11/30/10

MOVIE REVIEW: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part I (PG-13)

STORY:
Harry finds himself hunted by Death Eaters, and he must find the other Horcruxes before he's found by Lord Voldemort.

POSITIVE ELEMENTS:
Ron and Hermione help Harry no matter the size of the problems he faces, and Harry's other friends take a potion to look like him to act as decoys from the Death Eaters. And after the death of a friend, he gives him a proper funeral with out any use of magic. Dobby once again saves Harry Potter from the clutches of evil, and Ginny asks Harry why they're holding a wedding during all of the attacks by Voldmort; Harry's reply is that they must hold on to good things like weddings and family.

SPIRITUAL ELEMENTS:
Magic is abundant here, wizards and witches use magic for pretty much everything; reading a will, using it as a weapon, and making protective barriers. Not as much magic is used like the other Harry Potter films however.

SEXUAL CONTENT:
Ginny asks Harry to zip up the back of her dress for the wedding, and the audience sees quite a bit of her back and they later kiss. After Fleur take the transforming potion, "Harry" is wearing a bra for a second. After they open one of the Horcruxes, a ghastly monster comes out and shows Ron, a vision of Harry and Hermione kissing passionately and later naked even though steam clouds cover most of them it's still a pretty freaky shot. Harry takes off his clothes excluding his underwear to dive into icy water for something. After Hermione takes the potion, she tells Harry that he's much tastier than Crabbe and Goyle and then says 'Oh, you know what I mean!' (She drank the potion for Crabbe in the second movie)

VIOLENT CONTENT:
There are loads of battles between Harry and Voldemort's henchmen, the first battle starts in the sky and goes on for a quite a bit. The battle takes a couple of Harry's friends, and we later see one of his friends ear cut off and blood covering his neck. Another attack claims the life of a friend who's on the receiving end of a thrown knife. And in still another melee, Ron's arm gets badly shredded by an enemy. Arguably more disturbing than these scenes are several that imply torture and cold-blooded murder. A sobbing teacher is suspended above the table where Voldemort and his lackeys strategize. In the end, Voldemort 'shoots' and kills her with his wand, and his giant snake, Nagini—it's implied—eats her. (The snake shows up in another frantic battle as well.) There's a incredible chilling scene were Hermione screams while Bellatrix carves the word "MUDBLOOD" into her arm. We don't witness the cutting, but we see its bleeding results. Harry sees plenty of small shots with Voldemort killing/torturing people. And in the animated 'Three Brothers' one of the brothers gets stabbed but you don't see the actual stabbing just a knife above his shadow, and another brother hangs himself.

PROFANITY:
Moody says that the potion will taste like goblin p---, and the words hell and damn shows up once or twice.

OTHER NEGATIVE ELEMENTS:
In the 'Three Brothers' Death looks like something from a Tim Burton movie, the monstrous creature from one of the Horcruxes looks rather freaky as well. The audience sees quite a bit of blood throughout the movie, and when during the opening scene Nagini's mouth is shown open and looks it ate the camera. In a sad scene; Hermione erases all the memories and pictures of herself from her parents.

CONCLUSION:
If you don't mind quite a bit of violence, this will make the perfect movie for teens and adults. I give it 5 stars out of 5