Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Howdy folks.  I am gonna try to keep this as non-spoilery as possible for movie (and book) seven.  Anything that came before is fair game though.

Let me just start off by saying that I really, really enjoyed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.  I really thought it was just fantastically done.  I am tempted to say that it is my favorite Potter film so far, but, I am not sure that would be fair to do, since I haven't watched the others since the release of Half-Blood Prince.

(I will note that I fully intended to rewatch all six Potter movies before going to see the new one.  It just didn't happen.  I blame USA, they brought back Psych and Burn Notice and made my DVR explode just a little bit, and I really just didn't have the time.  Also, probably, NaNoWriMo might have something to do with that, as I haven't been able to just say, "you know what, I think I'll watch a movie during naptime today" this month.  Sigh.  But what are you gonna do?)

While this clearly wasn't a 100% faithful adaptation from book to film (and let's be honest, no one actually wants that, regardless of what they might think), it was still pretty darn spot on.  More importantly, it kept in line with the slightly altered universe that the previous movies have established quite well.  For example, in the books, Harry met Bill Weasley at the Burrow before the Quidditch World Cup, but in the movies they have never been shown to meet until the start of Deathly Hallows.  This meant there was an introduction, that for a lot of people might have seemed out of place.  But in the movie-universe, it was actually essential.  It wasn't drawn out, and I thought it was handled very well, so it didn't even bother me.  As I said, the film managed to stay nicely within the version of the Harry Potter universe that the other movies have created.  I bet a lot of fans won't understand that, and were annoyed that Bill introduced himself to Harry, but, well, you can't please all of the people all of the time, I suppose.

(As I was typing that last bit, I realized that Charlie Weasley is also introduced to Harry in book four, and was also left out of the film.  In fact, to date, Charlie has yet to make an appearance in any Potter film.  My first reaction to this realization was outright indignation, as Charlie is my favorite of the Weasleys.  Upon reflection, however, I think I might be okay with this.  The second he appears onscreen is the second my dream of him being played by Seth Green (who does play him in my head when I read the books, and yes this is a parenthetical inside of a parenthetical, deal with it) is shattered forever.)

Overall, Deathly Hallows Part 1 is about showing that Harry has grown up, and he has accepted the burden placed upon him by Voldemort the day the Dark Lord killed his parents but failed to kill him.  The first six films set up the world, showed us the worsening situation, and laid out the path that Harry must follow.  In this film, Harry starts to truly take his first steps down that path.  With Dumbledore gone, Harry must lead the effort to fully destroy Voldemort once and for all.  But he cannot do it alone, no matter how much he might want to protect the people he cares for.  That is another big part of this story, Harry learning to accept the help he needs, and inversely, his friends realizing the costs of helping him in this fight, but doing so anyway.

Deathly Hallows does give us a few good action scenes, certainly, but this is a quieter film than a lot of people will be expecting, or at least hoping for, I think.  Part 1 is the calm before the storm.  It's as much about learning how to accomplish what needs to be done, as it is about actually doing those things.  Yes, there is a lot of time devoted to the camping in the woods part of the book, but I really feel like that was handled quite well.  And I'm sorry, but to all of the people who want to gripe about that part of the story (book or movie), maybe you think it is boring, but it is still important.  Harry at the start of Deathly Hallows is simply not ready to go charging after Voldemort.  The challenges he faces in those months of isolation with only Ron and Hermione, trying just to figure out what the hell to do next, those are crucial moments in this story.  To skip over them would be to do this tale an injustice.  I feel like these three young actors, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, did completely amazing work throughout the film, and with that material in particular.  Without them, this movie wouldn't have had half the impact that it did.

I have seen two primary complaints about Deathly Hallow Part 1 floating around since reviews started appearing, and I would like to address those quickly.

The first, and perhaps most valid, is that this film is going to be incomprehensible to anyone who hasn't read the book before going to see the movie.  I am not completely sure I agree, but I can understand where that is coming from.  Despite all of the information given to us throughout the previous films, a lot from the books still ended up being left out, and quite a bit of that turns out to be important in book seven.  So some things only vaguely touched upon in previous movies, or never mentioned at all, come back here and are presented as if they are something that the audience should already be intimately familiar with.  For example, the mirror given to Harry by Sirius in The Order of the Phoenix, was, as far as I can recall, never even mentioned in the movie version.  But in movie seven, Harry is frequently shown looking at it (and occasionally we see that someone is looking back).  Those who haven't read book seven would, understandably, not really know the significance held by that piece of mirror, or the fact that Harry seems to be seeing someone else looking back from it.

I personally had no trouble following anything, but I have read the book.  I don't think there was too much going on to be inaccessible to the non-readers in the crowd, but I could be wrong here.  Although, I have to day, I have a really hard time believing that there are that many people going to see this movie who haven't by now read all of the books (or at least read through book six if they prefer to see the movie before reading the book).  My brain just doesn't comprehend how someone could watch any of the movies that came before and not want more right that instant.  It only seems natural that they would then go seek out the books.  But, maybe I have a skewed perception of reality there.

