This may be coming a bit late in the day, but it’s something I wanted to write and it’s probably an article better written with the benefit of hindsight. I am, of course, talking about this summer’s biggest hit and hardest goodbye, Harry Potter.
The audience response to the film was absolutely incredible, and while it is undoubtedly one of the best films in the series (if not the best), audiences seemed awfully quick to forget the, shall we say, less admirable qualities of the other films.
When the first film was released in 2001, I was but an 11 year old boy obsessed with the novels. I remember sitting down to watch it, the lights dimming, the trailers blurring past, all the time my head racing with the idea that my favourite book was about to come to life in a way my tiny brain could not even fathom. As the film started and the camera rolled past the Privet Drive sign, my little mind was blown. HARRY POTTER WAS REAL! I was instantly convinced it was the single best film of all time.
I look back at that first movie, now, as a 21 year old manboy and cringe. For all it’s merits, Chris Columbus either did not understand how to successfully turn a novel into a film, or he was so terrified of fan backlash that he simply threw everything into the film that he possibly could. The first two films suffered terribly because of it.
The third was an improvement, under the watchful eye of Alfonso Cuaron the films began to find their cinematic foundations. We were presented with stunning visuals, cinematic motifs such as the Whomping Willow through the changing seasons adding an element the books never could, the sheer scale that cinema is able to provide.
Goblet of Fire was a fair effort, but in no way groundbreaking, only notable in my books due to the appearance of a certain warlock known as Jarvis Cocker.
Film number five, and onto the scene steps David Yates, or as I like to call him, the man who knew Harry Potter. Here is a man who has come onto the scene incredibly late in the game, and while he may have been intimidated inside, it never for a second showed. His confident direction, his willingness to alter or change certain plot points to create a greater cinematic experience, his understanding of the characters – this man simply got how to make a decent Harry Potter film.
So it was with much sadness and excitement that I sat down to watch the final installment, and I was not disappointed for a single second. It was suitably epic, but tender. Appearances from old favourites who had not appeared for quite some time (the ten second appearances of Emma Thompson and Miriam Margoyles made my heart flutter), previously overlooked characters bought to the forefront (Maggie Smith kicking ass as though she were born to do it will forever be in my all time great cinematic moments), and allowing the incredible actors that the series had managed to accumulate the chance to simply act (Alan Rickman becoming every fan-girls secret crush just through the power of his acting, even with the hindrance of Benjamin Button stylee plastic face). All of these things and more made the film the perfect goodbye to a series which had not always been good, but had always tried it’s best.
My other half, on the other hand, left the cinema severely disappointed. ‘Too much has been left out’, he stated. He was upset that the house-elves never got their day on the screen. You just can’t please some people…
bywayofthegreenlinebus 