Books and Wands - Deathly Hallows Pt 1 Review

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Deathly Hallows Pt 1 Movie Review

It’s really hard to believe that it has been nine years since
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was made into a movie. I
remember thinking how unlikely it was that all seven movies would
ever be made, especially since at the time three books had yet to
be published.

Yet, here we are, Part I of the epic Harry finale. We may have
lost a few actors along the way, but for the most part, the cast
has shockingly remained the same. There have been so many things
I’ve loved along the way, and certainly many things I loathed
about the movie’s adaptation.

It is that love/hate relationship with the movies that led to
the coining of the term loave (a combination, for those of you
that don’t remember from my last review, of the word love and
loathe). I had that same attitude towards this film, though while
I felt myself leaning towards the loathing side for Prisoner of
Azkaban, Order of the Phoenix, and Half-Blood Prince, I actually
find myself feeling the love for Deathly Hallows, as I did for
Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, and Goblet of Fire.

Let’s break it down, shall we?

5 Things I LOATHED

Changes

Ron was calm and cool as a cucumber at the Malfoy Manor?

Lupin doesn’t show up at Grimmauld Place in hopes of

joining up with Harry? Harry isn’t disguised at Bill and

Fleur’s wedding? Voldemort doesn’t show up at Bathilda’s

house?

Apparently, the writer doesn’t even think he’s doing

something wrong when he changes something from the book.

When Hermione and Harry show up in Godric’s Hollow, Harry

asks Hermione if they should be disguised, an obvious

reference to the book where they change themselves into an

elderly couple using Polyjuice Potion. Hermione’s answer

in the movie should have been, “Yes, Harry, that’s exactly

what we should do. After all, that is what the author

intended to happen, and we should respect her for that.”

Instead, she tells her how unnecessary that is despite

that fact that we know that Godric’s Hollow is a town

crawling with witches and wizards who are bound to

recognize Harry. Is the writer actually insinuating that

J.K. Rowling is wrong? I hate to break it to him

—

she

not

Stretch Marks

I usually say, please cut, don’t change. When they

announced book 7 would be made into two movies, I didn’t

think either was acceptable.

et they still managed to cut things?

With over five hours of movie time to complete this book,

they instead resorted to elongating certain scenes. This

movie was in danger of getting stretch marks from all of

the times they extended scenes from the book.

Glossing over Grindelwald

(The following paragraph should be read in a deeply

sarcastic tone.)

I’m so sorry, screenwriter

—

did the whole Grindelwald

storyline get in the way of all the scene stretching??

That’s okay, it’s not so important.

Just leave out the fact that Grindelwald was perceived as

one of the darkest wizards of all time, or that he was

friends with Dumbledore and shared the knowledge of his

family and other deep secrets, or even the fact that he

had anything to do with the Deathly Hallows.

Just gloss over his character. After all, we so badly

needed to see Harry and Hermione dancing with each other

for ten minutes in a tent to some random song while there

are still four horcruxes to be found!!

Bill’s Scars

or lack there-of

Bad enough they wrote out the attack on Bill Weasley in

Half-Blood Prince

, along with his character and Fleur’s as

well. Bad enough they had to waste time introducing said

characters at the beginning of

Deathly Hallows

to lead up

to the wedding scene.

Now, you completely ruin the meaning behind the scars.

Fleur, supposedly a thing of beauty, chooses to stay with

Bill despite the scars left from the attack. She is almost

insulted that people think she would choose otherwise.

She is not into appearances as you were once led to

believe about her character, and you begin to respect her

for believing in the beauty within.

Well, it must be SUPER easy to stay with someone when

their “hideous scars” are actually just two red crayon-

like lines on one side of the face. Seriously, if you

blinked, you missed it. So much for Fleur’s inner beauty

guess that just wasn’t important enough for the films.

Nudity?

It wasn’t tasteless. But it wasn’t exactly tasteful.

During the scene in which Ron opens the horcrux and is

tormented with the image of Harry and Hermione as a

couple, the two appear to be naked.

If you offer me a genuine reason for this, then I’ll

accept it as is. But I believe it was simply a ploy to be

shocking.

And what does that say for strong, female characters?

We already have Ginny acting inappropriate and purposely

scandalous. We don’t need Hermione jumping on the ba

wagon, too.

I certainly love double meanings. I love deep, complex

characters. However, adding something ridiculous into a

movie for shock value alone is NOT acceptable in RGW’s

book.

5 Things I LOVED

Order

I read a review that said

Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows

Part I

did not follow to order of the book. I can’t say I

agree with that.

They certainly cut things. They certainly changed things.

They certainly added things.

However, the one thing that made me happy was the fact

that they followed the right order. Nothing was out of

place or out of turn.

he Tale of the Three Brothers

I wasn’t quite sure how they would pull off the telling of

this story. I was just hoping they wouldn’t cut it out

altogether, as they already had with the newspaper

articles regarding Dumbledore and Grindelwald.

After first celebrating in my seat that they included the

story, I was thoroughly impressed by the animation used to

portray

ale of the Three Brothers

Even more so, I loved the tone of that scene. Other than

the sound of

ermione

narrating the story, there was

very

little noise at all

—

no music, no sound effects. I

think

they were trying to make a point

—

even though it is

considered a children’s story in the wizarding world, the

Tale of the Three Brothers

is NOT to be taken lightly.

A shout-out to Ben Hibon, the director of that animation

sequence! His next project is

Pan

, a dark spin on

Peter

Pan

focusing on Captain Hook and set to begin filming next

fall.

The Bad Guys

For a while there, it almost seemed like Voldemort wasn’t

the problem. Bellatrix

...

Snape

the Malfoys

Umbridge

Thicknesse

Greyback

Nagini

and even some double

crossing from Xenophilius Lovegood

There seems to be no

hope for our three protagonists against such a overload of

antagonists, and that is what keeps me addicted to the

storyline.

I feel like if we sat around waiting for Voldemort’s next

move through five hours of movie, we’d be yawning by hour

two.

You might argue that this praise really belongs to the

book, but I have to give credit to the movie for keeping

it similar. After

Prisoner of Azkaban

, I take nothing for

granted.

Neville

Neville had exactly one line. Yet, he certainly caught my

attention. I did about three double takes and practically

ventured into the projection room to look for the rewind

button.

He was almost unrecognizable on the Hogwarts Express. He’s

certainly grown into his frame over the years, but apart

from physical looks, he was exuding such confidence.

That is exactly how J.K. described Neville’s character in

the book, so I have to be thankful for the consistency

there.

After all, I’m already looking towards Part II, and we all

know how important Neville will be then.

The Cliffhanger

I had previously heard that the first part of

Deathly

Hallows

was going to end with Ron leaving. I don’t know

where I heard that because that wasn’t true at all.

Looking back on it, there wouldn’t have been much to the

first movie if it ended there. Instead it ended at another

low point for Harry

—

Dobby’s death.

If they had made this book into one movie, they might have

glossed over this scene. They would have had to save the

drama and the sadness for the bigger deaths (i.e. Tonks,

Lupin, Fred, etc.).

Ending the movie here gave them the chance to concentrate

on Dobby’s death even more. The movie also ended with

Voldemort at his highest point, retrieving the elder wand

from Dumbledore’s death.

Overall, the movie wasn't horrendous and I'm looking forward to
Deathly Hallows Part 2 even though I never want Harry Potter to
end.

by the REAL Ginny Weasley

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