to go, to drift, to arrive

Rating: Null/10 (23 August 2011)

This was an interesting series of film to follow. I don't share any of the excitement that brought hard core fans of the books into these films for the last 10 years. I never read any complete book, although i did have a very close contact with some very freak fans of the series, so i know what their motivations are. The discussion of these harder fans moves around how each knew film was or not able to grasp all the contents of the book, and produce the image(s) that the book suggested to each reader. Or was it acceptable to leave certain elements of the story that a film Always has to leave behind. I never cared about those arguments, because the films create a universe of their own, slightly close to the one in the books, which can even coincide at some moment, but still autonomous. So in a way, the books are to the films, as Hogwarts is to the real world In the films. Rooted in it, but no It.
What kept me coming to the franchise was the fairly interesting idea of seeing how these films would follow a story than span over 7 years, using the same (teenager) actors, that would grow up with their characters. The main interesting idea was this: the films grow as the characters in it, as the actors that represent those characters And as the target public grows with them. We see the films mature in content, we see the actors get older, we see the fabric of the cinematic world change before our eyes. That was an interesting path, mapped into my own evolution as a viewer in the last 8 years (when i started to watch the films). This was not a linear obstacle free course. The owners of the franchise messed up a lot in the way, but they were trying something never done for those matters, so we'll have to give them a break.
So they chose Columbus for the first 2, a master of children's films, someone whose mind specifically works to understand how children's heads function, visually, and narratively. Both his films had a theme, visual, cinematic. Than the third one, probably the best, added notions of time and space as one, and called to do it a master in that cinematic kingdom, Cuarón, the best director to work on this franchise. Azkaban was a maturing film, evolved like a teenager would, and added cinematic deepness into the seducing yet flat world of the first 2. Cuarón gave us the best Hogwarts and the best cinematic use of the story. The dramatic shift came after that one. Numbers 4 and 5 were absolute disasters, suffering from the same mistakes that any bad teenager movie suffers, pretending to be special and appealing to the uniqueness of each one's personality while being itself a boring copy paste sub product. This was bad, i was really sorry that Yates wouldn't follow the leads of the first 3 films, he broke a chain. But he redeemed himself in the 6th installment, and he did that rooting once again the series on space. Hogwarts again, but with a new vision. That was a fascinating film which, coupled with Azkaban, gives us 2 great visions of cinematic space. After that the story required that the next film would be disembodied, and it was. I talked about that one elsewhere. It was an interesting move, though not specially powerful in the end.
And we get to this film. As it was expected, this would be merely a conclusion. It had to be grand, it had to have fireworks, flashy scenes, dramatic kills, suffering, pain, redemption. It had a battle, central to the film, where all the forces collide, all the tensions are released, all the schemes come to an end. It's modeled after the third lord of the rings, and it doesn't bring much to the table, a mere conclusion, certainly required, but not so much interesting.
One thing is interesting though. We have a great number of loose ends that are tied up in this film. Dumbledore's brother, Snape's past, Harry's "half death". How each of this knots is tied up to the larger narrative uses interesting narrative cinematic devices. Dumbledore whose image is reflected in a piece of mirror Harry carries with him. Snape through the pensatorium, which basically creates a film inside Harry's head. And Harry's death, although lame on the way the set has been taken care, which slides two characters (one of them already dead) into a 3rd abstraction, over the abstraction which is Hogwarts and the magical world, in relation to the "real" non magical world of the film, in relation to our real world as viewers. I'm sorry that the film had to spend so much time in battles and grandeur to allow itself to explore these devices.
I wouldn't call it essential nor even close. But i won't harm to spend to spend time with this franchise, and watch it as a whole, in its context.
My opinion: 3/5 (for this film)
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