I had already made the plans. I was to watch this grand finale with my brother. Calling him a Harry Potter fan would be an understatement, he is the living Harry Potter encyclopaedia. The date was set, the time was fixed, and the long queues had been tolerated and jumped to possess those two prized tickets before the screen flashed House-Full…OK! So the last bit just sounded dramatic; getting the tickets wasn’t such a task, just required an advance booking.
The moment finally arrived.
What a bummer! You are directly plonked into the middle of an on-going journey. If you have not read the books, you would have no clue what happened and why were you forced to witness a montage that was making no sense. Moreover, if you have not seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, please do not bother to go for Part 2. The director did not feel the need to provide any introduction or connecting threads so that the parents, who had been tortured, blackmailed and threatened by their children to be taken for the final film, would not sit there in the darkness wondering why were they wasting two precious hours of their lives and spending their hard-earned money on buckets of popcorn and ice-filled cold-drinks.
A usual argument for many is that when a book gets adapted to screen, many details and parts need to be modified and edited for the visual medium. So I shall refrain from comparing the book by J.K. Rowling, which was a far more satisfying end to the series, and the film by David Yates, which left a lot to be expected.
For starters, here is a film that sends three teenagers on a life-threatening journey to track Horcruxes and destroy them in order to kill the arch-enemy of mankind, Lord Voldemort. So we have a host of characters, humans and ghosts, who are aware of the happenings and the locations and possess some secret knowledge but every one decides to stay mum till the last moment. Why? So that Harry Potter can be the hero. But was he really the hero? Neville Longbotttom, a non-entity and an unwanted side-kick to Harry through the last seven films; turns into a hero overnight. He is suddenly the leader of the group in Harry’s absence. It is Neville, not Harry, who kills Nagini, Voldemort’s pet snake and the last Horcrux.
I was always under the impression that Parseltongue (the ability to talk to snakes) was a special gift and not everyone was privy to it. Guess I was wrong! It was left to Ron to imitate Harry’s words that he had heard Harry speak in his sleep. Wonder how Ron understood Harry’s words and knew exactly what to repeat when down in the Chamber of Secrets?
Every source of film review boasted that here was finally a film that gave a lot of importance to the teachers and their individual powers. As I always felt that the teachers were grossly under-utilized in the films, this was an uplifting piece of news. Alas! Once again I was duped. The teachers had no more to do than they had in any of the other films. There is only one substantial scene where they all come together to protect Hogwarts and the scene does not last for more than two to three minutes in screen time. And suddenly the good turn in to the bad and are beyond judgement. Professor McGonagall, the ideal teacher, a guardian to the school rules, a protector of the students, sends the Slytherins to the dungeons. Ouch!
Lot of focus on Bellatrix Lestrange but a brilliant actress like Hellena Bonham Carter who was recently applauded for her performance in The King’s Speech is completely wasted in the film. She does not do much beyond looking dazed, scared and loony. The only substantial place for her to perform is when Hermione turns into Bellatrix and enters Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Rest is nothing to write home about.
Even after you have survived all of this, you possibly can’t survive the two sudden outbursts of testosterone when Ron and Hermione kiss in the Chamber of Secrets after destroying a Horcrux and Harry and Ginny kiss on the stairs when the entire school is falling apart around them. As if that was the only way to make the audience believe that these two pairs were actually couples. And if you are still not convinced then you have Ron running after Malfoy, Goyle and an unknown black boy shouting, “That’s my girlfriend you attacked, you nitiwts!” Funny, you say! Maybe, if you tickle me with hard!
What interests me most is the secret to young age that Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Malfoy hold? The movie takes a 19 year leap when Ron and Hermione are sending their daughter to school and Harry and Ginny are there to see off their son. The director and the make-up artists did not feel the need to give any of these characters an older look. I wish switching from baggy jeans into a suit and from a sweat shirt into a dress really made you look 36. But the mirror on the wall does not lie. They do not look 36, no matter how hard they try. The casting director would have done better to look for mature actors to play the parts.
By now you must be wondering if there is anything uplifting about the film. There is, my dear friends! All is not lost; not yet. The film makes all possible use of technology to bring the wizard world and the mayhem alive. Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort does complete justice to his role. Last but not the least, the film provides a lot of junior artists an employment opportunity.
All credit goes to the marketing team of Harry Potter for creating trailers and publicity material that actually got the film more eyeballs and mind space than it deserves.
The most awaited film of the Harry Potter series is making money based on all the hype but it fails to meet expectations. If you still want to experience the ‘saga’, a small word of advice – wait till they telecast it on Pogo or HBO (which should be soon)!
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