Sue's DVD Reviews: Bonnie Wright

Showing posts with label Bonnie Wright. Show all posts

23 November 2023

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2 (Daniel Radcliffe)

(Amazon UK link)

So we came to the end of our two-month re-watching of the eight Harry Potter films. We saw the first part of ‘..Deathly Hallows’ last week, and the second part this week. We hadn’t seen it since 2018, although I re-read the book a year later. I was, of course, familiar with the story and knew what the outcome would be. But it was still quite a tense film.

The action starts where the first part left off: Lord Voldemort has found the legendary ‘elder wand’, known to be the most powerful wand in existence. So he thinks he is invincible. He knows he will have to fight Harry Potter but with this wand he is certain that the outcome will be in his favour.

Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione, in the meantime, are still on their quest to destroy horcruxes - the pieces into which Voldemort split his soul, to give him the highest chance of survival. Harry is certain that at least one of them is at Hogwarts, so they make the very risky journey to the school. They are greeted with delight by their former friends and classmates, who are under a new, harsh regime without Dumbledore as head, and are longing for freedom.

There are a lot of special effects in this film, as the staff cast spells to protect the school, and are later involved in serious magical battles. It’s not quite as rapid action as the earlier film and I didn’t shut my eyes quite so often, but the eventual - inevitable - battle of Hogwarts is full of destruction, with people running, hiding, casting hexes, and often falling. There are some sad losses though not as many as might be expected.

And then Harry is summoned to his doom. As a person of integrity, he has no option but to face Voldemort, in the expectation of losing his life to save others. It’s a strongly Christological metaphor in a series which has more than a few Christian allusions. Not that it’s pushed at all: the author of the books professes faith, and belongs to a church, but in a fairly low-key way.

Most viewers of the film will know how it ends, but I won’t give spoilers. The first time I read the book, I knew what I hoped would happen, but really wasn’t certain that it would. And, for a while, it seemed as if I was going to be disappointed.

This final film is - in my opinion - an excellent production, the story close to that of the book, albeit with some parts missed out, and a lot of the subtleties lost. It’s not appropriate for younger children with the amount of violence and tension, and the rating of 12 is reasonable. Not that there’s any but the mildest of bad language, and no hint of nudity or sexuality beyond a few passionate kisses.

I wasn’t sure I would want to see these films a second time, but I’m glad I did. Seeing them all in the space of two months has made it easy to follow the whole story, and not worry over-much about the parts (some of them significant) which were omitted.

The acting is superb, I was moved in particular by that of Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) and Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith). All the characters are complex, and the chemistry between the principals flawless. The pace is just right, too, and the visual effects stunning.

Definitely recommended if you’ve seen the rest of the series, particularly the first part of ‘Deathly Hallows’. Or if you’ve read the books. But don’t come to this on its own as it would make no sense without knowing the full story.

While this DVD can be bought on its own, it's much better value to buy it with the first part, or in a box set of the entire series.

15 November 2023

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1 (Daniel Radcliffe)

(Amazon UK link)

Our re-watching of the Harry Potter DVDs is coming to a close, as we embarked on the first of the ‘Deathly Hallows’ films last night. It’s dark, it’s action-packed, and it’s stressful. I had forgotten quite how much, though it’s less than six years since we first saw ‘Deathly Hallows part 1’.

The plot follows the story in the book fairly closely; the fact that it was turned into two films rather than one allows for most of the book to be included. And it’s rather a bleak story. Harry, Ron and Hermione know that they’re not going back to Hogwarts this year. They also know their families may be in danger. Harry in particular must be protected, and one of the early sequences sees a race to get him from his relatives’ home in London to the safety of the Weasleys’ home.

There are injuries and a loss, but everyone has to prepare for a wedding. It goes ahead, with a brief interlude where Harry, Ron and Hermione are each given a slightly puzzling bequest from Professor Dumbledore. Bill Nighy is excellent as the new Minister for Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour. Not that he has much of a role after this; the wedding is interrupted by the news that Voldemort has taken over the Ministry of Magic.

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends know they have to set out to hunt for the remaining horcruxes, all of which have to be destroyed. It’s not explained in this film what horcruxes are; it’s expected that viewers will have seen the earlier films, or at least the sixth, ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’. Although each book (and film) stands along to some extent, there’s a huge story arc that runs from start to finish, and it’s much better, in my view, to read or see them in order.

