Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Title, Year:  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:  Part 1 (2010)

Director:  David Yates

Since taking over the directing reigns on the Harry Potter franchise for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, David Yates has elevated the Potter movies with his skill behind the camera, whether it involves navigating a wand bursting action sequence or guiding the Hogwarts kids through the tricky coming-of-age hurdles that they share with rest of us ‘muggles’.   As with the last three episodes in J. K. Rowling’s seven book series, the final films get a little bit bleaker each time around.   After all, growing up is hard to do.  If you throw in magical powers, family crisis, and well defined factions of good versus evil, you have a unique adventure on both the page and the screen.  What makes Harry Potter so special is the fact that Rowling has created a fully realized world.  One that feels complete, open for all to connect with, and yet very personal through how intimately it has been designed.  My wife says the Harry Potter saga will prove to be bigger than Star Wars over time.  I hate to say it, but she may be right…at least for our time.

Now back to DH Part 1.  I fully expected this to end up being my favorite Potter film going into it.  It didn’t achieve that status for me.  This is the first Potter movie since Goblet of Fire where I had actually read the book before seeing the movie.  That always creates a unique experience.  There were moments that were exactly as I expected the book-to-movie translation to occur, and quite a few where it didn’t meet my expectations.  Does this mean it was a bad movie?  Absolutely not!  Actually, I think I might appreciate it more on a second viewing, where I can focus on more than just my own vision and how well it is being represented.  As for the story, Part 1 is all about the set up to the big finale.  This is a dramatic chase film, with Harry, Ron, and Hermione doing their best to evade the ever approaching Voldemort and his band of gothic wannabe’s.  Both factions are after the same mysterious magical keys, the Deathly Hallows, as well as the Horcruxes which are so important to old snake snout himself.  Ralph Fiennes is terrific as ever as the nasally challenged version of Tom Riddle.  He’s the scariest thing since the Wicked Witch of the West in the original Wizard of Oz.  Daniel Radcliffe and crew have grown their acting chops with each film.  I was most impressed by Rupert Grint and his portrayal of Ron this time around.  He brought a maturity, sadness, and strength to his character that I haven’t seen him show before.  I thought the film could have used more of him.

In the end, after we have all seen the coming events in Part 2, I think this predecessor will feel just fine.  Most likely it will be overshadowed by the hugeness of what is coming, but necessary for the complete vision.  I fully expect Part 2 to be my favorite Potter film…and I really, really hope it lives up to it. 

Tron Legacy (2010)

Title, Year:  Tron Legacy (2010)

Director:  Joseph Kosinski

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Tron Legacy is one of the coolest movies I’ve ever seen.  It’s already a personal favorite of mine.  I grew up in the age of the blockbuster.  One of the first films I recall seeing in the theater was the rerelease of the original Star Wars.  I learned at an early age that movies could be transporting, huge spectacles of sound, sight, and emotion if done just right.  To me, Tron Legacy is done just right. 

The original Tron was a post-Star Wars attempt at bringing computer generated imagery into an epic format.  Tron turned out to be very limiting in its appeal and I recall it being the butt of more than a few jokes.   I’ll admit that I wasn’t overly thrilled when I first heard they were making a sequel (over 20 years later).  However, from the first trailer for Tron Legacy I was counting the days until this movie hit theaters. 

Tron Legacy contains a well thought out evolution of the story from the original.  It’s updated with modern pacing and makes the smart decision to create a father-son reunion to build the action around.  We find that Jeff Bridges character from the first film, Billy Flynn, vanished shortly after the first Tron left off, leaving behind a son, Sam, who is now grown.  Sam, who inherited the controlling stock interest of his dad’s company Encom, has become a misguided young man who performs acts of sabotage against the greedy corporate heads who are now in control.  I thought it was a very nice point to make Encom a future world Microsoft who dares to charge people for the latest version of their operating system.  It’s a nice wink to the Linux fans out there writing code and sharing updates for the benefit of a user community.  Flynn thinks the technology that makes people’s lives better should be free.  This is a philosophy that I found interesting to depict in a Disney film targeted to both geeks and families of geeks, and please don’t take this as an endorsement. 

That’s all I’ll say about the plot.  The meat of the movie is in the wonderful play of light, sound and very cool, heavily synthesized music provided by Daft Punk.  Everything blends so well together on screen.  The phrase “eye candy” is more than appropriate.  The movie should be watched on nothing less than Blu-Ray high definition to get the full effect.  The visual effects are a marvel to watch and certainly cutting edge.  The movie ends up coming off as The Matrix – lite.  Something you can bring your kids to and get a real kick out of yourself. 

Tron Legacy is a top notch production with state of the art technology pushing it to the highest levels of presentation.  It may not appeal to you, and you probably know before reading any review of a movie called Tron Legacy whether it has a shot or not, but I highly recommend it.

Black Swan (2010)

Title, Year:  Black Swan (2010)

Director:  Darren Aronofsky

I would like to share a bit of my history with Darren Aronofsky’s movies.  When I was in college, I remember reading all I could find about this exciting new filmmaker who, on a shoestring budget, had created Pi.  Pi tells the story of a brilliant, obsessive mathematician who believes he can and must solve the mysteries of the numerical sequence.  I recall finally finding the DVD (which was an emerging format back then) on a trip through New Orleans at the Virgin Records store in the Quarter (sadly no longer there).  Being the movie geek that I am, I snatched it up and without hesitation and paid retail price. Pi turned out to be everything I expected and more.  The film was visually inventive, briskly paced, and written with snappy, intelligent dialogue and plot lines.  I knew I would see Darren Aronofsky go off to do great things. 

Since then, Aronofsky has made several visually complex and emotionally challenging films, such as Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, and now Black Swan.  To me, Black Swan is a very close cousin to Pi in terms of visual style, dramatic tone, and story.  Natalie Portman stars as Nina, a ballet dancer in New York City whose one goal in life, it seems, is to gain the lead role in the upcoming production of Swan Lake.  The film attempts to bring you into the life of a ballet dancer, complete with the rigorous training schedule, harsh diet, and fierce competition to land the “star” role.  After seeing this film, I can’t understand why anyone would want to be a dancer.  You really would have to love it to put yourself through this extremely tough lifestyle.  As Nina, Portman does a great job making you believe that she is this focused, determined person.  She has no trouble displaying Nina’s troubled soul.  SPOILER ALERT!:  Her best moment in the film comes right after Nina finds out she landed the lead role in Swan Lake.  Her excitement is more than that.   She plays the moment with a reaction comparable to a parent who just watched their child pass away and then miraculously come back to life.  I felt sad for her.

As a whole, I felt that the movie was vulgar when it really didn’t need to be.  The ballet scenes were of little interest to me, but the downward spiral of a character such as this is usually an interesting journey to take in a movie.  This was no different.  I thought the movie was really just ok.  Aronofsky didn’t really stretch much with this one.  He has done emotional strain in a variety of ways through the years and truthfully I’m ready for him to go down another path.  I’m glad both he and Natalie Portman got attention from this film and that it showcased their talents.  However, in the end, I feel that is really all the film is good for.  Ten years from now, no one will be watching Black Swan, but I would wager Darren Aronofsky and Natalie Portman will still be making movies.

For my final note, I say watch Black Swan and make your own opinion, and definitely add Pi to your list if you haven’t seen it already.