After much waiting in anticipation, the 6th movie installment of the Harry Potter series has finally come out. I have to say, David Yates and Company did a really great job with this film. I was by and large impressed with this film adaptation. This is one of the few times I will ever admit to liking the movie version of something more than the original book.
Running at 2 1/2 hours, I accepted this to drag on a bit, but was pleasantly surprised to find that the film did such a great job of drawing you in that the time flew by. They did a great job of cutting out a lot of the exposition present in the book and just getting down to the action. Did this film make major adjustments from the book? Yes, absolutely. But it ended up working out better than I ever anticipated. Never in the movie did I feel irritated or put-out by the changes. If anything, it helped the movie flow much better.
This is also the first time in these films that it felt to me they were remembering to set things up for the next movies. My major problem with this film series has always been one director cutting out plot points needed for the following films because they were not worried about looking ahead. With having the same director for these final 4 films we are finally seeing the set up and foreshadowing needed for the action packed two part finale. Even changes made in this movie seemed to make sense when you started thinking about how it could help fit into the next film. SPOILER:: An example for you: Being now homeless and afraid of attack, I bet the Weasely's will be living in Sirius Black's house. The perfect movie set up for the next film's first Horcrux.
Other things about this movie that impressed: The lighting and cinematography. The film did a great job of showing how dark some of the situations were, but balancing it with warmth and color in happier events. Harry and Malfoy's interaction in the bathroom was all grey, dark blue, and black while the SlugClub parties were red, gold, and brightly lit. Daniel Radcliffe's acting in this was also impressive. So much so that he seemed a little out of balance with his teen counterparts. It did make me very excited to see him take on the heavy stuff coming ahead.
Anything bad I could say about it would really be more nitpicking than anything. The film finale left me with a great feeling of excitement. My only disappointment here is that it will be so long until the next installment.
Movie Rating: A
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