Harry is back in town, and this time he’s not messing around. The penultimate Potter movie made its way into theaters on Nov. 19. The movie beat all previous Potter films in weekend opening box office sales. Is this all just a product of Harry hype? Or is the over $330 million worldwide really deserved?
By now you know what you’re getting into with a Potter flick, even if you haven’t read the books. We watch the wizards we grew up with bicker and throb with teenage angst until some dark wizards are defeated in a magical 15-minute climax, not to mention Emma Watson’s sex appeal. Slip in some quidditch and a bit of comic relief ala the Weasley family and you’ve got yourself a box office hit. Well, gear up for more of the same, with a few twists.
Having read the book and knowing full well that the first half of the last movie is 90 percent bickering in tents, I was ready for plenty of awkward silences and emotional wizard drama. What I didn’t expect was a very well worked script and some stunning acting. Before we get into how well played all the characters were, let’s talk about what’s really important: how true to the book the movie was.
Like all the previous movies, there were significant digressions from the literature. Unlike all the previous movies, it was written nearly seamlessly and to great effect. The two chapters about planning magical ministry mayhem that readers had to trudge through are left out to keep the pace of the movie going smoothly. The 80 pages of description of that one place is covered in one well-directed shot.
All the characters who didn’t make it in previous movies, but are pivotal to this one, are snuck in just in time with a friendly introduction for the non-bibliophiles. “Deathly Hallows” is certainly the best rendition of a Potter book I’ve seen yet. I can only hope this means that Peeves, the poltergeist of pandemonium, pokes his head into the finale.
It’s hard to forget the 11-year-old cast we saw all those years ago in “Sorcerer’s Stone,” but after only 30 minutes of this movie, I came to the shocking conclusion that, like the progression of the themes and motifs of the book series, the cast had grown up. With Daniel Radcliffe doing a stand-up job at playing our favorite mixed-up magical messiah, Harry, Ruppert Grint admirably filling the roll of Ron the bumbling best friend who blooms into an actual person as opposed to a simple two-dimensional sidekick, and never forget Emma Watson who played Hermione, who shone brighter than a pronged Potter patronus in this film. Without Emma Watson’s powerful acting (and great legs) making me forget how silly the movie I was watching, it would have been a different film.
It’s refreshing to see a movie that could have been written and acted out by a room full of drunken monkeys and still have made millions, but goes for the proverbial brass ring and gets an “O” for outstanding in all subjects. So, whether you love the books, or just enjoy all the magical special effects and wizarding one-liners, this movie will cast a summoning spell on your heart.
