Feature: Harry Potter Marathon, Part 7

YEAR SEVEN
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One

Huh. A Harry Potter film without Hogwarts. Never thought we'd see the day.

Deathly Hallows is the first film in the series to completely throw out the now established template and it's actually quite invigorating. No longer do you have the reassuringly familiar tropes of a typical year at Hogwarts - ride on the train, Dumbledore's introductory speech, new Dark Arts teacher, and so on. It's all absent here, replaced by the Potter variation on a road movie. The complete unpredictability gives it a whole new lease of life.

In the very first minutes you know we've reached The End. (Well, Part 1 of the end.) The Dursleys move out (I wonder if that's the last we see of them - if so, they did prove to be mostly pointless after all, except for establishing Harry in the first movie), Hermione leaves home (and tragically wipes her parents' memory of her), and Ron looks pensive at The Burrow. This is followed by the main title, after which we visit some hereto unfamiliar mansion as Snape arrives. It turns out to be a meeting of Voldemort and his lackeys, in something akin to the meeting of the villains in the Bond movie Thunderball. Given V's physical absence from Half-Blood Prince it comes as a bit of a surprise.

Next, several members of the Order show up at the now deserted Privet Drive to meet Harry, which means a role call of many of the characters, including Brendan Gleeson's Mad-Eye Moody, missed in the last film. Six of the characters take Polyjuice Potion so they all look like Harry, as a decoy for the Voldemort's followers. Hagrid has the task of transporting the real Harry in his motorbike sidecar to the relative safe haven of the Burrow. What follows is a great action sequence, probably one of the best in the series to date and the most adrenaline pumping, as Hagrid and Harry soar into the sky only to be immediately confronted by Death Eaters. They eventually make it to their destination but not after a scrape or two, and we quickly learn that not all the characters were so lucky. This sure isn't just a simple children's story now.

With Hogwarts no longer safe and the Ministry of Magic overthrown by the baddies, Harry is forced to go on the run searching for the Horcruxes, enchanted objects that hold fragments of Voldemort's soul, and of course Ron and Hermione tag along too. Numerous set-pieces follow, including several close shaves and an infiltration of the Ministry; there are never any moments when you feel the characters are safe. The Ministry transforms into a fascist organisation like something out of Orwell's 1984, adding to the film's at times post-apocalyptic feeling that is certainly new. The highly episodic quest narrative brings in a sense of repetition at times - each big event involves Harry and co visiting someone, only to narrowly escape a Death Eater attack a short while later. However, most of these set-pieces are excellent within their own right and extremely suspenseful at times, particularly when Harry and Hermione meet an old lady in the village of Harry's birth.

After the first act, the entire dramatic burden of the film falls on the shoulders of the young leads, and I was duly impressed with how they take the strain. All three are practically unrecognisable in terms of acting skills compared to when we first met them, and they are completely convincing in their roles. The middle section of the film has been criticised as slow and padded as it turns to a character-centric approach, but the three actors totally held my attention. Their friendship feels completely genuine at this point, making moments like when Ron (under the influence of a Horcrux) leaves the group actually a bit heartbreaking. A scene where Radcliffe and Watson share a melancholy dance in a tent is a well judged, poignant moment.

Dividing the film into two parts (beyond being a money-spinning move by Warner Bros) has allowed the script to include more from the source novel, which probably means that the film's narrative shortcomings (i.e. its at times rambling episode nature) can probably be traced back to Rowling. The film does also rely on a pretty good recollection of previous films - easier when you've watched them all in the previous week - and no doubt, once again, the book would fill in some moments that seem unexplained on screen. A first-rate adaptation still eludes this series, but still the moments where the earlier planning become evident are satisfying (such as when plot elements introduced several years prior come to the fore), proving that Rowling and the filmmakers have been careful to think ahead. There are inconsistencies, such as geographical ones, but overall it's impressive how cohesive the series is in its plotting.

Naturally, being just Part 1 of 2, this instalment inherits the series' previous habit of delivering inconclusive endings and amplifies it, but that was to be expected, and does not prevent Deathly Hallows Part 1 from being a gripping adventure that dares to deviate from the norm.