Still mad about Harry - sneak peak inside 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"

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CAHIR O'DOHERTY,

Irish Voice Reporter

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Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter and Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

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'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows', the seventh and final adventure in the Harry Potter film series, is told in two full-length parts. After almost a decade, the young wizard-confronting-evil series shows no sign of flagging with the public. CAHIR O’DOHERTY gets a preview of the first part, and tells you what to expect.

Never mind the bad reviews coming from some British sources -- the truth is that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is easily the best of the bunch in the long running film series.

Focusing more on the main characters rather than the events that surround them, it’s the best possible film that the best-selling books have inspired to date.

The film’s opening scenes signal that big changes are coming.  Harry’s about to turn 17 and we’re in for the darkest chapter of the Harry Potter series ever committed to film.

Sure enough the next sequence involves Voldemort, the snake-like villain, and his band of heartless cronies who torture a Hogwarts teacher in a disturbing scene that sets the tone for the whole film.

But these are not comedy villains, and the violence is real and at times jump out of your seat shocking.

The message is simple -- the evil that is descending on this wizarding world looks almost certain to engulf it forever.

In the Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter is finally growing up, and so are the themes of the film.
The escape from the Dursley household on Privet Drive, where Harry spent his childhood with his Aunt Petunia (played by Ireland’s Fiona Shaw) and Uncle Vernon, is shot from the first frame like an action movie, a stylistic departure from all previous Potter films that turns out to be one of the highlights of the new flick.

Death Eaters, Harry’s mortal enemies, suddenly surround his band of supporters and the film’s body count spikes. It’s one of the most brilliantly filmed sequences in the new film and (for fans of the books) also one of the most tragic.

Ireland’s Brendan Gleeson and his son Domhnall play Mad Eye Moody, the wisecracking Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and Bill Weasley, the best looking and about to be married member of the red-headed Weasley clan.

But Gleeson senior steals every scene he appears in with his caustic wit and natural charisma, and his son has a quite job to make his presence felt in the company of his old man.

Domhnall Gleeson’s character is being wed to Fleur Delacour (played by Clemence Poesy) at a wedding that also sees Harry reunited with Luna Lovegood, one of the most beloved characters in the Harry Potter series, played by Evanna Lynch, the 19-year-old Co. Louth actress who has grown up with the series.

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