Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Pt 1

Hi Hippo Fans!  I know I am a couple weeks late on this review, as the movie came out on November 19^th, but I am just a regular person after all.  I had to do things like nap and eat, along with some laundry and yelling at my husband before I found the time to discuss my thoughts with all of you lovely people.

Now I feel those that see Harry Potter movies fall into one of 4 categories, which is really important to explain in order to understand my perspective of this movie.

(1)   The Die Hard – I’ve bought (and read) every book the day it was released and saw every movie the day it was released

(2)   The Movie Die Hard – I’ve seen every movie within a couple weeks of it being in theaters

(3)   The “I’ll wait til the movie comes out, reading gives me a migraine” kind – I want to see the movie, but not really a top priority to me; I will see it as some point

(4)   The “my girlfriend/wife/life-partner is a Die Hard” kind – enough said

I am a DIE HARD, and have been since I was 15 years old (which is when book 1 came out), so you can understand that my perspective is going to be a bit biased.  Harry Potter is huge not only to me, but in general.  So huge, in fact, that Microsoft Word corrected my spelling of the word GRYFFINDOR. What!?!  And Harry Potter holds a very special place in my heart, so this movie is monumental for me, the regular person.

As such I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and would highly recommend seeing it.  Having re-read book 7 in preparation (all 784 pages) I thought the movie-makers and screen writers did a really good job capturing all of the important elements of the book in order for it to (mostly) make sense to the average viewer.  It ended in a very sad, yet heartwarming fashion, ensuring most viewers come back for the finale this summer.

Additionally, I personally did not think the movie was too long, like I did for some of the others in the past.  Where I have some issues is more with the book itself and movie number 6.  I don’t think the 6^th movie did a good job setting the stage for the 7^th movie.  My husband, who falls into the movie-goer #4 group, was super confused and didn’t get why (a) Harry and friends gave a damn about an Elf, and (b) was like “what the hell is a Horcrux?”.  While the movies are mostly geared for those Die Hards like me, they still need to do a better job of setting up the next movie and explaining what things are.  There were things that could have been a bit clearer in my opinion.

Also, I strongly feel book 7 spent way too much time discussing Harry, Hermione and Ron on the run and too little time on the finding and destroying of Horcruxes.  This does not lend itself well to a movie.  We get it – they are camping; they are scared, people are out to get them.  Next?

To end this review, aside from re-emphasizing that you should see it and shamelessly including the trailer (below), I am going to pull together a quick reference guide for those of you who may fall into movie-goer groups #3 and #4.  This is also a list my husband should print out and read before the final movie.

• House elf – magical creature that acts as a slave to wizards and helps around the house; the exception to this is Harry and his friends – they are nice to their house elves
• Invisibility cloak – item Harry inherited from his father that makes him completely invisible
• Muggle – a wizard that has at least one non-wizard parents (ex: if your mom married Merlin and had you, you would be a Muggle); Hermione is a Muggle
• Mudblood – the derogatory word used for Muggles
• Deathly Hallows – the combination of the Elder Wand (best wand ever), invisibility cloak (what Harry owns) and the Resurrection Stone (brings people back from the dead); also what Voldemort is after in the 7^th book/movie
• Death Eater – a bad guy after Harry
• Voldemort – Harry’s mortal enemy; the leader of the Death Eaters; the man that killed Harry’s parents
• Dumbledore – the former headmaster of Hogwart’s and the man who left Harry in charge of destroying all the bad people; was killed by one of the professors named Snape in book/movie 6
• Hogwarts – the wizard school
• Quidditch – a wizard game, sort of like soccer and football?  Maybe?  But on broomsticks
• Snitch – what you need to catch in a game of quidditch in order for it to be over
• Horcrux – (this one is complicated); in order to ensure he could “live forever”, Voldemort split his soul into 7 objects – in order to destroy him, one has to destroy all of the Horcruxes; Harry destroyed one in the first book/movie, Dumbledore also destroyed another prior to book 7; Dumbledore left Harry and his two friends to destroy the rest thereby destroying Voldemort

Hope this quick reference guide helps you on your adventure through part 2 of movie 7!

Finally, as I and most of you are just regular people, I have one last tip.  When seeing Harry Potter movies solely for your girlfriend/wife/life-partner – making fun of them for crying at sad parts will guarantee you a sex drought for at least 2 weeks.  You can ask my regular husband.  Just saying.

~Corie Scarpaci