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| Me after the film outside the Cinerama… Yes, I’m aware I look like a fat, gay Princess Leia. Photo by Christopher Strangeways. |
I wanted to see it, and there wasn’t anything on TV and I knew the cinema wouldn’t be packed, so my brother and I went to see “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I” on Monday night. The plan was to take the bus, but the buses weren’t really functioning with much accuracy (all the #10’s were stuck on Pine Street traffic…we passed about 4 of them) so we walked from 15th and John down Pine Street to the Cinerama. (Didn’t fall on my butt but came close about half a dozen times…) We got there in the nick of time for the 7pm show and settled in with the popcorn and the trailers started and…there was sound but no picture.
Lovely. We walked two miles in a blizzard only to be thwarted by technology.
But, the happy little tech nerds at Cinerama got the problem fixed and the trailers started again and there was beautiful breathtaking digital imagery in front of us touting the new “Green Lantern” movie and….there was no sound this time.
But, someone in the booth must have kicked something, (or, maybe just turned on the volume) and the sound came on and we were off and running!
How was it?
OK. It’s a weird film, since they split the last book into two films (Part 2 is due in July 2011) and the movie is a little pokey at times…you want them to just GET ON WITH IT! And, it’s weird NOT going to, or seeing Hogwarts AT ALL in this movie…we get a scene of the students on the train GOING to Hogwarts but we never actually see the school and this is the first “Harry Potter” film without Maggie Smith’s Minerva in it, so that’s weird, too. Not to mention we only get a couple glimpses of the dead Dumbledore, and only brief moments with Hagrid and Snape so it’s so very different from the previous films in the series. It was a bit off-putting to not be surrounded by the familiar trappings of a “Harry Potter” film. (Yes, yes…I read the book, but you don’t notice it so much when reading it. When it’s up on the big screen, it becomes very clear that Harry, Hermione and Ron carry this film all by themselves without the usual support and huge cast of supporting characters.)
Stuff I didn’t like: the wedding scene seemed rushed and the long sequence at the Ministry of Magic was a bit anti-climatic….it doesn’t help that the three main characters are of course DISGUISED as characters we’ve never seen before. And, we didn’t get enough of the wonderfully awful Dolores Umbridge; would have liked more outraged reaction shots from her just because I love/hate the character and the actress, Imelda Staunton. And, the costumes this time around were sort of awful and too “costume-y” for the wizard/witch characters…far too much like crap you’d rent from a cheap Halloween costume rental place. The photography is a bit weird at times too, because they were going to release it in 3-D at one point and they didn’t have enough time to do it well, so they dropped it, but the obvious shots meant to be in 3-D are still there and they are a bit distracting at times.
Stuff I liked: Hermione, at the very beginning, in a scene that happens “off page” in the book; I won’t spoil it but it’s very bittersweet. Also, Hermione and Harry dancing together in the tent when they’re lonely and depressed. And, the Godric’s Hollow sequence was very well done and quite scary…not very little kid friendly, though. The end of the movie is good; the big finale is at the Draco manor and we get lots of Helena Bonham Carter chewing the scenery as Belletrix. And, I have to admit I got a bit misty eyed when a Certain Character dies at the end of that sequence…the movie ends with his burial at Shell Cottage. It was touching and nicely done.
The nice part about these films has been watching the three main actors grow up and watch them as they improve as actors. None of the three were really very good in the first film but Mr Radcliffe, Ms Watson and Mr Grint have all turned into talented young actors and they do fine jobs in this film handling some pretty complicated emotions. Also, they are all quite attractive which is a bit odd since they were just babies seven movies ago, and now they are sort of “hot” which is a bit creepy when you think about it, but that’s one of the perils of aging…
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| Our man Dan… Photo by Tim Hailand. |
Who’s it for? Uh, Harry Potter fans…anyone NOT a fan or reader of the books or films would be stupid to start with this film.
As for me, I’ve finally thawed out from the trip home, UPHILL, in a bloody Snowpocalypse…but, I’m STILL digesting that damn popcorn…another peril of aging.
– Michael Strangeways
