Reveiw 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1is a beautifully shot and at times harrowing and brutal

great way to begin the end of the worldwide phenomenon and a great build up to Deathly Hallows - Part 2

Based on the first half of seventh book in the Harry Potter book series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling, After the unexpected events at the end of the Half Blood Prince, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) go on the run to find and destroy Lord Voldemort's secret to immortality - the Horcruxes. Its supposed to be their final year at Hogwarts but the collapse of the Ministry of Magic and Voldemort's (Ralph Finnes) rise to power prevents them from attending thus forcing them to go into hiding.
The trio battle to find the horcruxes, destroy them and and Voldermorts regin all the while battling death eaters and Snatchers. What are the Deathly Hallows and Harry's connection with the Dark Lord's mind becoming stronger.

The plot is just brilliant, despite being covering only half of the book, they manage to do an excellent job of crafting a concise, fast-paced, beautifully shot and at times harrowing

Stylistically, this film is very different from its predorcessors; It's like a road movie and a verite documentry and the first time the trio are not at Hogwarts.

 

Hunting the Horcruxes proves to be no easy task, Harry, Ron & Hermione face more hardships than ever before. Not just with having to avoid Voldermort and his followers but with each other. They're on the run, trying to find the Horcrux's so they can defeat Voldermort and they don't know how they're going to do it. They have nobody to turn to other than themselves. They're on the run in a scary, unpredictable world where anyone could be working for Voldermort. Nowhere is safe and they could get attacked at any moment.

Once again, the theme of Isolation is prominant throughout: This time is serves two purposes; It helps to conceal Harry, Ron & Hermione from Voldermort and helps to reinforce how cut off they are from the rest of the Wizarding World. We see Harry and Hermione grow closer than perhaps they every have before, confidant and even fall in love. 

Returning David Yates' directing is marvelous, it was very fast paced, the violence is brutal, the cinematography is beautiful and captures the , the score by Alexandre Desplat is brilliant, the special effects are dazzling, the production design is magnificent, the scenery is breathtaking, the costumes are spectacular, the make up is rich, the locations are all fabulous; an excellent use of Picadilly Circus and ominous forests to help reinforce a sense of danger and the high stakes at hand and the ending has a great emotional gut punch 

The performances of Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson are mesmerising. Harry, Ron and Hermione have grown up. The adventures they've had a Hogwarts are but distant memories. Quddich games, Transfiguration and Potions lessons are a thing of the past. They're out in the muggle world trying to survive and they're wholly unprepared for it; they're in a situation whereby they need to learn quickly to protect themselves

The films exploration of them confiding in each other through this tiring quest to search for Voldermot's Horcruxes is some of the best material that they've had to work with.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 is a tense, nail bitting, fabulous penultimate installment for the series, 4/5.

The Anonymous Critic