J. K. Rowling's seven-book masterpiece about a young, abused boy who discovers his destiny to play a pivotal role in a war between different factions of wizards has been a massive success in print. I can distinctly remember midnight releases being madhouses, and books selling out for weeks at a time. The now-infamous "Snape Kills Dumbledore" meme was one of the most cruel out there - in fact, it's entirely likely that this article will spoil some new fan's viewing of the movies. But, the ultimate question is this - do the movies stand up to the books?
The New Harry Potter Film Includes More of the Books
As the Harry Potter novels were written, its audience quite literally grew up with them. While the first books were short, generally happy and full of amazing things, as the audience aged the protagonist was put in more mature situations. As the depth of the plot increased, the books grew longer to accommodate its intricate development. But with longer books come less consistent movies, and a major complaint from all those who viewed the sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was that a great deal of the story was excised in the interest of making a reasonably timed movie.
In order to countermand this problem, since the Deathly Hallows novel is just as packed with story points, the directors chose to split the movie into two parts. Part One focuses on everything from Harry's departure from the Dursleys' to the heart-wrenching murder of Dobby the House Elf, and it does it with a great deal of intensity toward the plot. Having opted not to re-read the novels in order to have a greater sense of suspense, I found myself generally impressed with some of the plot turns; I remembered them in hindsight more than as they happened, allowing the film to be "new" to me, even though I know the eventual outcome.
Harry Potter and the Digital Projector
If there is one complaint I had about the film, it was that the bulk of it was made up of a very long segment wherein Ron, Hermione and Harry are teleporting around the world, evading antagonists and seeking the means to destroy one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. It became long and drawn out, even drawing upon the Lord of the Rings films when it comes to emphasizing the difficulty of their journey. This long scenario was complicated by a rather subjective incident, indeed - in the fourth row from the front, the screen was so large that I could actually see some pixelization of the characters; an inconvenience, nothing more. As with any review, if one's circumstances aren't perfect, one's enjoyment will be minimized, but these are tiny nits which are easily picked.
However, getting past the digital projection's fuzziness, the film was truly exquisite. The battle with the Death Eaters at the very start of the film had a true sense of tension about it, while the true form of the Horcrux was legitimately awe-inspiring. As far as the actors' portrayals of their roles go, they were able to maintain a serious demeanor even while making dry, dark humor befitting a group of teenagers attempting to retain their sanity in the face of the magical apocalypse that unfolds around them.
The truth is that the film is true to the source material, true to its fan's expectations in terms of special effects bringing the impossible to life, and true to an even more primal entity; the conveyance of emotion through a film medium. When Ron, disguised as an interrogated woman's husband, emerges from seemingly nowhere to interrupt a trial, there is a clear impression of the fear that the characters are experiencing, combined with the confusion of having a stranger's wife show her appreciation to them. When its said and done, the film was everything a fan could imagine; except, of course, the second half that we'll just have to wait for with baited breath.
Jesse Pohlman - Jesse Pohlman is an avid writer and a researcher of pretty much anything. His latest novel, Physics Incarnate, is available for Kindle.
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