harry potter reviews

The latest Harry Potter saga may have too much up its sleeve. What should have been the breathless first half of the Harry Potter finale wraps with the promise of a stirring exit, but David Yates’s initial navigation of the Deathly Hallows odyssey stalls.
The central problem with the adaptation, like all the other Harry Potter page-to-screen transformations, is the amount of material between the covers. They already had to split the final book into two parts because it was so chunky, and this cleavage is the first obstacle to overcome, because it means moviegoers will be deprived of the final payoff until next year, when Part Two hits theatres in July.
Since most people have already read the J.K. Rowling books, this won’t be a huge challenge, but it does mean the movie is forced to end in the middle of the actual story — just as Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) realizes a significant piece of his plan for total domination over both the magical and Muggle worlds.
Yes, the apocalypse looms in Deathly Hallows — easily the darkest piece of the Potter puzzle, as it conjures the ever-present spectre of fascism and forced conformity. This is the book where Voldemort, the villainous mastermind, assumes control of the Ministry of Magic and begins a program of “bloodline cleansing,” in which those who are not “full-blooded” wizards and witches are persecuted and dehumanized — or worse.
Yates makes the most of Rowling’s creative revisit to Britain’s deeply inspiring war-era reality, where selfishness was erased by the stiff-upper-lip drive to unite, survive and transcend.
Intercutting the opening sequences between a meeting of Voldemort’s Death Eaters in the midst of a ceremonial kill, and images of a nervous Harry Potter holed up in the house at Privet Drive, Yates immediately places us in the midst of the war zone.
Looking up from the street of brick houses, Harry keeps his eyes on the skies, looking for Dementors and Death Eaters — the same way one might have watched for the dark shadow of a Messerschmitt aircraft. Within minutes, there’s a full-fledged dogfight on brooms and magical motorbikes, as Potter makes a run for the Weasley cottage. The battle leaves scars and casualties, and, from this moment on, death sets the tone for everything that follows in these Deathly Hallows.
In any other kids-oriented movie, this could be a significant downer. However, Rowling has always been able to make the most of the melancholy she conjures with her story of an orphaned wizard. It’s Rowling’s comfort in the existential dimensions of youth that gives the whole series its dramatic edge, because it’s not afraid to address the dark, brooding, self-absorbed and dislocated side of growing up.
The truth is, very few people feel as if they truly belong to any specific group or community, and Harry Potter is the perfect example of the outsider seeking his place within the fold. That’s why we care about him, even when the character feels cold and aloof. harry potter reviews