At the moment Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One is the lowest rated Potter movie on Rotten Tomatoes, and has gotten a poor reception from some of the top critics across the globe. Unfortunately for these self-satisfied critics who like nothing more than to hear the sound of their own bickering this movie wasn't made for them. This movie was made for the millions of Harry Potter fans who have reread the books and rewatched the movies dozens of times and who were ready to see the epic story of their hero come to an end. For them this movie is a masterpiece and that is why Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One is the best we've seen from the Potter Franchise to date.
The movie takes more lines verbatim from the book than any of its predecessors. Book fans will be smiling throughout as their favourite line gets its air time. And for the first time in Potter movie history people will not be leaving the theatre bitching about what wasn't in the movie. The decision to split the movie finally gave the filmmakers enough time to do the book justice. The slower moving pace of the movie may bore some, but really allows the characters to get their final payoff.
And of course these characters were the highlight of the film. Dan Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson have developed into three of the best young actors of our generation. Our favourite trio really flex their acting muscle during the fight between Harry and Ron, Harry and Hermione's walk through Godric's Hollow, and Hermione 's torture scene. For the first time we are away from Hogwarts and they cannot rely on the adult actors to pick up the slack, but they don't miss the likes of Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane one bit.
Director, David Yates, took a much more "artsy" approach to this film than they've had in the past making for some quite fantastic visuals. The animated "Tale of the Three Brothers" scene is beautifully done and really keeps you captivated throughout quite a long story which yet again is taken almost directly from the book. The panning scenery shots we see in this film add another layer of depth to this visual masterpiece.
Part One of the finale certainly does not pull any punches in the violence department between Bathilda's attack, Ron's splinching and the previously mentioned Hermionie torture scene. All of this leaves us wondering what surprises we could be in for during the much gorier and violent Part Two of the movie.
I couldn't finish this review without mentioning what is undoubtedly the saddest scene in a Harry Potter movie to date. If Dobby's death at the end doesn't have you tearing up you're probably Lord Voldemort... or at least had your soul ripped apart a few times.
Yes the movie leaves you on a hanging point, yes it wasn't 24/7 action, yes it didn't have the charm of the first few. But Deathly Hallows Part One had much more than that and if you're getting hung up on these details go join the critics who are bashing this movie and you can all get your hate on together because for the rest of us this movie is fucking brilliant.
Rating:
S-A-B-R-E +1
True that...this movie was awesome...i have never cried in a movie but dobby's death tore me apart i just simply can't wait for the second part to come.
ReplyDelete79% of the critics are good. It's not a poor reception at all. That makes DH1 the THIRD lowest-rated film of the series, and only 4% below the top 3. Also, most of the negative reviews are just complaining about the camping scenes and neglect the other aspects.
ReplyDelete^ When I wrote the review it was the lowest rated of the Potter films on Rotten Tomatoes, since then there have been more positive reviews bumping it up to 79%.
ReplyDeleteEspecially when you look at the top critics section on Rotten Tomatoes it is even lower. Point is this movie was not loved by critics like some of the past movies (Prisoner of Azkaban) have been.
I don't understand why the critics didn't like it very much. It was easily the best of the series. I missed some things, like "Here lies Dobby, a free elf", Kreacher's tale, and the Harry/Dudley scene, but it was still the best by far, and the closest to the books since Columbus directed.
ReplyDeleteIt was great to experience a script that did not attempt to pander to non-fans. The plots are so complex that previously they had been relying on banal explanatory dialogue to provide background for viewers ignorant of the preceding story lines. Finally, a film that assumed all viewers were up to date and knew the characters, and launched right into the action.
ReplyDeleteThere's no reason to bash critics as "self important" simply because they don't like a film that you DO. People can legitimately dislike something.
ReplyDeleteI'm a potter fan, I've read all the books and for me it's the worst of the movies to the date. The movie is faithfull to the book, but it's plotted like a bunch of short films tied together. The forest scenes where really, really boring and completely drop the pace. One movie to destroy just one Horcrux maybe it's too few material to work with.
ReplyDeletei loved the way they timidly intorduced Ron's affection for Hermione, but i really didnt like the added in scene where Harry and Hermione were dancing in the tent, and i knew that potter novices would get the wrong idea about their relationship. the favourite scene for me was the scene towards the beginning; the cafe attack scene. it was the scene that was most true to the book and i really liked the way they didn't have any music to accompany the fight for some reason!
ReplyDeletei loved the tale of the three brothers scene.
ReplyDeletei cried twice! loved the malfoy manor, but lucius looked weird. xenophilius was all wrong in my opinion.
a film that has to live up to alot can be incredibly hard to get right, especially ones which have a huge story plot which holds alot of information. they did a very good job on this film, and making the scenes in the tent interesting was hard! i also loved ron and hermione's little tid bits of relationship coming through. they didnt really express much with Harry and Ginny though.
ReplyDeletethe elves made me laugh a lot, and Dobby seems even more adorable than before. apparently, you get to see Ron and hermione get together more in the next film, which should happen anyway, because they have that well-awaited allmighty snog. it'll p*** me off if they don't do it right though. i wasnt too happy with the kiss between Harry and Ginny in the last film either, because everyone was supposed to see and they were supposed to have a relationship! i just hope that they introduce the whole idea of relationships between families and friends more, especially in the battle of Hogwarts
yeah. what they said.
ReplyDelete