The second big complaint I've seen is that there was no point in breaking up book seven into two movies, and, furthermore, that doing so relegated Part 1 to not really being much of a story on its own merits.  There, I have to very much disagree.  To maintain even the level of detail given in the previous movies, one movie was not going to be able to handle everything going on in book seven.  As I said before, this part of the story is very much about Harry getting ready to face Voldemort.  Not just making preparations and finding horcruxes, but actually psychologically readying himself for the fight that is to come.  Part 1 shows us that story admirably, and leaves room for Part 2 to be about Harry as a man of action, giving us the final preparations and then the glorious final battle itself.  I felt like the final conflict of Part 1 is a very important part of book seven that is often overlooked because of what comes so quickly afterward.  Splitting up the book where the movies have done so is an excellent way to give that set of events the importance that they are due.  I am not ashamed to admit I was crying during the end of this movie, I certainly felt the weight of what had just happened.  And the very last scene?  Absolutely perfect.

A few of my favorite (non-spoilery, of course) bits of the movie were:

1. Noticing the multiple teapots in the tent while our heroes were in the woods.  I love that Hermione's preparations including making sure that they would have the necessities.  And by necessities, I mean tea.
2. The way that the story of the Three Brothers (and the meaning of the Deathly Hallows) was presented.  I don't want to spoil it for you, but it was done in a really cool and spectacular fashion.
3. Bill Nighy as Rufus Scrimgeour.  He's not on the screen very much, but when he is, he OWNS that thing.  That was an outstanding piece of casting, folks.  
4. We get just a tiny glimpse of Neville beginning his ascent to awesomeness, when we see Voldemort's people stop the Hogwarts Express.  I'm very glad that scene was included.  It would be so easy to forget about Hogwarts during Part 1, and this scene not only showed us Neville starting to come into his own, but also reminded us that Harry, Hermione, and Ron aren't the only ones putting up a fight.

My only real gripe, per se, it's more of a lament really, is that we don't get to see Harry's farewell with the Dursleys.  That was a truly touching moment as it was written in the book, and I wish we could have seen something more of that on the screen than what we were given.

At this point, really, I don't think there's anything left to say except that July can't get here fast enough.

Word Count Update: 40,184 out of 50,000

Can Spoilers Go Too Far?

Don't forget to watch the all new episode of Stargate Universe, tonight on Syfy at 8 pm CST!!!!!

~*~*~*~

Also, check out the newest episode of Riese:  Kingdom Falling right here!

~*~*~*~

Warning:  This post is about spoilers.  It might therefore be reasonable to assume that it contains spoilers.  

 (Mostly for Stargate Universe, but also a little bit for the BBC show Luther.)

~*~*~*~

Spoilers, you say?

So, remember last week in my review of the SGU episode The Greater Good I said it pretty much looked like Ginn and Perry had been killed by Creepy Lucian Alliance guy? Then, the day after the episode aired, a bunch of people from the show (most notably David Blue and Joseph Mallozzi) went on the record telling us not to jump to conclusions, and we didn't know what we thought we know?

Sure, a couple of the trailers for tonight's episode have made it look pretty convincing that those characters are now ex-characters, but that could all just be down to editing.  Then, yesterday, I am perusing the weekly What to Watch article on io9, and imagine my surprise to find that this is the synopsis for tonight's episode:

Simeon makes his escape from Destiny after killing Ginn/Amanda Perry, sending Nicholas Rush on a vengeful mission. But Young and Greer attempt to retrieve Simeon unharmed.

Well.  That seems pretty darn definitive.  

Then, yesterday afternoon, I was catching up on Sunday's episode of Luther, which is a really fantastic miniseries that has been airing on BBC America for the last few weeks.  I was fast forwarding through the last commercial break of the episode and stopped when I got to what looked like the return of the show.

Except, that's not what it was. 

It was a preview for next week's episode, which for some reason BBCA decided to air before the episode was actually over.  In this preview, we see that Luther's wife Zoe has been murdered by his crooked cop pal and framed for the crime, and now Luther is on the run trying to prove his innocence.  My brain exploded a little bit.  When last I saw Zoe, before the break, she was alive and well.  After the preview, the episode wrapped up, giving us the big climactic scene wherein the crooked cop kills Zoe.  But the scene had lost all of the tension that the show had worked so carefully to create, because I had just seen an ad for next week and knew that Zoe didn't make it.  It really killed the end of the episode for me.  At least next week's ending won't be spoiled in the same way, since it's the final part of the series and there won't be any previews to show.  But still.

All of this got me thinking about spoilers and how they have wormed their way into the mainstream in the last few years.  Do television viewers truly not want any more mystery in their shows?  Is it just that the people who make the preview trailers aren't paying attention and put in something they think will grab viewers without realizing it gives away the ending of the episode?  

