Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 & 2

[modage]

Was it a film?!   Did it look like it was being projected on a screen?  Was there a young man wearing circular glasses!? 

[polkablues]

Did Harry Pikachu avenge the death of Jigglypoof???

[cronopio 2]

i've never been into the harry potter, the cuaron movie being the exception because he's mexican and i have to be supportive of my comrades (it's not a choice, it's in the mexican constitution), but this one had the most interesting production design and a really cool cast. i also liked the cinematography. nice to open a movie with a close up shot of bill nighy being all nighyesque. i dunno, i saw harry potter six when it came out and i remember nothing about it. no interesting story points or shots or  setpieces or anything. this one had a terry gilliam vibe (non boring gilliam mode) , and a lot sequences that work as really kickass stand-alone scenes, which is the reason why i enjoyed it because i have no idea what a holcrux is.



the dialogue is crap, but from what i've seen, jk rowling is extremely good at building suspense and moving the story forward.
and it has a nick cave song in it, which i'm sure a lot of people will add to their itunes and ipods, granting them the right to say that they like nick cave. i still haven't decided how i feel about that. as a hipster, i guess it's my duty to nag and complain, but as a world class citizen, i guess it's an improvement in cultural openness that the biggest movie of the season has a very important scene with music by a badass of that caliber. in the end, serious people won't care.
discuss.

[polkablues]

I tried to read the books once and gave up after fifteen minutes.  I've somewhat enjoyed all the movies, notably 3, 5, and 6, but I will never in a million years understand the people who get obsessed with it.  It's such a hodgepodge, and just from a storytelling perspective it fails on every level of providing a logically consistent story-world.  Character motivations come and go like silent farts, and there's always... ALWAYS... the deus ex machina that pops up to save the day and is then summarily forgotten.  I do give David Yates a lot of credit for single-handedly giving the last couple movies the illusion of gravitas, and I expect these final two will be much the same.  Whenever they eventually show up on Netflix Instant, I'll get around to watching them.

[Gamblour.]

No really, how far did you make it into the books? The books are really good, and her world is very intricately detailed. I think you should try again.

[Alexandro]

he gave up after fifteen minutes...

[polkablues]

I'm basically over it at this point. I'm perfectly happy to go through life not having read them. Especially when there are so many great books out there that I actually feel guilty about not reading.

[Alexandro]

I've never read the books and I never will, probably. I don't see the point. The films, with the exception of half blood prince, have all been pretty great. (i disliked part 5 when I saw on the cinema but  second viewing made me realize i was probably just bored with hollywood when that happened). They have never pretended to be high art yet they are certainly above average in every respect. the main characters grow on you, and you have all those British great actors hammering away, having a lot of fun with the material. the craft is top notch. i don't know, i understand  if you get all self righteous there's a lot to complain. but no one said this is there will be blood. I wish most "kids" films were this good.

This film in particular does a very weird/interesting/risky structural thing, where it starts with a bang and keeps that speed for more than an hour and then bam, it's all silence and conversations and people thinking and getting lost and angry and not knowing what they're doing. It's pretty interesting because most films would never attempt this. Is not done in a completely successfull way. I think a more powerful director might have done better. But again, it has a lot of brilliant stylistic flourishes as the one crono mentions. that first shot is pretty cool, the one with the nick cave song also, there's a lot of moments that feel inspired and give the film and story a more epic feel to it. the main actors have grown and got better at this, particularly Radcliffe. i think he's the one who will make the most interesting choices in the future.

All in all I don't see what's to complain here. We're lucky to have films like these made with such care and energy, specially when the trailers on my showing were of crap like Tron and whatnot, films that seem to be written by a robot.

[modage]

from my blog:

Though I've never read a Harry Potter book, I've been a fan of pretty much all of the films.  It's been great getting to see the stories get darker as the audience grows older.  I really have to give Warner Bros. credit for doing such an amazing job with the franchise.  Can you think of any other film in history that was any good after the 3rd or 4th?  And that's just when the Harry Potter films were beginning to ramp up.  Now we're on the 7th film, which is the series darkest yet.  I really enjoyed the "sex, drugs and wizardry" of the last film, Half-Blood Prince and those more mature elements are carried over here.  (An awkward dance to Nick Cave's "O Children" is a definite highlight.)

It's also interesting to see the characters on the run, after so many years in the fantastical confines of Hogwarts, it's even more surreal to see them strolling through London.  (Hey, I've been there!)  My only real gripe with the series is that each film feels like a chapter in a larger book.  And never is that more true than in this film which has halved the final book into 2 installments.  Without having read the books it's hard to say how much there is left to tell, but it'll be exciting to finally get some closure to the story so it's individual pieces can be admired more in retrospect.

[Pas]

You'd have to pay me a hundred bucks at least to pretend reading Harry Potter in public. Maybe 50ish to watch one in a theater.

Maybe 250 to pretend for a whole night to people I respect that I love Harry Potter.

If these fees interest you, you can paypal me at pbg82 at hotmail dot com

[MacGuffin]

Part 2 Trailer here.