The friendship of the three is tried many times as they embark on what appears, at times, to be an impossible quest. They escape potential assassins, and manage to get hold of one known horcrux but have no idea how to destroy it. And keeping it with them leads them, one at a time, to become very grumpy. Hermione (Emma Watson) is highly organised, and keeps their locations secret, but Harry gets more and more fed up, and Ron becomes jealous. Rupert Grint as Ron has a wonderfully expressive face.

There are battles, and escapes, and fear… there are also some more poignant moments of injuries, and a very sad loss near the end of the film. It’s all extremely well done, in my view, with the pace about right. It doesn’t rush through, but it also doesn’t pause for a long time for scenic shots. I found the fast-action scenes too stressful to watch, so closed my eyes; I probably avoided watching about a quarter or even a third of the film, just listening for the spells and sound effects.

As for the 'deathly hallows' of the title, those are briefly explained in this film, as three legendary items that formed part of a children's story. Possessing all three would enable the owner to defeat death entirely. Most people, apparently, did not realise that they were real.

It’s a good thing I’m familiar with the storyline or I would have found it quite confusing. But today’s teenagers (and those who first saw it when it was first made n 2010) are more used to rapid action, in modern films and computer games. I did wonder, a couple of times, if I should stop watching and skim the book again instead; but I kept sitting there, reminding myself that although this is just part one, and it ends on a dramatic and worrying scene, there’s part two still to come.

The rating of 12 is appropriate; the violence and some gore would be very disturbing to a sensitive child, and while the bad language is mild, there’s one scene, as part of a hallucination, that has implied nudity. I’m not sure I’d recommend this film as I think the book is so much better, but for those who prefer not to read, and who have seen the earlier films, this (and its sequel) form a worthy conclusion to the series.

08 November 2023

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Daniel Radcliffe)

Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince DVD

(Amazon UK link)

We didn’t watch a film last week, but last night decided to watch ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’, to continue our re-watching of these DVDs in our collection. We first saw this in 2017 although I re-read the book a couple of years later, so I was reasonably familiar with the plot.

It’s the darkest of the series so far, with a rating of 12: this is due to quite a bit of violence and some very disturbing scenes. But then Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his best friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) are 17 now, in the sixth year at Hogwarts: what we would call Year 12 (or Lower Sixth) in muggle schools in the UK.

The film opens with scenes of carnage around London; it’s clearly shown as random violence, for no purpose other than to create devastation and to let the world know that something terrible is happening. Lord Voldemort is back; even the official Ministry of Magic have acknowledged this now. Everyone is urged to be cautious, and to be careful whom they trust.

Harry is spending his summer travelling around on trains, and attracting the interest of a local girl - however this is interrupted when Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) appears and whisks Harry off to visit his old friend Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent). Professor Slughorn was a former teacher at Hogwarts, and apparently rather a good teacher; but he had his favourites, which included Harry’s mother. Dumbledore wants to persuade Slughorn to return to Hogwarts…

Harry then spends a few days with the Weasley family, only to have terror striking there too. And even on the journey back to Hogwarts, he finds himself in trouble, and almost ends up back in London.

We don’t see much going on in the classrooms in this film, other than Harry’s discovery of an old text-book which has a note in the front saying it belongs to the half-blood prince. It enables him to do very well in one topic, but it doesn’t really have the significance that it has in the book.

Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) has been asked to do something dangerous but we don’t know what it is until towards the end of the film, and Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) has promised to look after Draco, and assist him in what he needs to do. We see more of Draco than in previous books, with a much greater depth of character as he works to establish what needs to be done, but also finds himself torn, and very stressed.

There’s lots of fast action - I had to shut my eyes a few times - and some distressing scenes towards the end when Harry has to follow orders in a disturbing way. We knew what was coming in the final climax, of course, but it’s still poignant.

There’s some light relief to contrast the dark themes, with growing love interests amongst Harry’s classmates, and an amusing scene (which turns very dark) involving a large dose of love potion. A few other students have larger roles than before, and the acting throughout is excellent.

‘Harry Potter and the half-blood prince’ is not one of my favourites of the series, either the book or the film. But it’s a necessary episode in the ongoing saga, and the end leads on to the beginning of the seventh book and film. It is worth seeing if you’re watching the films, but it wouldn’t stand alone: it’s quite confusing with so much rapid action and visuals rather than explanations, and would be all the more so for anyone who had not seen the earlier films (or read the books).

