International Cinema Festival of India

Ever since the famous books started being turned into movies, critics and fan alike have been registering their opinions on the latest offerings of the series. Harry Potter 7, The Deathly Hallows Part One, was released in November 2010 to a US audience. It attracted mostly positive attention, with a few naysayers in the works.

Given that previous Potter movies have ranged from the relatively light-hearted adventures of an eleven year old Harry to the recent dark and disturbing Half-Blood Prince, The Deathly Hallows had a choice to continue in the dark and devastating vein of the wizarding world’s war, or to return to lighter days. In keeping with the books, it chose to stick with a dark tone as it tells the compelling story of the days leading up to the final battles of the war in author J. K. Rowling’s wizarding world.

While some series can be entered at any time, this is not one of them. The seventh movie requires a knowledge of the previous six books or movies in order to be at all comprehensible. There is hardly time to add a recap, either– the plot is heavy on information that needs to be found out before the climax of the movie can occur, and there’s not a lot of time for extras.

The response to the acting was, unsurprisingly, nearly universally positive. Six previous films have spoken to the quality of the actors and actresses employed in these movies, and the young leads received their usual acclaim. There were few complaints among either critics or viewers about the performances of the youthful but talented Potter cast.

Complaints about this latest film were mainly focused on the fact that it is the first part of a two part sequence. Because of this, the storyline is necessarily unfinished, and the movie contains a lot of set-up and exposition. In order to remain as true to the book as possible, however, all of this build-up and information is important, but some people found it long and stagnant.

In this latest part of the series, the wizarding world is consumed by war and more and more of the main characters’ comfortable existence is falling apart. The angst factor is off the meter, and spending time anguishing over their situation takes up a fair amount of the movie. Despite being important parts of the mood and storyline, some critics and viewers felt that these scenes were overdone and overlong.

This is undoubtedly a bit slower than the previous movies, at least since the earliest ones. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. The pacing is quicker at the beginning and end, and slows somewhat in the middle to a more thoughtful speed. Given that large amounts of information about the history and potential outcome of the war are included in these slower sequences, they are essential to the storyline as well as the atmosphere.

As with any wildly popular series, there are some detractors. Mostly, however, Harry Potter 7 was considered a masterful success by the fans of the books and previous movies. Those who did not enjoy it usually did not enjoy the rest of the series, either.

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