review: harry potter and the deathly hallows, part 1

So a group of us went to see Harry Potter today.  Aside from the fact that I saw it while in Australia, I don't think this post has any relevance whatsoever to American-Australian cultural gaps.  I am also now 23 days into NaNoWriMo and have been utterly out of ideas (There are no further differences between America and Australia.  I have written about them all.  Read the last two years of this blog if you don't believe me.), so am seizing the opportunity to write about something -- anything! -- that inspires me.  And it just so happens that Harry Potter does.  Or, to be more precise, his best friend Ron does.

You'd never have guessed it from the first few movies, but in the most recent ones Ron has really grown up.  I realize he'd still put me in a rather cradle robbery sort of position, but according to IMDB, he was born in 1988, which puts him only four years beneath me.  Not too bad, particularly considering Shakespeare's wife was six years older than him.  IMDB also conveniently informs me that he has bought an ice cream truck and can ride a unicycle.  Really, what more could I want?  Possibly someone not named Rupert.

Ron Weasley aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the movie.  It clocked in at well over two hours, and near the end of the second to last scene I suddenly thought, "hmm, I guess it's been awhile.  I wonder if we're getting close to the end?" And then, bang, it was over.

And talk about a cliffhanger!  Obviously being Part 1 of 2 everyone knew it was going to be such, but still!  For the record, I would be perfectly content to watch Part 2 right now.  And will most likely remain perfectly uncontent until I do.  Anyone know when it comes out?

Going into the movie, I was a bit apprehensive that we'd be doing a bit more trudging through the woods than I really enjoy (I'm not much of a woods trudger, personally or fictionally, at the best of times), but I thought that it moved really pretty fast.  Quite possibly due in part to the humor, of which Ron supplied a significant portion.  (See the nice, fair, balanced comment?)  There were a few points where my friends and I (all English teachers) were cracking up, but not many others were.  I'm not entirely sure if it's because much of the audience wasn't entirely fluent, or simply lacked taste.  I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the former. 

Partially because of the story itself and partially due to the constraints of film, you could watch this movie and get the impression that, really, there were only three characters who mattered.  And while they are clearly the protagonists, my favorite parts were the ones when they actually interacted with other characters.  (I told you I'm not much of a trudger.)

Some of my all-time favorites (Fred and George, for example) hardly got any more screen time than, say, Mad-Eye Moody, who kicked the bucket after the opening scene.  (Oops, post-spoiler alert.)  And it was odd to see entirely new characters (the Snatchers, for instance), getting lines while standbys like McGonagall weren't even in the show at all.  Dumbledore's dead body literally had a bigger part than Trewlaney, Sprout and Nearly Headless Nick put together.

I suppose the bad guys should get a mention, too.  They must be doing a great job as actors, because I absolutely loathe them.  Voldemort, though, I really wish were depicted differently.  I understand that they want to make him look sub-human, yet insanely cunning, and a snake-like appearance will serve this purpose best, yet I really hate when movies disfigure human forms.  It's one of my bigger movie pet peeves, and I don't handle it well.  Voldemort is just as far to the edge of it as I can go without being utterly repulsed (the Orcs in Lord of the Rings, or Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean, for example, are over the edge), though I really wish they'd just give him a normal nose.  It bugs me.

It's been awhile since I read the books, so, while I noticed a few things that seemed off (Fred and George's radio show never came on!  I kept waiting for it, yet it never came on!), I think I missed a bit, too.  Didn't mind, though possibly if I had the plot a bit fresher in my head I would have.

At the very outset of the movie, I thought they set the scene well by flashing between Ron, Harry and Hermione, whose opening bit I found most distressing.

And, like the book, it is striking just how much death there is in this movie.  It's definitely not a movie for children.  As much as I wanted to discuss it afterwards, I was glad that, of all places I had to run, it was my Bible study.  It's a bit nice to be reminded that, no, that isn't real -- though actually confronting the real evil in our world ought to scare me even more.  I find that movies often freak me out not so much because of the events or scenes in them, but because they very often cause me to reflect on just what exactly is real and what isn't -- and there's plenty that's real that is incredibly more frightening than any Voldemort or fictional psychological warfare ever could be.  Of course, there's even more that's real that is incredibly more powerful and good than any Voldemort or fictional anything ever could be.  And knowing that God is ultimately in control and that I -- along with so many others -- are ultimately on His side is one of the biggest comforts I can imagine.

And so I really enjoyed Bible study, and am now particularly keen (was before, too!  just especially so now!) to give Jesus the highest priority in and full reign over all my life -- my time, my energy, my passions, my desires, my hopes, my dreams, etc. -- in order that I won't have any room for idols of any kind to creep in and take my focus off Him.  Except perhaps for Ron Weasley.