Goodman. The latter name I’ve never heard of and a quick search in IMDb shows why. The last script he wrote was in 2003 and he was a more prolific writer in the Sixties and Seventies, writing Logan’s Run and, funnily enough, the original Straw Dogs with Dustin Hoffman in the role now being played by James Marsden. The film’s a remake and so is the poster but will the film as good (or as controversial) as the 1971 film? UK audiences will find out the 28th October.

Warner Bros must have told their marketing department they were having some sort of firesale as they have dumped a huge amount of posters online for the last film in the Harry Potter series, The Deathly Hallows Part 2. Excited by these posters? Warner Bros certainly want you to be.

Lastly it’s the John Carter poster and along with the name it’s a rather minimilist approach to poster design (I feel). With just Taylor Kitsch’s face and, with what I’m assuming will be the John Carter insignia, it’s a little quiet and not the big explosive reveal that perhaps we were expecting from Disney. It certainly gives no indication of what the film will be like or who else is in it. Then again it’s a teaser poster but exactly what it’s teasing I’m not sure of. Having never read the Burrough’s novels, I have no idea what to expect and right now this project feels about as alien to me as any of the aliens Carter will face. I expected just a little more but this offers very little to those unitiated in the world Burrough’s created.

Directed by Andrew Stanton (Wall-e) and starring Willem Dafoe, Lyn Collins, Mark Strong, James Purefoy, Thomas Haden Church, Dominic West, Samantha Morton and Ciaran Hinds, it has a more than decent cast. John Carter is out on 9th of March in the UK and not the confusing US date on the poster which is the same date as the UK, just formatted differently (3.9.12)

 

Trailer Watch: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2

Hmmmm….

I like Harry Potter although I wouldn’t say I was a devoted fan. Growing up on the earlier books (1-4) I was enthralled by the adventures of the “boy wizard”. Growing older I disconnected with it and having finished the books last year I can’t say I unequivocally love the books or the films (despite owning  most of the books and a few of the fils) but I respect them enough and for a series that’s about to head into its eighth film it has ben fantastically consistent (you’d struggle to find trilogies as strong/consistent as this series).

The trailer is suitably epic, full of dazzling images and lots of destruction (although Voldemort screams way too much in it) but I can’t get interested in it. I know how its going to end so this trailer leaves me deflated and not excited. I think it’s going to be good but as we’re heading into the climax I’m feeling its all a bit anticlimactic. Perhaps seeing it on the big screen will change my mind and get me emotionally invested in it as I’ve never seen a Harry Potter film in the cinema. This will be the last time (unless they release the others) so I better make it count. Trailer and screenshots (Apple Itunes below). Apologies as I can’t remove those watermarks from the screenshots, I don’t have Photoshop