Enjoy It While It Lasts
Project 365 here 365Pieces
Dec 22nd, 2010 @ 2:39 am
These Are Dark Times
Once again, apologies for the incessant film posting. I want to get them out of the way, however, so that I can begin my best of 2010 blog posts. I don’t want to have my like favourite songs post followed by a post on some film I saw months ago. Just go with it. Now, without further ado I give you my Deathly Hallows post!
So here I am, a whole month after my second viewing of it (I have seen it thrice so I am happy), blogging about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. I don’t know what took me so long. Well I do. Laziness. But I’m (almost!) over that hurdle now. Pity they’re all film-related though… Ok I am rambling. Here goes.
As a massive Harry Potter fan I can’t review this film neutrally. I love everything Harry Potter and nothing anyone ever says will change that. The films too. Their quality varies from film to film what with the changing directors but I will love them no matter what. Even Order of the Phoenix has grown on me. Also, everyone knows that since like August seeing Deathly Hallows has been the thing I’ve been looking forward to most about the rest of this year. Fuck birthdays and Junior Cert results, I was dreaming of DH. So it’s kind of understandable that I would jizz about it in the end.
With Deathly Hallows the series has reached a high point. It has some of the best acting yet from the Golden Trio, one of the best scores to date, the usual A+ production design and some of the grittiest, most interesting events in the series. Harry Potter has finally done what it has threatened to do since (and really should have done after) Prisoner of Azkaban: come of age. Yes, Half-Blood Prince was good and was quite ~dark, but it focused far too much on the budding relationships aspect of the film which eventually undermined the actual story it had to tell. However, I am going off point. I’m not saying that this series has suddenly become all ~adult, but this movie marks a definite shift in theme and it can stand alongside any drama film and hold its own.
Basically, Deathly Hallows is the best film in the series so far. With every other film in the series there are numerous things that I can pick at and which piss me off but with this film I can find barely anything. The only thing holding it back is the acting. Now like I said earlier, it has some of the best acting from the main three yet, but that still isn’t saying much. Daniel Radcliffe is appalling at best in the other films but he is surprisingly bearable in this film as the hero. Emma Watson shows she’s more than a pretty face, but barely. She struggles with some of the more confrontational dialogue and does the scriptwriter a disservice. Rupert Grint plays Ron with his usual mix of enthusiasm and bewilderment and manages to add some depth to an often one-dimensional character. Like I said: best acting yet, but that’s not saying much.
That was really my only problem with the film. Everything else is top class. I could go on and on and on about each aspect of the film (you know I could) but I know a lot of you aren’t interested. I’ll make it quick so; Alexandre Desplat’s score is amazing. Definitely worth downloading. It’s a complete contrast to any of the music from the other films which just helps it to stand out even more. Desplat is emerging as arguably the best mainstream film composer today (The Ghost, Fantastic Mr. Fox, A Prophet) and he just solidifies his status with this, his most high-profile film score yet.
They were faithful to the book which is always good. Of course, splitting the film into two parts, it would always have been a more faithful adaptation but I don’t think I could have asked for a better filmed version of the (first 400 pages of the) book. It keeps everything that’s great about the books and largely avoids any of the bad things (the monotony of the camping). The scenes from the early half of the film which weren’t in the book are also some of the best in the series ever. For a film that centres on three characters sat in a tent, the director managed to create something exciting and frantic.
As well as this, DHPt1 avoids the other films’ idea of cinematography i.e “Let’s stick a different colour filter over the film than what we had in the last one! Bitches love filters!”. OotP was blue, H-BP was green and grey. DHPt1, however, is a cluster-fuck of visual delight. The purples of the Ministry and the Wedding, the bright autums landscapes as they travel, the drained interior of Malfoy Manor and the snowy shots scene in Godric’s Hollow. So many contrasting colours, all of which work so well together in their various scenes.
It is evidently the most well made in the series, and as I mention earlier, it has some of the best scenes of the entire series. Scrimgeour’s speech at the very beginning was a great idea; setting the scene of the film and also referencing various speeches made in anticipation of/during WWII (as well as giving us one of the most referenced lines of the year “These are dark times there is no denying it!”. This, for me anyway, was the best, most subtle way of using allegory in the film. Surely I’m not the only one who though “WHEN MUGGLES ATTACK” and “MUDBLOODS AND THE DANGERS THEY POSE TO A PEACEFUL PUREBLOOD SOCIETY” were a tad heavy-handed? No matter, I still enjoyed them.
The montage of the Trio preparing themselves for what faces them near the beginning was also beautifully done. The Hermione-Parents scene literally had me dry sobbing from the offset. Such a wondeful touch. Also the Death Eater meeting scene with Charity Burbage was better executed on screen than it was on paper. I never found the film-Voldemort scary, but I was terrified during this scene.
I’m doing what I said I wouldn’t do; go into every little detail of why I liked it. Believe me, there is so much more. Like how the audience I saw it with first were the best people on the planet ever and I am so upset that I won’t see Part 2 with the same people. And Dobby’s death? Dear Dark Lord I couldn’t even. The film ended shortly after this and I was just speechless. Melodramatic? Sure. Effective? I HAD WATERY EYES.
Yes, I haven’t gone into the actual story of the film, but it’s Harry Potter. Who the fuck are you if you don’t know what’s going on? It’s the Deathly Hallows for fuck sake!
