So it's been a long break between my posting. Exams, interviews, parties, holidays; all of the above have gone and past, except for the last which is thankfully still going. I'll have a brief overview of all of it later. What I want to talk about is.. HARRY POTTER!
First and foremost, in order to give a proper review for this movie, it is ASSUMED and critical that you have read the book. If you have not, then you will find the movie rubbish and have no idea what's going on at all.
Before we get to the movie...
Turning novels into books are always difficult. In the handful of such movies I've seen, I can barely think of any that have done a good job. I believe that these movies only have one purpose: bringing the book alive into imagery with all it's environments, characters and the emotional attachment readers associate with them. This is very dangerous, as a person's unique imagination as they read is far better than a director's vision of a cinematic production.
I would like these movies to simply guide you through the important parts of the plot, bringing the more iconic places alive as beautifully as possible, and having the characters' emit their personalities. So as you sit there watching it, you're drawn back into the story, remembering the adventure as you read it. The movie should definitely make you want to go read the book again after seeing it.
As a vivid Harry Potter reader since grade 4, I have read the books many times and know the plot quite well. That being said, most of the first four movies succeed quite well in turning the novels into films. The last three movies however, have had more difficult jobs, as the plots become more intense, complicated and longer. Breaking up the last book into two parts sounded like a good idea, as this would allow more detail that those last three movies lacked.
The movie (as none of my readers that I know of are HP fans (except for hong), there will be spoilers)
The plot of this book is very complicated, as it ties up a lot of loose ends of the whole series. The way some of it was communicated through the book is very hard to put on screen, such as Dumbledore's past which was pages and pages of a newspaper extract in the book. So hard, that even I had a hard time keeping track of the plot in the movie. There were flashbacks that probably made no sense to a lot of people out there. But as I've said, the movie is for Harry Potter fans, so most would've been OK. I was glad to see that most of the plot was the same as the story, with minor changes.
The plot of this book is very complicated, as it ties up a lot of loose ends of the whole series. The way some of it was communicated through the book is very hard to put on screen, such as Dumbledore's past which was pages and pages of a newspaper extract in the book. So hard, that even I had a hard time keeping track of the plot in the movie. There were flashbacks that probably made no sense to a lot of people out there. But as I've said, the movie is for Harry Potter fans, so most would've been OK. I was glad to see that most of the plot was the same as the story, with minor changes.
However, the actual movie wasn't executed very well. For starters, it was quite dull. Granted, there are not many action scenes in the first half of the book, but there were scenes which could've included much more special effects and action. I was especially disappointed with the Lovegood's house, which just ended up with a black shadows blowing up a house. People are correct in saying that they just walk around a lot - it doesn't even feel like the quest to kill Voldemort. It felt like camping in the woods, running away from people to kill us.
In fact, there were many scenes in which I felt had large potential to draw out emotion from the audience, but just wasn't. Rupert Grint(?) did the best job in keeping laughs through out most of the movie, but other than that I can't see why Hong was crying in the movie. Hermoine erasing her parents' memories could've been acted out much better with some tears, some actual memory flashes disappearing or something rather. Mad eye dying. Hedwig dying!? (c'mon that was so sad, but it was dealt so flippantly) Harry at his parents' grave and the destroyed house. Dobby dying was almost done so well, until (I thought) Daniel Radcliff's acting ruined it.
The Three Brother's story was indeed animated well. But it was an animation, so I don't give it any real credit as part of the movie. And as with the last Harry Potter scene, I cringe at all the pointless stuff they put in. Ginny needing her dress zipped up? Harry's dance with Hermione? None of that is needed to convey anything to the audience and just furthers frustrates me.
In conclusion, it was a weak movie. I am disappointed (but not by heaps) both as part of the audience and as a Harry Potter fan. And sadly, I can't help to think that the 2nd part won't be much better. Thanks to Sharlina for coming to watch it with me!
teoh,