Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Part of the First.

As the books got longer so did the movies, so much so the last film in the Harry Potter series comes in two parts.  One we have now, the other we’ll have to wait for until next year.  The question of course is will it be worth it? 

Many reviews haven’t been kind, claiming that like the book it’s the not just the weakest of the series but also plain dull; my expectations were then set accordingly.  I’m rather glad they were as I enjoyed it, yes at over two hours it could have done with a bit of a trim but I never felt any particular scene over stayed it’s welcome.  There is a lot of running and hiding then wizard based explosions, then more running, hiding and wizard based explosion as the trio try and track down the remaining bits of Voldermort, he’s carelessly left lying around, whilst trying to find (in true Dungeons and Dragons style) the three parts of the Deathly Hallows which will be handy in the ‘final battle’.  Hermione looks wind swept, Ron looks like he’s just finished a weekend bender and Harry as if he’d joined Ron but changed his mind.  It’s also very dark as we see a number of favourite characters take one for the team, including a large number of the wizarding community in general.

For Potter fans a must see, for everyone else it’s close retelling of the first half of the final book might be a little slow and far too long.

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

It’s darker, moodier and rather good.  No more school japes, wizard competitions or games of Quidditch, it’s all rather more serious as Voldemort gathers his forces to control the Ministry of Magic and a certain Mr H Potter recruits ‘Dumbledore’s Army’ to thwart him.  The book for those who’ve read it is truly enormous but David Yates does a great job of fitting all the relevant bits into just over two hours and some of the regular character do get rather short changed as a result.  Hagrid, Malfoy the younger, Professor McGonagall are effectively cameos this time around but something had to give I suppose.    Imelda Staunton almost steals the show as Dolores Umbridge whose pink suits get progressively darker as she does and I didn’t spot it was Ralph Fiennes until the final battle playing Voldemort.

If you’re in anyway interested in Harry Potter it’s worth going to see and with the last book being published at the end of this month and with two more movies Potter Mania still has some way to go.