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By BAZ BAMIGBOYE
Hermione takes charge: Emma Watson steals the spotlight from Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
A better title for Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Part 1 might be Hermione Takes Charge.
At one point in this penultimate adventure, Rupert Grint’s endearingly gormless Ron Weasley tells Hermione: ‘You’re best at spells.’
She is. And somehow - and I’m not sure how it happened - Emma Watson, who has played the Hogwarts swot for a decade, has cast her spell over me. She’s mesmerising in her quiet, methodical, no-nonsense way, and is definitely the heat source in this movie.
To be sure, Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter is no slouch. He is The Chosen One after all, and the story revolves around him.
Dark side: Helena Bonham Carter (far right) returns as Bellatrix while Jeremy Isaacs stars as Lucius Malfoy (centre)But Emma’s Hermione has true grit. I felt genuine concern (yes, I know it’s silly) when scheming Bellatrix Lestrange (played by an excellent Helena Bonham Carter) grabbed her and held her hostage.
I think it’s great these tales have produced a level-headed heroine. I like that Hermione’s so together.
Then there’s Harry, and in Daniel’s more-than-capable hands he has turned into a fine young man. The ladies will surely find him mighty fine, too.
Twice, Harry strips down to his undies, revealing regular he-man pecs and abs that will no doubt excite his female fans.
There’s a heartwarming moment when Harry meets Hermione for a dance. They’re under canvas, in a tent pitched in a petrified forest; the radio is playing and they take an impromptu - and chaste - turn.
It’s a touching, tender, unexpected moment that fans of this epic movie series - this film is based on the seventh of J.K. Rowling’s best-selling novels - will treasure.
Only a muggle who’s been living under a rock for the past two years will be unaware that Deathly Hallows Part 1 is the beginning of the end for Harry’s sprawling adventures.
It’s the first instalment of two films; the second epic, Deathly Hallows Part 2, which brings us Harry’s conclusive confrontation with Ralph Fiennes’s Dark Lord Voldemort, is released next July.
Deathly Hallows Part 1 is more earthbound than the previous films, and takes us out of Hogwarts and on a road trip, of sorts, visiting real locations (as opposed to fantasy set ups) such as London’s Shaftesbury Avenue (wow!), where we follow Harry, Hermione and Ron on a quest to seek and destroy Horcruxes (the secret magical devices which are the key to Voldemort’s immortality).
Action man: Radcliffe takes a ride with Hagrid, played by Robbie Coltrane. Much of the action in this latest instalment is away from Hogwarts
Breakneck pace: Radcliffe has gone from schoolboy to adult during the course of the eight film series which has spanned a decadeThe movie runs for 146 minutes - not the longest in the series, but I’m sure there must be a spell that could have made at least 20 minutes of it disappear. Perhaps the film-makers are preparing us for Part 2, which I hear could end up being the longest in the series because there’s so much that needs to be crammed into the final mix.
Part 1 opens with Bill Nighy’s Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, intoning: ‘These are dark times, there’s no denying.’
We cut to Lord Voldemort presiding over a star chamber of Death Eaters (as his most devoted followers are called), in the baronial splendour of Lucius Malfoy’s country manor house. They meet to plot Harry’s downfall.
There’s a particularly gory scene where Voldemort trills ‘Dinner!’ and his pet viper Nagini, as thick as an All Black’s thigh, slithers onto the table to devour poor Muggle Studies teacher Charity Burbage. That’s one of the reasons the film has a 12A rating.
Nasty Nagini rears his ugly fangs again later ... this time with Harry and Hermione in his sights. Nagini will surely give young children nightmares, not to mention plenty of adults.
The amazing thing about Deathly Hallows is that after all this time the stories still have the power to enchant you, and bring you to the edge of your seat.
There are some breakneck chases, thrills and spills that should appeal to all. Brendan Gleeson’s wild-looking Mad-Eye Moody storms into Harry’s Privet Drive home and organises an elite escort for Harry to escape an impending bombardment by fleets of Death Eaters.
Spellbinding: Tom Felton (right) also returns as Draco Malfoy, seen here in a scene with his on-screen father Jeremy Isaacs
Sinister: Some of the scenes are terrifying, including those with Ralph Fiennes as Harry's arch-enemy VoldemortThey’re all there: Hermione, Ron, the twins Fred and George Weasley, their oldest brother Bill, his fiance Fleur Delacour and the rest.
Mad-Eye has a trick up his sleeve. Six of the group will gulp down Polyjuice Potion, which produces identical Potters.
With the series winding down, director David Yates and screen-writer Steve Kloves try their best to keep sentiment at bay, but I could feel a lump (just a little one) in my throat as Rubeus Hagrid arrives to provide personal security for our Harry.
I recently re-watched the first film, Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, so the moment when Hagrid takes charge of the infant Harry Potter at the start of the whole saga was fresh in my mind.
I realised I’ve spent the past decade watching the leads grow up - as have we all. Those first awkward steps; those first awkward lines of dialogue. Oh, such innocence.
Now, all of a sudden, Harry’s dancing with Hermoine, and Ron’s jealous, particularly when he has to witness a fantasy (topless!) clinch between his two best friends.
Maybe that’s another reason it’s a 12A.
It has been fun watching Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint step into adult shoes, both on and off the screen.
I couldn’t see at the beginning that Emma would blossom into such a beautiful young woman - and into someone I would miss when she wasn’t in a scene.
Neither could I have foreseen that Daniel would emerge as one of our most daring young actors. I like that he seeks work, outside the Potter franchise, that improves his craft, rather than taking the easy options.
As always, it’s a real treat to watch some of the best British thespians parade onto the big screen: Imelda Staunton, John Hurt, Jason Isaacs, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Fiona Shaw, Richard Griffiths and Julie Walters, to name but a few.
Most of them will return for the final film, and then their revels will be over. But I suspect our bond with Harry Potter will never be broken.
source: dailymail [endtext]
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