And, as with all these films, in my opinion it’s well worth reading the books too as there’s so much more in them; characters are fleshed out, other storylines are included, and there’s a lot more discussion about morality, ethics, and the unconditional love that caused Harry to survive the attack on his life when he was a baby.

18 October 2023

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Daniel Radcliffe)

(Amazon UK link)

We decided to continue with our weekly re-watching of the Harry Potter films yesterday evening. A week earlier we saw ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’, so last night we watched ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’, which we had not seen since 2012.

The book on which it’s based was my least favourite of the series when I first read it. However it’s important in the sequence, and when I have re-read it, I liked it better. But it’s not for young children; Harry and friends are fourteen now, in their fourth year at Hogwarts. I find much of the book quite tense, and still really dislike the climactic scene.

It’s also an extremely long book, so inevitably some sections had to be cut out entirely to fit the story into a two-and-a-half hour film. I understand why they cut out the early chapters with Harry at his appalling relatives’ home, although in the book it gives welcome light relief to the tension of the horrible dream Harry has at the beginning.

The scenes at the Quidditch World Cup didn’t much interest me in the book, so I didn’t mind that they were somewhat cut short; but I was sorry that there were no house elves. One of the significant story-lines of the ‘Goblet of Fire’ book, and one of its best features, in my view, is Hermione’s passionate defence of the house elves, many of whom are enslaved by unpleasant families. But we don’t even see Dobby in the film, so his current career remains unknown to those who see the films but haven’t read the books.

However I can see that it’s a side story. It is helpful in understanding Hermione's character butter, but it isn’t so necessary for the ongoing story. As a film in its own right, it's very well done. The main storyline involves the goblet of fire, and the tri-wizard tournament with visiting students from two other wizarding schools in Europe. Three exceptional older students and Harry have to undertake some dangerous tasks, and I found Harry’s encounter with a dragon very tense. I had to hide my eyes in places.

As the final task began, with the four tri-wizard competitors entering a maze filled with dangers, I knew I didn’t want to watch what happened, or the dark scene that follows, forming the climax of the book (and film). So I moved to another room until I could hear the closing, poignant and deeply moving scenes at the end.

Of course this film is worth seeing as part of the series, if you don’t read the books. It’s well-made, with a rapid pace, and despite missing out so much of the book, it’s not difficult to follow the main story. The acting is superb (even if I still have a bit of cognitive dissonance when I see David Tennant as an evil supporter of Lord Voldemort).

The graphics work brilliantly, the CGI scarily believable. But although it could stand alone, it’s not an enjoyable film, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who’s easily disturbed by visual violence or rapid chase scenes. It's rated 12, rather than PG (which was the rating for the first three films) and I think that's correct. While there's no more swearing, and only the faintest hints of teenage hormones, there is much more violence and gore in this film, and many more extremely tense scenes.

Our edition of this has a second DVD which has some interesting extras: there are games which didn't appeal to us, but also some deleted scenes, and some extensive interviews with the three main characters.

06 February 2018

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 (starring Daniel Radcliffe)

(Amazon UK link)

Over the past few years we have watched the first six Harry Potter films, interspersed with many others. I only saw the first two at the cinema; they’re quite tense and I don’t like anything at all scary or fast-moving, so I much prefer seeing them at home. We’ve had the final two - the two-part Deathly Hallows - for nearly five years, since I was given them for my birthday in 2013. But until last night had not unwrapped them.

We were going to wait until we had seen all the others… but it’s nearly a year since we watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Then we were going to watch them with our younger son… but he said there was no need. And we kept delaying the moment. But at last, we sat down to watch part 1.

It’s over ten years since I read the book ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’. I loved the book, but my memory of the plot is inevitably somewhat vague after over a decade. That’s not a bad thing when watching a film adaptation, as there are bound to be changes which can be annoying if favourite parts of a book are left out. However, I was glad that I had remembered at least the bare bones of the story. I find it difficult to follow the plots of films unless they’re fairly clear, and this one, intended for a teenage audience, is fast-paced and complex.

