Will the last film be the one we’ve been waiting for?

It’s been a long, at times lazy, road but the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 hints at a little belated magic JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books are a guilty pleasure without all that much guilt, a stupefyingly English series of stories that somehow avoid harnessing the worst aspects of petty-minded Anglo-Saxon snobbery. Yet the film series, with notable exceptions , has largely failed to capture the richness and depth of the books. Up until the last instalment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, I’d pretty much given up on expecting anything beyond bland mediocrity from David Yates’s extended tenure in charge. Watching the film again earlier this week, however, it struck me that the decision to split the book in two – while clearly motivated by studio suits’ desire for one last payday before the series is done – had made for a rather more rounded product than we’ve seen from a Harry Potter film for some time. Ahead of the arrival of the first trailer for part two, which has just hit the web, it’s worth remembering that part one proved to be something of a slow-paced, existential treat. The action segues are thrillingly depicted, but it’s the long, drawn-out sequences in which the teenage wizards mull over where to begin their quest to destroy Voldemort’s Horcruxes that stick in the mind. Released from the straitjacket of the series’ usual format, the book always seemed to be a rather unwieldy, distinctly downbeat affair, and yet the same set of circumstances contrived to set the film version free. In particular, I defy anyone not to be swept away by the bravura animated sequence presented to explain the origin of the Hallows. Rowling’s book seemed punctuated with far too many items of significance for one story, yet Yates’s film made the introduction of yet another set of MacGuffins seem like the most natural thing in the world. Almost as importantly, Emma Watson seemed to have suddenly learned how to act. Does Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 “work” as a standalone movie? To be honest, probably not. But then neither did Kill Bill part one – another film enlivened by a standout animated sequence – and Quentin Tarantino’s movie remains one of his best. Perhaps we’ll only discover quite how much the requirement to shrink Rowling’s books down to feature length damaged the films when the inevitable TV iteration arrives in a few years’ time. Imagine an HBO-produced small-screen series: what a prospect that would be. Will part two complete what would be a more-than-decent final fling for the Potter films? At this point it’s still tantalisingly hard to tell, as the trailer inevitably concentrates on the action sequences and Potter’s climactic battle with Voldemort. Nevertheless, there are hints of the first film’s pleasingly off-balance, uneasy tone in a jerky, dissonant opening. The boy wizard has grown up, and Yates seems to have gambled on his readers also having matured: certainly these later films seem gauged more towards a patient audience happy to soak up the full swell of the story, rather than just the more obvious flashpoints. There remains a lot about the Harry Potter series of films that is regrettable, notably the rather safe choice of directors (Alfonso Cuarón excepted), and some lazy casting early on in the series. But as the end comes into sight, a full decade after Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone hit cinemas, we might just be safe in girding our loins for a little belated magic. Dumbledore knows it’s taken long enough to get here. Harry Potter Harry Potter JK Rowling Emma Watson Daniel Radcliffe Science fiction and fantasy Ben Child guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 28, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.