Characters out of character

Rating: 1/10 (25 November 2010)

This movie attempts to show the 7th installment of the Harry Potter series in a solemn and depressing view. I watched the movie yesterday with friends, feeling that the 6th movie was reasonably good in telling the story faithfully in mood and conversation. The 7th movie part 1 leaned too heavily on the "dark and depressed theme". It fails to capture many of the other moods in the first half of the book--any attempts at humour are quite half hearted and don't bring out the flavour of interaction between the characters in the book(happiness and some liveliness even when Ron returned--all very sluggish and lifeless and even the anger from Hermione was half- hearted). There are also unnecessary scenes--most prominent is the dancing between Harry and Hermione--it contributed little to the plot. Furthermore the interaction between the characters is stiff(supposedly "depressed" but failed to integrate with character personality). In addition, some scenes are dragged out and conversation is sparse and when there is conversation it is brief and hurried. I suspect, to give the illusion that the story is progressing at a normal pace, character interaction appears slow but changing between scenes is rapid and each scene is short. The 3 main characters have also lost their personalities--although there are some brief attempts at regaining them. I am also appalled at the usage of Dobby to attempt "comic relief" but is totally out of character with the Dobby in the book. I also felt the movie portrayal of Dobby, particularly the lines, to be--no other word for it--cheesy. However, there are some good parts--portrayal of Ron's struggle with the locket is well done, I think and so is the ministry heist. However, the magic is poorly done and Hermione is often sporting a different set of incredibly fashionable wear every scene. The movie gives the feeling of having many shots taken but edited and cut, then strung together by blending blackouts. I really wanted to enjoy the movie but am very let down.