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Plot: Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) and Harry continue to track down Voldemort, and they enlist the help of Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), who has a clouded past. Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) hatches a plan to kill Dumbledore, while Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny flirt. This movie pushes the relationships forward and foreshawdows the climatic attack of the "Death Eaters" at the end of the movie.
Review: Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Hermione (Emma Watson) have developed into solid young actors that are able to carry subtle emotions that make the flirty product lines possible. Director Yates stresses these story lines and slights the action and backstory plotlines -- which gives this film more of a romantic comedy flavor.
Plot: Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) and Harry continue to track down Voldemort, and they enlist the help of Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), who has a clouded past. Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) hatches a plan to kill Dumbledore, while Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny flirt. This movie pushes the relationships forward and foreshawdows the climatic attack of the "Death Eaters" at the end of the movie.
Review: Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Hermione (Emma Watson) have developed into solid young actors that are able to carry subtle emotions that make the flirty product lines possible. Director Yates stresses these story lines and slights the action and backstory plotlines -- which gives this film more of a romantic comedy flavor.
The viewer needs to be familar with the story-line as the story is not free-standing, but you don't need to be a dedicated fan to follow the story. They do a good job of setting up how Draco is going about his plot.
This movie was fun and worthwhile, but it did not have the sense of wonder of the first two movies. The art direction has gone on vacation. The biggest talent was writing a screenplay that caught the whole plot while fitting it into 300 minutes.
This movie resists genre classification. A little rom-com, a little dramatic mystery, and a bit of gothic horror. The darkness makes these movies more adult and dramatic, and the emotions are more thoughtful -- the wonder and the funness of the first movies is gone.
Cast and crew: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rubert Grint; directed by David Yates; based on the book by JK Rowling.
Rating:3.0 flasks
More:
I'm a fan, and I liked it. It is not my favorite Harry Potter movie, but it was solid and enjoyable. I would not have missed it.
Even More [MAJOR SPOILER]: Seriously you should not read this yet, if you have not seen the movie. The movie goes out of its way to preserve the question of whether Dumbledore's death is an assisted suicide or a murder. That is, is Snape good, or is Snape bad? In the movie, Dumbledore seems to know he is about to be attacked, and even asks for Snape to be brought to him. He also says "Please Severius," which could mean please kill me or please don't. Earlier in the movie Dumbledore and Snape are discussing some sort of agreement that Snape wants to back out of. This could be an agreement to work as a spy, or it could be an assisted suicide. On the murder side, Snape makes a vow to kill Dumbledore at the beginning of the movie, and seems to be acting it out. Snape is shown without any emotion regarding the murder.
This movie was fun and worthwhile, but it did not have the sense of wonder of the first two movies. The art direction has gone on vacation. The biggest talent was writing a screenplay that caught the whole plot while fitting it into 300 minutes.
This movie resists genre classification. A little rom-com, a little dramatic mystery, and a bit of gothic horror. The darkness makes these movies more adult and dramatic, and the emotions are more thoughtful -- the wonder and the funness of the first movies is gone.
Cast and crew: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rubert Grint; directed by David Yates; based on the book by JK Rowling.
Rating:
More:
I'm a fan, and I liked it. It is not my favorite Harry Potter movie, but it was solid and enjoyable. I would not have missed it.
Even More [MAJOR SPOILER]: Seriously you should not read this yet, if you have not seen the movie. The movie goes out of its way to preserve the question of whether Dumbledore's death is an assisted suicide or a murder. That is, is Snape good, or is Snape bad? In the movie, Dumbledore seems to know he is about to be attacked, and even asks for Snape to be brought to him. He also says "Please Severius," which could mean please kill me or please don't. Earlier in the movie Dumbledore and Snape are discussing some sort of agreement that Snape wants to back out of. This could be an agreement to work as a spy, or it could be an assisted suicide. On the murder side, Snape makes a vow to kill Dumbledore at the beginning of the movie, and seems to be acting it out. Snape is shown without any emotion regarding the murder.
Secondly, Dumbledore's death is for no purpose -- unlike a Christ-figure or Obi-Wan Kenobi -- the death does not save someone else or advance a larger purpose. Even in the final book, there is little reason for Dumbledore to die.
