It might be bit of an exaggeration to call this latest offering from the Potter franchise God awful, but there was very little about it that I actually liked. The adult actors really are the saving grace. Order of the Phoenix was my favourite of the movies so far because although it was inevitably heavily condensed, it had a screenplay that actually made sense, and I thought that the three leads were getting better. With this, however, it didn't feel as if a whole lot actually happened, the bad acting was in full flow, and it all felt very generic, as if we'd seen it all before. It seems as if every installment is hailed as the "darkest yet," and I find that such labels have become pretty meaningless.
It was a real disappointment not to have the brilliant first chapter from the book ("The Other Minister") dramatized, as that's such a delightfully written scene that sets up the predicament beautifully (instead we get Bellatrix and the Carrows speeding through London destroying various landmarks), and the scene where Dumbledore collects Harry at the Dursleys' (no one can be as scathing as Dumbledore whilst being impeccably polite). Instead he preserves Harry's purity from a predatory waitress, the first implication that hormones are out of control in this movie. There was far too much emphasis on adolescent angst and not enough on the actual story. Even Quidditch becomes a game of sexual power in which Ron and McLaggen contest their masculinity for mating rights with Hermione (unless that's just my English student mind in overload).
Daniel Radcliffe will never be Harry to me and he delivers a very smug portrayal (I found myself rooting for Draco on several occasions- at least Tom Felton can act). The Harry/Ginny romance is horribly contrived (even worse than in the books) Rupert Grint gives an incredibly irritating, unfunny performance (he was an endearing child, what happened?) and Emma Watson has nothing to do except mope over Ron. I've always been a bit ambivalent towards Luna on page (I find her a bit quirky for the sake of being quirky), but at least she has a personality, unlike our trio. I wanted to slap Lavender Brown every time she appeared. Thank goodness for Michael Gambon for keeping sentimentality in check. I haven't always been a huge fan of his performance as Dumbledore (though I do think he's one of this country's finest actors who's played many far more important and difficult roles than Dumbledore), but I thought he nailed it here. He shows how Dumbledore really is a force to be reckoned with (I'm not sure if Richard Harris, God rest his soul, would have pulled that off). Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman are impeccable as always with what they have to work with, but Rickman in particular was short-changed, considering the importance of Snape's role (they didn't make anything of his promotion to Defense Against the Dark Arts) to the eventual outcome. I enjoyed Jim Broadbent's Slughorn (even though Desmond Barrit would have been perfect), who I think is a rather underrated character. He shows that it is possible to be a Slytherin (something which they didn't even mention), and still have a good heart. In fact, properly evil Slytherins are probably in a rather small minority; they're just the ones who get all the attention.
I know how cranky this all sounds, but it certainly doesn't inspire me to want to pay twice for Deathly Hallows. Less emphasis on flashy effects and more on dialogue (they managed to forget two of the best lines in the entire saga- Harry telling Scrimegeour that he's Dumbledore's man through and through and Snape's "DON'T CALL ME COWARD!") and character development would be nice.
No comments:
Post a Comment