I really don't understand the thought process that went behind the programming decision to air the preview for the next week's episode before the episode had actually ended.  Granted, this series had already aired in its entirety across the pond in Britain earlier in the year.  Maybe somebody just figured that it was technically a rerun and spoilers were off the table? 

Then again, BBCA isn't the only network doing that, now that I think about it.  Psych on USA usually had their ad for next week before the last bit of the show as well.  Although usually the bit after the last break for that show is a wrap-up and all of the big reveals in the episode have happened already.

As far as preview trailers go, I know I've seen quite a few that have raised the ire of actors or writers from a given show.  They feel like they worked hard to make a really cool episode that would keep you guessing, and then someone with some editing tools somewhere went and cut together a teaser that doesn't tease but in fact totally gives it all away!  (The return of Carson Beckett in season four of Stargate Atlantis, anyone?)  What, then, is the point of bothering to watch the show?

The really good teasers do just that.  They hint at what the twist might be, and the best make you think it is something completely different from what it actually is, so that when you watch, you really get the full effect of the reveal.

I mean, I am all for spoilers for the most part.  I tend to see them as harmless fun that gets me excited for the new show.  I mean, heck, I read a daily article on io9 called Morning Spoilers after all.  But I very rarely read the whole thing.  I tend to skim, and only check out the entries for shows or movies that I like or am anticipating.  But if it's just an episode synopsis of, say, the sixth episode of the season that hasn't started airing yet, or an actual reveal about a big plot point, I try to skip it.  The spoilers I am usually looking for are casting scoops, or a general idea of where a show is headed for a season (as in, the vague overarching plot).

So, I guess when I say I like spoilers, I mean I like hints.  The problem is that the hints tend to get roped in with the really big ruiners and it can be hard to separate them without stumbling across some of the latter.  Sure, it's my own fault for reading the spoilers page in the first place, or the comments on a discussion thread or whatnot, but I do like to have a general idea of what could happen.  It's knowing that something is probably coming, but not knowing how it's gonna end up happening that makes it worth watching.

I have this problem with books a lot too, actually, because I read so many series.  I remember one of the first fantasy series I really dug into in college, I had read the first two books (out of six) and went to the store to pick up the rest of the series before I went out of town on a trip.  I read the back jacket of the fourth or fifth book, and it totally gave away the ending of the book I was reading at the time.  I was so appalled!  What made it worse was that it was a plot development I had seen coming and was really hoping would end up not happening.  So I was grumpy reading the whole rest of that book.  Now, I don't even look at the back cover (or inside flap) of books in a series unless it is the first book and I am trying to decide whether to pick up the series or not.  I realized the other day when putting away a book I had read multiple times that I had never read the story blurb on it.

But sometimes, even if you're someone who goes out of your way to avoid spoilers, you can't escape them.  Like when it's right there in the commercial before the show is over (and the networks are pushing you to watch things live), or when the usually spoiler free preview for next week instead gives away the big reveal at the end of the episode.  Heck, I love the author Jim Butcher, and as much as I enjoy The Dresden Files series, I completely adore his Codex Alera series so much more.  But once I read the first couple of books, and looked at the titles for the next few books, I realized that the actual titles of the books themselves are kind of a spoiler.  It's crazy!

I have really struggled with this in my reviews of the Star Wars Republic Commando series that I have been doing on this blog.  I've tried to discuss the primary plot of each book without giving away any of the really cool stuff that actually happens in the story.  For example, there's one plot line throughout the series which I totally left out of my review, as much as I wanted to expand upon it, because I just felt it would not be doing right by the readers to tell them that it happened before they read the book. 

I'm just left wondering, can spoilers actually go too far?  It's right there in the name, isn't it?  Spoilers.  If you're looking at something labeled "spoilers" aren't you asking to find more than you're probably looking for?  I do know that it's not fair to inflict spoilers on someone who isn't suspecting them.

I know, I know, life isn't fair.  Sigh.  But don't you kind of wish it was?

Anyway, I don't really have any answers on this topic, it has just been on my mind, and I wondered if anyone else hangs out in the middle of spoiler-land like I do.  I'll just be floating around, trying to figure out the best way to cope without letting all of my fun get ruined, I suppose.

No word count update today.  I did a lot of world-building yesterday but no actual writing, sadly.  On the other hand, I now know exactly what the paper is made of in the various countries in my story.  I also know what kind of fabric they use and what they eat, and how their language evolved.  Whee!  In that sense, my word count from yesterday is huge, because I added to my notes like crazy, but nothing in the story sad to stay.  Still, I am right about on track, and I think at this point it's very important to get my ducks all in a row in the notes so that I don't have to stop to look things up when I really get into the wrapping-up part of things.

Ta ta for now, folks.  Join me tomorrow, when we'll find out if Ginn and Perry really are dead or not.  (And you'll get to see me express my rage or amazement about how it was pulled off if they really are still alive.)