A Different Side of Harry Potter

Rating: 10/10 (6 February 2015)

The progression of the Harry Potter movies getting steadily darker as they go along, from the charming and innocent Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to the dark and emotionally intense Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is well documented. But Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 goes a step further. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 takes the series outside its Hogwarts comfort zone and on the road. And the Wizarding World is now in the midst of a full blown war. While many of the events that occurred in Half Blood Prince setup the war, now this IS the war. With Harry, Ron and Hermione unable to return to Hogwarts, and, in any case, having to fulfill their mission for Dumbledore, the vast majority of Deathly Hallows Part 1 is set with Harry, Ron and Hermione on the road on the hunt to find and destroy Horcuxes. Thus, this movie is very different from any other in the Harry Potter series. While all the other Harry Potter stories either are school stories or at least have elements of school stories, Deathly Hallows Part 1 has none of that. Instead, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is a more like a quest story. We get to some very familiar and beloved characters in a totally different type of setting and story. This both gives a freshness to a familiar series and makes this movie unique within the series. This is a major positive and adds another element to the Harry Potter series. It was also quite refreshing that this movie had none of that retarded romance garbage that was unfortunately included in the previous three Harry Potter movies. This movie keeps its eye on the ball and rarely strays from what's important to the plot. There aren't really any significant cast or character additions in this volume. Instead it's all about those characters we've loved for a long time. Daniel and Emma are fantastic in the lead roles and Evanna and Ralph Fiennes are splendid in their roles as Luna and Voldemort. And Helena Bonham Carter is delicious in her role as Bellitrix Lestrange. The most notable newbie is Bill Nighty as Scrimgouer. While this character does play some important roles such as giving Harry, Ron, Hermione the bequests Dumbledore had left them that proved important late, this character received too little screen time for his casting to be that important although Nighty does a good job in the role. The pacing is appropriate for the story being told. It is slower paced than its predecessors but the story being told here calls for being told at a slower pace much of the time. The music is good. I still would have preferred John Williams to have scored the entire series but the score here is high quality and appropriate to the film. The very best part of this movie is its awesome special effects and visuals. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is a beautifully shot film with some of the best production quality you will ever find. The cinematography is perfect. The filmmakers threw an 80 yard touchdown pass with their production work on this movie. The movie is reasonably faithful to the book. Most of the main events are included and portrayed faithfully. The main thing that book readers will notice lacking in the film is that there is much less focus on and less of Dumbledore's back story than in the book. I have no problem with this as the movies have always (rightfully) chosen to focus on Harry's story when doing the book to movie transition so issues less about him get less play. A change that I really liked was not using Polyjuice Potion for the Godric's Hollow trip. This made that part of the movie have more meaning and feel more genuine. You can really feel it when Harry says"This is where I was born. I'm not coming back as someone else. The movie is highly successful at bringing out emotions and this is most obvious during Dobby's death. This is a very moving scene. This movie should only be viewed by people in middle school or older as this movie has some violent parts, including the torture parts at Malfoy Manor that are not appropriate to be seen by elementary school children. Dobby's death is also too emotionally intense for those below middle school. Faithfulness to the book: 9 out of 10. Casting and Acting: 10 out of 10. Pacing: 10 out of 10. Music: 8 out of 10. Special effects and visuals: 11 out of 10. Overall: 10 out of 10.