This is straight out of memory and without being a big Harry Potter fan, without reading the books and only a couple other reviews or watching a marathon of the movies. And since it's already been so widely reviewed, I'll refrain from a synopsis or major spoilers and just offer thoughts.
This is a much darker, more dramatically themed, and more complex Potter film. It goes a long way in uniting and redeeming the general direction the franchise was previously headed. Not that that was necessarily a bad thing, since it's geared towards children. But as far as entertaining an all age audience, I know for a lot of us, the franchise had lost a lot of its luster. Not to mention, the crowd who grew up on Harry Potter are not exactly tweens anymore themselves - so it's an audience appropriate evolution and transition.
You can almost definitely say
The Deathly Hallows appears to be highly influenced by the current "dark" trend in Comic Book Movies, and I do not hesitantly suggest, in particular Christopher Nolan's films. It is so uncanny a resemblance that this time around, the film even uses a score distinctly similar to those of Hans Zimmer's in
The Dark Knight and
Inception. The visual texture of the film is also so dark at times, you can barely tell what's going on; Intentional or not, I didn't find this a drawback, because it suggests mystery, and literally suggests dense evil bearing down. And thematically, things grow dark indeed for the triangle of our beloved youthful wand wielding heroes. There's almost a wholly pre/post apocalyptic, and terrorizing feel to this one, and some genuinely effective jump in your seat thrills.
J.K. Rowling's so called "evil black magic," and patterned historical references, with the direction of David Yates, seem to have finally become fully and outwardly embedded in the visual and sub-textual elements of the film. Which, for me, is a welcomed transition. There has, in my opinion, been so much misdirected discussion, criticism, and all out fanatical raving about Rowling's intention with these elements, it's about time we just cut right through it. And this one successfully does just that.
A large portion of the beginning of the film becomes an all out road/chase movie, which is done rather brilliantly and adds a pretty effective dimension. With undeniable
Lord of The Rings influence, there is a toned down assassination attempt fully reminiscent of
The Godfather, an appropriately leavened scene straight out of
Multiplicity, and a beautifully melancholy Edgar Allen Poe/Brother's Grim-esque animated fairy tale - straight out of
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army - folded within the movie that describes a large portion of the plot; or at least alludes to the upcoming final chapter. As most people know by now, there is an almost nude scene, but it's presented quite artfully and about as tastefully as you could do it. The sub-textual themes this chapter deals in are pain from that of love, loss, and death; and it does so in a highly effective, gentle, and empathetic way. If you have young children who you're afraid of broaching these topics with, this may just be the ticket for you.
Although I'm of the mindset this would probably scare the crap out of very young children similarly to the effect
The Wizard of Oz usually has, but say ten and up; they will probably love every second of it.
This time around, to my pleasant surprise, it's actually a highly thought provoking, and fast paced dramatic adventure. It's a complex and thought provoking film - pulling from many genres; worthy of more than just the typical one viewing, as opposed to the usual visit to magical mischief romper room.
Performances:
There are more characters in this that any of the others, and many of the usual standouts don't get enough time to do much character work, but you know what? This is not a
Spiderman 3, in that it actually managed to balance all of the smaller cameos, with that of our triptych of heroes. So I'll just say:
The kids have grown up and they all three give their best performances yet.
Absolute standouts:
Emma Watson
Hermione Granger has grown into a beautiful, poised young woman, and gives a methodical, and outstanding performance. From my gauge she gets the most screen time, next to Potter himself, and pays it off. This is the one who I think we can safely say will go on to have a successful acting career.
Rupert Grint
Ron Weasely also seems to be developing into a promising performer, with his endearing goofy comedic performance that does go a lot darker and display more range in this one.
Bill Nighey
Rufus Scrimgeour on the villainous side, Nighey gets a showcase, and as usual adds something great in his casting.
Ralph Fiennes
The one who's name shall not be spoken he finally gets sort of scary this time around, and while he's barely there it comes in fast spells.
As you'd expect, Alan Rickman, Jason Isaacs, and Brendan Gleeson offer their usual credibility; and Helena Bonham Carter reprises her absolutely maniacal lunatic of a character Bellatrix Lastrange with a high level of performance.
Dobby is brought back this time with the touchingly life like characteristics at a level of that of the
Toy Story movies, and
Wall-e.
CG/cinematography: To reiterate, it's dark - really dark. Lots of flying, smoke/liquid warping effects, teleportation, some really fun quirky magic toys/traps, and huge crazy fast snakes. All very seamless as we've come to expect; although this time, it's more appropriately placed and not overdone. The real magic comes in the character work and performances of the actors, and the bleak, apocalyptic background settings. It's pretty much tasteful and stunning this time around, and the fluidly, perfectly animated and voiced
Dobby is worthy of a second mention.
If you've never seen a
Harry Potter movie, and you don't care to see any of the others, this is the one to see. It probably will make the other ones worth watching again, just for the whole of the experience, but we'll have to wait for
Part II, and this DVD for that.
Obviously, I highly recommend
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. If you have the extra change, I'd actually recommend seeing it twice. I went with a friend, Grant (whom I promised to mention here); and we two grown adult males both liked it so much, we agreed it's worth watching twice. Take the whole family, aside from tiny kids. Trust me, finally... a great
Harry Potter movie.
4.0 out of 5 stars note: I will be introducing a bit of a souped up rating system on the next review