So is it any good after all?

God help me it’s bad...

John Park

You know the drill: every Harry Potter sequel is “darker” than its predecessors. Now that we’re at the penultimate chapter, things must be getting very gloomy. Dumbledore is dead, Lord Voldemort’s (Ralph Fiennes) power is growing, and the Ministry of Magic has been compromised by those controlled by Voldemort and his merry band of wizards and witches. With nowhere and no one to turn to, the ambitious trio must rely on each other and work together to fight evil.

But don’t let the rather simple summary fool you from just how complicated some of the crucial sub-plots can be. There are so many names, places, prophecies and spells that unless you’ve brushed up on your knowledge of the Harry Potter universe, chances are you will struggle to understand absolutely everything. Harry Potter films have always been criticised for stripping down its original material and keeping the plot too simple. Perhaps the split was to include as much depth as possible. Sounds like a great idea, but too much time is spent meandering, plodding through the muddled plot. Without the split, the 150-minute running time would have worked as a fast-paced, efficient road movie but Yates seems to have saved the best scenes for the very last.

The film jumps from place to place and seems to lose its focus. There is an attempt to create conflict between the three of them, mostly involving Ron’s jealousy towards Harry and Hermione’s close friendship, but since these three have been bound so tight in the previous films the melodramatic fight between Harry and Ron does little to convince the audience of anything drastic happening.

Radcliffe, Grint and Watson have been in these roles for a long time but even they cannot handle this kind of rapid development. By contrast, the vast amount of talent at Yates’ disposal in his costars seems to go to waste. Starring in at least one Harry Potter film seems to be a rite of passage for any British acting legend and once again we get far-too-brief glimpses of outstanding actors making the most of their five-minute screen times.

A convoluted plot and unimpressive leading actors aside, there is much fun to be had in the longest set-up of the franchise. The CGI is impeccable and a couple of scenes will surely blow you away. Shame the rest of the film doesn’t quite live up to that standard but the millions that will inevitably sit through this one should get their pay off by next July, when the real final part is expected to arrive.

Outstanding...

Lucia Podhorska

Before I start, I feel I should admit that I am a die-hard Harry Potter fan, but I will do my best to leave out the unpunctuated, hysterical gushing love. Those who have not read the books – shame on you!

I have by now read a few reactions to the movie and a lot of people seem to be hung up on the fact that there’s so much time spent focusing on the trio’s travels as they search for the Horcruxes. As anyone who’s read the book knows, this takes up a good chunk of the story so it makes sense to translate that to the screen. There is still something going on the whole time, as they make new discoveries, and it’s nice seeing the core three together for greater lengths of time. We are also treated to some truly beautiful shots of the British landscape. The way the camera captures the scenes of the vast countryside with no one but Harry, Ron and Hermione in sight really drives home their isolation. Taken away from everything that is familiar, they are forced to rely on each other to pull through. It also poses a challenge to the three young actors as for the first time they are forced to hold the movie together pretty much on their own.

Emma Watson, it must be said, is the glue keeping this section of the film together. Her acting has improved immensely since the first film and her portrayal of helplessness and betrayal is very convincing. Rupert Grint also finally gets the chance to show us a different side to him as he is no longer simply the comic relief. By contrast, Daniel Radcliffe is still, at many points, quite wooden, and though we see glimpses of real emotion, some of the book’s more emotional scenes came across somewhat underwhelming on screen.

It’s difficult not to compare this film to Half-Blood Prince, as they were both directed by Yates and yet are so different. Maybe it’s the fact that because of the split, he has more time to focus on the little things, but he truly did an amazing job with this film. The book-to-film adaptation was the best so far, even using a lot of dialogue word-for-word from the book. There were only a couple of glaring errors, which can for the most part be forgiven. Alexander Desplat joins the crew as the composer, while Steve Kloves returns as the screenwriter for the penultimate time. Together, they have produced the best Harry Potter film so far and leave this fan anxiously waiting for July 15th, when the final movie will be released.