Written By: Dan Geer

As I was leaving the theater, I thought to myself, “Man, that was depressing.” But I was not thinking the movie was bad. On the contrary, I was contemplating just how dark Harry Potter’s story has to get before things go well for him. He has never had a good life since we began this journey with him in 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and this film only proves that point all the more.

[Possible Spoilers]

With each new film that gets released, the stories become darker and our characters get closer and closer to adulthood. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) deal more with the difficulties of romantic relationships, and dive deeper into what it is going to take to defeat the Dark Lord Voldemort. The tone of the films have gone from bright and cheerful, to dark and brooding. Even though Hogwarts has had evil breach its doors before, overall it has always been seen as a bright and happy place. With this film, it is pretty much only a place of sadness and tragedy.

The film deals with Professor Albus Dumbledore (played once again by Michael Gambon) seeking out the means to put an end to the Dark Lord once and for all, and the witches and wizards that will do anything to stop him. Of course, Harry Potter is smack in the middle of all of this, since he is the Chosen One prophesied to put an end to Voldemort. Dumbledore is seeking out former Professor of Hogwarts, Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), to retrieve vital information regarding the means to destroy Voldemort. This information is stored only in his memory, and so Dumbledore entrusts Potter in finding out just what exactly Slughorn is keeping secret and why. The answers are quite revealing, and set us up very nicely for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I and II (set to be released in 2010 and 2011, respectively).

Meanwhile, we find out that Professor Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) has been in league with Voldemort and that he has told him and other fellow Death Eaters (servants of Voldemort) that one of Potter’s enemy students, Draco Malfoy (played by Tom Felton, who has been sort of shoved in the background the last couple of films), is his choice to kill Dumbledore. Snape makes an “Unbreakable Vow” with Draco’s mother, Narcissa Malfoy (Helen McCrory), that if Malfoy cannot go through with the task at hand, he will kill Dumbledore himself. Will Potter stop them? You’ll just have to see the movie (or read the book) for that answer.

One cannot watch this film and not be completely astounded by the highly impressive cinematography here. Not only are the special effects top notch, but the somber-looking color palette used here is totally perfect for the tone of this film. Many scenes are really, really dark, and the colors are muted and gothic. We pretty much never see a sunny sky, with grey-brown clouds constantly looming over Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Dark times lie ahead in the films to follow, and this movie lets us know this through its look as well as the calamities that take place in the story. Sure, it does have its lighter moments, with laugh-out-loud situations regarding love potions, romantic infatuations and the like. But in the end the story is a real downer, leaving us with a classic cliffhanger ending.  I am eagerly awaiting the next installment after seeing this movie, which is something I cannot say for the previous films (although I have enjoyed all of them thus far).

It does run a bit too long in my book, perhaps because there is too much talking and not enough action. Some scenes and plot points are not given enough attention. But most of that can be overlooked because of the rich characters, and constantly gripping story. I cannot say how close this is to the book, but as a movie it works very well. Changes to the story are inevitable when adapting a 652-page book into a two and a half-hour movie, and I would hope that Potter fans can accept that. Book-to-movie adaptations must capture the spirit of the book and its characters, and focus on the most important storyline(s) to make it work as a film. Sometimes this requires having to condense it drastically. It is just the nature of this type of film.

After seeing this movie, I can honestly say that I am quite happy with director David Yates continuing onward with the Deathly Hallows films, and hope he can bring just as much (if not more) drama with those final films.

Rating: (out of four)