It is not frequently that you find yourself (at the age of seventeen) watching a film at the cinema about wizards and magic for the second time in a row. And yet, this time around, the Harry Potter saga has appealed to me quite considerably. Could this be because I feel inclined to see if any of the characters have become more attractive? Possibly. Or that I have nothing better to do now that my long and fairly uneventful summer has started? Almost definitely. Or, it could be that I have begun to realize just how closely me and others my age will feel connected to the characters/actors because I am in fact, ‘growing up’ at the same pace as them.
On reading other reviews, it has become clear to me that most people fancy the film to be unsuccessful in the tricky task of keeping audiences entertained as we reach the climax of the series. Although more often than not, it appears that certain reviewers forget that the movie is not necessarily designed for every person’s taste (it being about spells and teenage angst after all). After running through the first couple of H.P’s before seeing the movie, I am incredibly conscious of just how much the films have gradually evolved to include slicker cuts and better visually appealing scenes. I am not ashamed to say that I believe that this is the best, so far, of all the Potter films because of its simple, yet endearing moments such as when the star and his peer, Professor Dumbledore venture into a cave that has such an eerie mise en scene that even disruptive children in the cinema are awed into silence. This does however, lead me onto a somewhat negative point. Who are the films now aimed at? Children who may have liked the mystifying, if basic, first renditions of the book could now get easily lost in the plots or even affected by some of the more harrowing scenes that are now frequently used in the ‘darker’ Harry Potters.
The answer to this, I think, was answered back in my introduction. The reason I am so inclined to these films all of a sudden is because somewhere in my daft, teenage brain, I have made the connection that I too, no longer look how I did when I started secondary school, have continuous thoughts about the opposite sex but, more importantly, I am now facing huge decisions in my life (granted, these do not include the help/hindrance of a Lord of dark magic) and I find it refreshing that I am able to see film star equivalents go through the same in a fantasy world of wonder.