The basic story is that the evil ‘dark lord’ Voldemort is back, and the only way to defeat him is by finding all the horcruxes - pieces of his soul that have been hidden away. They were somewhat explained in the previous book, but I’m not sure it matters exactly. So, instead of returning to Hogwarts, Harry and his two close friends Ron and Hermione set out on their own, with little idea where they’re heading, to attempt to find and destroy horcruxes. Along the way they learn about ‘deathly hallows’, but those will probably be explored in greater depth in the second film, which we hope to watch next week.

The first film alternated scenes of the three on their own with fast-paced battles with enemies of various shapes and sizes. When alone, we see them discussing what to do, arguing about how to do it best, and recovering from battles. There’s quite a powerful scene where Ron hallucinates, convinced Hermione likes Harry better than she likes him. And there’s a very moving, poignant scene near the end.

However, there are also a lot of rapid-action scenes, not gunfights but the equivalent with wizarding wands. I am unable to watch this kind of thing; fast action on screen makes me dizzy, and I never have the faintest idea what’s going on. So I shut my eyes, and listen for any words. In the brief seconds I saw, there were dramatic special effects and high drama - but I can’t comment on any more, as it all happened too rapidly. I don’t think I missed anything much; it was always fairly clear what happened from the discussions afterwards.

This really isn’t a film that stands alone, as so much has gone before. Nor is it one I’d necessarily want to see again, although I am now quite keen to re-read the book. But I’m glad we’ve seen it at last. The book was absorbing and made a magnificent ending to the series. There were battles, but on paper they’re so much easier to deal with. The book was filled with Christian symbolism in a way that didn’t really come across in the film, but perhaps that’s not surprising.

The actors playing three main characters have grown with their roles, and I felt were as believable in this, at seventeen, as they were in the first book, aged just eleven.

All in all, I would recommend this, although the 12 rating is worth noting. There’s nothing too ‘adult’ - a little kissing and cuddling, and one implied sexual scene, but no total overt nudity and few innuendoes. There is little bad language, but nothing major. However there's a great deal of magical violence, evident even with my eyes closed, and also some sad losses which could upset a sensitive child.

Reviews of the other Harry Potter films:

20 February 2017

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson)

(Amazon UK link)

We had a bit more time available than usual, so decided to watch a film that’s been waiting in our drawer for quite some time. I was reluctant at first to see the Harry Potter films; I did watch the first couple at the cinema, but found the second one rather disturbing, and when I heard that the later ones were ‘darker’, I determined not to see them.

However they came out on DVD, and since I have enjoyed the books so much, we decided to acquire the DVD versions to watch at home - a much less disturbing scenario than the cinema. It’s a while since we watched the fifth in the series, ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’, but despite the dark ending I thought it excellent. So finally we sat down to watch the sixth film.

It’s some time since I’ve read the book ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’, indeed more than time for a re-read. But the benefit of that is that although I remembered the main plot points, and the dramatic ending, I have forgotten all the details and conversations, so wasn’t disturbed by finding the film - as is inevitably the case - rather different from the film.

The story opens with high drama, as parts of London are being destroyed, and people are becoming terrified. We don’t meet Harry at the Dursleys this time; instead Professor Dumbledore takes him on some visits, in particular trying to persuade an old friend, Professor Slughorn, to come and work at Hogwarts.

After a short stay at his friend Ron Weasley’s, with yet more problems arising, Harry and friends set out for school, discovering high security everywhere.

There’s not much action taking place in the classroom, other than the lab where Harry discovers an old textbook that belonged to the mysterious ‘half-blood prince’. He is now clearer as to what his destiny is likely to be, and a lot more grown up than in previous films.

There’s low-key love interest in the book, with some jealousies and a lot of ‘snogging’, though mostly off-stage and what’s scene is fairly discreet. There’s minor bad language too, in a few places, but the reason for the UK ‘12’ rating is, I assume, that there’s a lot of suspense and some violence, with a lot that would be very disturbing if seen by a sensitive child who did not know what was coming. The US rating is PG, perhaps because there's no 'strong' language, or nudity.

The acting is excellent, and I found myself caught up in the story, hardly noticing two and a half hours going by. The pace was rapid but not so much that I got lost; it helps, of course, to have read the book, and to have been aware of what happened earlier in the series.

All in all we thought it extremely well done, preparing the way for the finale, which is in two parts and which we have still to watch.

Highly recommended, but in my opinion it's best to watch the earlier ones (or read the books) first.

Reviews of the other Harry Potter films: