My Thoughts On That British Wizard Movie

DISCLAIMER – I’m guessing if you are reading this you’ve either seen the movie or don’t plan on seeing it. If either of these is not the case and you don’t want anything ruined for you don’t read as there will be spoilers. You’ve been warned.

Apparently this whole Harry Potter thing is a pretty big deal, so big that the last movie is in two parts. Does Hollywood know no limits on money making? So after watching it I thought I would give my take of this whole thing.

It should be noted that I don’t consider myself a fan. I’ve never read the books. I have seen all the movies but not in order or with the most excitement. For the most part I’ve found them to be ok. Not amazing but not making me mad which I’m cool with.

I went into this movie expecting more than the previous films. This is the grand finale, think fireworks. The end should be better than the rest of the show. Also the actors are more than likely at their prime in this role considering their time devoted to these characters coupled with the expected maturation of their acting skills. On this note I can’t say I was disappointed.

This half of the final book was greatly driven by the predicaments of the main characters. Gone is the Gandolf like mentor and the familiar halls of Hogwarts. They are on the run…or rather the sit. Much of the middle of the movie is spent sitting around doing not much. I do have to say that considering this fact they did a great job of making you feel on edge. Since I don’t know the end of the book I was not sure of the events that were going to happen unlike many of the people who were watching.

You truly get the feel of people on the run. They are alone, afraid and outnumbered. They don’t know who they can trust and their world is crashing down around them. It’s a frightful time for them and in the entirety of this movie signs of hope seem to be dimming.

It’s a dark movie. Not what you would expect from kids movies but they have shifted that way since a few books back and the whole series is based around the murder of Harry’s parents so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised.

Still…
I found this movie to be a little too much on the dark side. Sure there is some humor and the story is good but the evil is strongly portrayed. At one point early on a women who has been kidnapped and hurt is being held by the bad guys as they chat about stuff. She begs for her life and help from a former coworker only to be silenced permanently and then immediately fed to a giant snake. Now I understand the point here is to show pure evil at its best and I can’t say it the worst thing I’ve ever seen but still in the context of the children’s book movie I was a bit taken back.

To go along with this its seems like they are killing off people left and right throughout the movie and it’s hard to know who is going to make it through to the end. Again these are all valid story techniques just not what I’d expect from this series.

As for the plot…I felt like the story was understandable and well delivered. It is the set up for the ultimate showdown that is about to come. Visuals were impressive as always and it had enough dashes of humor to keep from being down right depressing.

Some people complained it was hard to follow but I didn’t have any trouble understanding the basic premise of what they were trying to accomplish. I needed to be reminded of some names, places and people but it was still understandable to me.

Would I recommend it? If you have not seen the previous films or read the books I would stay away. It won’t really make a whole lot of sense and nobody likes the person in the theater who is clueless. If you are savvy to the story line I’d recommend going.

Interested to see how the whole thing wraps up next July