Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1::
by William the Bloody
If you are totally unfamiliar with the Harry Potter franchise... where have you been? Well, sorry, but I'm NOT summing it all up yet again. Blee, bloo, blah orphan... evil wizard... and so forth. Do yourself a favour and join the rest of the human race and buy the books and watch the first six movies.
Harry is going to turn seventeen and that means two things: one, he is now legally an adult in the wizarding world and two, the protective spell on Privet Drive his mother created by sacrificing her life will finally expire. Evil wizard Voldemort is as strong as ever, gather his forces, infiltrating the Ministry and openly attacking muggle residential areas. The Order of the Phoenix, a collection of talented good wizards, do their best to protect Harry, but when the Ministry officially falls to the forces of evil, even The Order's skills can't keep him safe. Fearing for those he cares about, Harry sets off on his own, with the agenda of finding and destroying Voldemort's secret soul-storing Horcruxes (Voldemort cannot truly die until his Horcruxes are all dispatched), with the ever loyal Ron and Hermione in tow.
The Good: Oh, how the kids have grown up, and their acting ability with them! Our lead trio really did deliver wonderfully in this film. Once again, they managed to assemble their large ensemble cast, even the Hogwart's students who only appear in one scene in this movie! I really enjoyed Jason Isaac and Helena Bonham-Carter's scenes especially. I must also give props for the part of Dobby, as he is a character who is normally quite annoying, but he actually had some great bits that were well done for this one. The overall tone of this film was quite dark, which I felt it really did need. I mean, Harry's on the run, the baddies are all but completely in charge... not good, not good at all, and they managed to set that tone. I did so enjoy the very beginning of the film which included events which were only referred to in conversation within the book, but actually SHOWING them was so much more powerful. There were, of course, some nice segments of humour thrown in for good measure, and they did feel genuine and natural, and not forced.
The Bad: Oh, so much set up and exposition! While it is very true to the book, it is STILL very boring. Yes, they did manage to cut down on the screen time of the "Harry on the run" scenes, but there is still quite a lot of it, not to mention the explanation of the Deathly Hallows, figuring how Horcruxes can be destroyed, and all that. Granted, this is "part 1" and therefore is all build and the NEXT one will have the pay off, but this film clocks in at a massive two and a half hours, and it feels like that for so much of it nothing happened. I was disappointed at some of the mild changes made from the book, such as Harry was supposed to give Kreacher, the old bitter house elf, a gift which made Kreacher into a more pleasant and pivotal character. This film also had to do more than its fair share of "backpedalling" since many important characters and events just plain didn't happen within the film franchise continuity which REALLY was sad. For example, the scene near the start in Harry's Privet Drive kitchen there is a hasty introduction to Mundungus Fletcher and a glossed over explanation of Bill Weasley and his facial scars since the penultimate showdown at Hogwarts in part 6 was not nearly as vicious as it was in the books (re: Bill wasn't even there, so the movie says he had a showdown off camera in between films). Also, I would like to inform the director that making a movie "dark" in tone does not necessarily mean "dimly lit."
Overall, I liked it. I know it's the lead-up to the big payday, so I can look at it as just that, and they left it off at a very good cliffhanger to boot. There were some very good character moments in with all the heavy exposition which kept it going along well. Ron had some of the best lines, and he is still my favourite character, so there is that, too. I can't believe how well they managed to stick to the source material, so all I can do is hope that Part 2 will be equally loyal.
A-
