Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1: Raw as Bill Weasley's Steaks, Amongst Other Things

Wow. The penultimate flick of the perennial Hollywood money-spinner series left me feeling...underdone.
I walked out of Werribee10 Cinemas (apparently now known as Regent Cinemas) last week not in a state of enthrallment and enrapture, but rather in one of keen eagerness of the final movie of the final book about Potter and his pals.

Why did I feel underdone? Important plot points were included, so no complaining there. But this movie in particular felt like a mate was telling me the story on FB chat instead of it being part of status thread - there was no dispersion of persepctive  It was like director David Yates hasn't heard of subjectivity - who knows? However, I will mention that before Harry Potter, he was most probably well-known for shooting several episodes of The Bill. Meh. If studio execs wanted a commercially-friendly director...s'il vous plait and all that...Bluntly, the pace was too frenetic for a penultimate film; if it meandered like the River Thames than perhaps more people would care how Daniel Radcliffe concludes Harry's journey as "The Chosen One". I'm sure lots of people are still interested in Harry's plight, it's just that if it weren't so clichéd, it might be more interesting to people who have already read the book

Apart from that little moue of discontent, I will say the film looked a treat on the big screen and it's a shame that Warner Bros.decided not film it in 3 dimensions. However, the people working behind the cameras should be applauded - their work, primarily, makes the film "raw".

As the characters become quite nomadic due to thier...well, let's say popularity...inside the "revamped" Ministry of Magic headed by thick Pius Thicknesse (relative newcomer Guy Henry) there is a chance for renowned cinematographer Eduardo Serra (credits include Blood Diamond and Defiance) to show off his wares. The fact of the matter is he read the screenplay (written by experienced HP stagehand Steve Kloves and obviously adapted from Rowling's text) wrote for this movie and understood what was needed. It wasn't like it was a musical adventure rollicking among the White Cliffs of Dover. Instead, Serra gives the audience deeply evocative and even gothic imagery. Dark forests and foreboding hamlets pervade this movie.

Acting was top-notch in this film. Daniel Radcliffe played the part of journeyman to a tee. His was a mature perfomance, especially in the graveyard scene at Godric's Hollow, where perhaps the enormity of the mission hit home in more ways than one. Of course, this is only to be expected from an actor preparing to move on from Potter - future projects include the aptly-named The Journey is the Destination and we all know about his full-frontal in Equus. Other actors had their usual panache about them, but I am very much looking forward to Matthew Lewis' portrayal of Neville Longbottom, given the perfomance in his cameo  in Part I, and Neville's role in the final installment.

What also must be mentioned is the animation scene presented to us, concerning the legend of the eponymous Hallows. Here, animation director Ben Hibon creates a veritable Chinese lantern box. These seemingly-alive tableaux open before the audience's eyes and present extremely stylised images. For me, it was a real joy to view.

Overall, there was no nothing wrong with the movie. It did its job and that, depending on how you look at it, was to line the studio fat cats' pockets with dough or to generate drama for the ultimate finale. But saying that, in this case, is like saying the steak does the job in the getting the diners through to the neapolitan ice-cream. Like saying Shane Warne should trundle a few overs to prime Stuart MacGill. It's wrong, it's inverted and, when stumps are pulled at the end of the day, no matter how "raw" visually it may be, Harry Potter this time just barely scrapes a pass. Or too paraphrase Agent 86, Harry misses a fail "by that much"