It's Just Movies

— by SHERICE ANTOINETTE —

If you are like me, a Potterhead, you should all ready have opening night tickets for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I.” I’m even doing what I shouldn’t do, and that is re-reading “Deathly Hallows” in preparation for the momentous event. I did the same for “Half-Blood Prince” and was unfortunately disappointed with the theatrical version. In my opinion, too much was packed into two and a half hours and too much was omitted.

Hopefully, the decision to split “Deathly Hallows” into two films will give David Yates the appropriate time needed to do the 784-page book justice and prevent the same dissatisfaction from happening again.

Part one of “Deathly Hallows” opens in less than a month and, as expected, Warner Bros. has released a few more TV spots, eight in total, to build more buzz. Not that its really needed at this point. The franchise has held its solid fan base for years, but watching the new clips does manage to recharge a bit of the frenzy. Nowhere near the insanity that is “Twilight,” it’s still substantial.

In “Dark Times,” we catch a glimpse of Xenophilius, editor of the wizarding world periodical The Quibbler. However, the rest is pretty much bits and pieces from the second “Deathly Hallows” trailer.

“Nowhere To Hide” opens with Lord Voldemort telling his Death Eaters that he must be the one to kill Harry Potter. Dementors appear to take over the Ministry of Magic. Harry catches a glimpse of Dumbledore’s eye in his reflection. A Death Eater bites it after being hit with a spell. Bill Weasley’s wedding falls under attack. Hermione and Ron fire their wands in a pub and both Ron and Harry are struck to the ground by a large plume of black smoke. Pretty intense right? Without a question this film earns its PG 13 rating.

“Nowhere Left” has a bunch of new scenes. There’s more of the meeting between Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters at Lucius Malfoy’s residence. Harry casts a spell which throws papers behind him as he flees the Ministry. Voldemort vanishes. Hermione and Ron verbalize the dire straits they are in. A close-up of Bellatrix casting a spell. And a few more scenes whiz by a bit to quickly for me to pin down.

There’s nothing new in “They Are Coming” but the narration. It’s still worth a watch nonetheless.

“Only Hope” is loaded with epic-ness. There’s a close up of Harry in the side-car of Sirius’ motorcycle. Mad-Eye Moody has in his possession Polyjuice potion and Hermione puts a tuft of hair inside it. Multiple Harry’s come into view (my favorite as it is one of the coolest sequences in the book). Vehicles zoom through a tunnel as Harry Potter hangs on for dear life as Sirius’s motorcycle speeds along the top of it. More spell shooting at a pub. Dobby is back. Hermione and Harry dance and Hagrid guns it. Whew!

“Hang On” is light-hearted. Bits of comic relief woven in between the dark sequences, we see the Weasley twins. We hear Ron admit to Hermione’s usefulness and we witness Harry and Ginny share a kiss while George looks on. Now, this brings me to a grievance I have with the books as well as the films and it has to do with Ginny and Harry. I do not like them together. I will forever be Team Harry and Hermione, NOT Team Harry and Ginny. From that clip, do you feel any chemistry between the boy with the lightening bolt scar and Ron’s sister? I don’t. And yes I know it’s only a split second scene, but there wasn’t any chemistry between them in “Half-Blood Prince” either.

Moving on to “Best Hope We Have” and again, it’s some of the same. However, Daniel Radcliffe wearing a bra is quite humorous. The female voice coming out of his mouth even more so.

Lastly is “Final Battle,” which is pretty much a recap of the other clips with a few additions. There’s a peek at a male figure walking up the burrow. More dementors and Lord Voldemort’s snake Nagini snaps his mouth toward the camera.

So far, everything previewed is similar to what was written in the book. This gives me hope that the final installments will meet die-hard Potter fans’ high expectations. Nov. 19 can’t come soon enough.

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Follow Sherice Antoinette on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ShericesPieces.