Saw the latest Potter flick for free - which is the best way to see these things.
It's better than the saccharin Columbus snooze fests and Newell's pedestrian Goblet of Fire, but still falls well short of Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban in style. None of them have been extremely entertaining and all struggle with creating a coherent story; the movies seem like segments of the books visualized and put in chronological order. In all, this entire series has never corrected the main flaw that plagues each installment - none of the writers have found a way to adapt Rowling's books.
This film is probably the most incoherent of them all (it relies heavily on newspaper clippings to progress the story, a horrible and lazy writing device), but probably the most entertaining. Yates disregards his predecessors, and drops the awe-inspiring fantasy design motif for very gritty and 70s set design. Hogwarts, something that looked magical in the Columbus films, epic in Cuaron's (Hogwarts seems huge in this one) and arcane in Newell's, looks very much like a castle in this one. It has lost its magical luster and kids certainly won't feel whisked away to a fantastic world in this adventure - even the opening sequence feels more grounded than any of the threats that the titular character has faced in the past. And while this might upset some, I think it gives the film some real credibility when it comes to hurling life threatening and impactful moments at Potter's way.
My main grievance with the films is that they've done an awful job of setting up Voldemort as a legitimate antagonist and none of the films prior had a heavy that came close to endangering "The Boy Who Lived". They were very much stories about what kind of mysteries that Harry would unknowingly walk into and survive out of dumb luck and his lineage. In that essence, I dug that he is isolated and lost his rock star status at the beginning of this film; the book describes Potter as a tortured kid that that is transported to a world where he's not a loser for once, whereas the films kind of make Potter out as a dumb, popular kid. This is the first film where it felt like Potter actually worked to save his life and/or friends for once, instead of relying on Hermoine or Dumbledore.
Furthermore, the films get a legitimate antagonist for once! Nope, not Voldemort played metro sexually by Ralph Fiennes yet again, but fascist cat-lover Dolores Umbridge. She was obnoxious in the book, but she is pure evil here and I loved it. Fuck you, Potter! Dumbledore can't save you now! This is the element all the films have been missing and the one element that Cuaron's really needed - a foe that makes you actually root for Potter and the rest of the dumb school kids. The Brit that plays her, plays her well. The same can be said for all the supporting actors.
Alan Rickman is still awesome in the few seconds they give him, but criminally underused once again. The kids around Radcliffe are growing as actors, but Radcliffe is not. He is great at handling quiet moments and that confused and bewildered look. He does a great job of nailing that introverted kid that's been whisked away into an awesome, fantastic world. But he sucks at being angry, an emotion that Rowling makes central to his character as the books progress. Radcliffe overacts in a way that would make Shatner blush; his angered outbursts seem more like staged temper tantrums than anything broaching acting.
The fight sequence at the end has been overblown by critics, it is indeed awesome to look at, but it's also woefully short. It's over by the time it began. Unfortunate. The plus side is that this is short for a Potter film, so my bladder was not dead by the credits.
It was a decent way to blow two hours. They do some good things here, but manage to keep doing the same bad things as well. I hope they manage to take the positives from this production and apply it to the last two, but five films in and I don't think any of my issues with this series will be resolved.
