Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One

Death-Eaters Strike Back

Now I must say that before I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One, I really didn't think the franchise had any artistic merit and that they were just quickly made adaptations of the books just to score money off the movie-going public. And whilst the second half may still be the case, I think I'm changing my mind on the 'artistic merit' side of things.

For those few people who haven't been caught up in the phenomenon that is Harry Potter, Deathly Hallows: Part One is the penultimate installment of the franchise, where the titular Potter along with his friends Ron and Hermione, drop out of Hogwarts school and set out across the country trying to find 'Horcruxes' (mementos storing parts of the Big Bad Voldemort's soul) and destroying them, and therefore the Big Bad himself. Since the sixth film, Voldemort has risen to be in control of The Ministry of Magic, and is starting to turn the country into a sort-of Nazi state, indoctrinating children about the dangers of 'cross-breeding'.

I know, I know, it sounds like your ordinary kids' film, but I think the dark way that the books and films have gone have only given more weight to the story. It's given the director (David Yates) and the three main stars (Radcliffe, Grint and Watson) something to finally work with and sink their teeth into. Speaking of the three leads, this film rests on them more than ever before. Thankfully, I feel that this film is their best example of how far they've progressed. They have constantly been criticised for the lack of range, but with most of the film's time being dedicated to the three being in a tent travelling the country, they are allowed to show how they can handle drama, horror, romance and comedy all in the second act of the film.

However, with the heroes deciding to leave Hogwarts and carry on without help, it also means that there is little screen-time for Potter regulars, such as Alan Rickman's wonderful portrayal of Snape, reducing their input to being first act cameos, surely to be enhanced in the second part of the finale. With the focus being shone on the three leads, the other storylines such as the fate of Mad-Eye Moody, are skipped over or briefly mentioned and never returned to, which made it seem rushed, although these could be touched on in the second installment.

Overall, I believe that this installment is the equivalent of The Empire Strikes Back in the Star Wars saga. The heroes are trying to outwit and outrun the all-powerful dark forces at work, and with help of friends as well as their own development and growth, they set up the pieces for a hopefully fantastic final chapter.

It is by far the best film of the franchise so far. It is dark, broody, emotional and filled with great action, special effects, and above all else: acting. It only annoys you that you have to wait until next Summer to find out how it will end.

Rating - 7/10

Skyline

Beam Me Up

I had quite high hopes for The Strause Brother's (I refuse to call them The Brothers Strause) film, Skyline. The marketing for the film was quite subtle and the trailers showed brief glimpses of big beefy aliens rampaging through Los Angeles and quite ostentatious spaceships sucking up Joe Publics all over the freakin' world! Despite friends and colleagues telling me my hopes were about to be crushed, I went and watched the film, and would have much rather watched the same trailer a few dozen times instead.

Skyline centres around a group of friends (including Eric Balfour and Donald "Turk from Scrubs" Faison) trapped in a Los Angeles penthouse whilst an alien invasion occurs outside their window. As the survivors get picked off one by one, the group become agitated and try to figure out a plan to escape. Meanwhile, the aliens survey the surrounding areas and meet the full force of the American Army.

Sounds like a fantastic premise, right? In that brief scenario, you have the opportunity to have heart-in-mouth moments of people desperately hiding from alien scavengers. There is potential for amazing set-pieces of alien spaceships invading the entire globe and learning of stories from all over the world of different people struggling with this tremendous event. At the very least you have the main characters go through a journey where they learn about the futility of holding grudges or wanting materialistic possessions when life is so short and precious to waste, and they develop as people despite the horrible background to the story, right?

Skyline offers none of that. You must be thinking of Monsters, which I hear handles all of those in a much better way. Unfortunately I watched 90-odd minutes of banality. The characters are painfully two-dimensional, you don't care for their safety by the end of the film, and begin cheering for the aliens to take them off and be done with them. The main part of the storyline is just based around these characters and their own personal escape and no other soul in Los Angeles is seen. This is mainly due to their budget, but it leaves you thinking they are the last people in the entire city, and I felt seeing at least a few other cities and how they were coping would have added to the alien's threat. The stupidity of the characters also seems unrealistic, and I believe that when the "Strausi" wrote the script, they were forced to put in the consierge character (played by the wonderful David Zayas) who's main point is to emphasise how "This is real! This is really happening!"

As the Strause Brothers are special effects artists themselves, it's obvious that the effects came first and the storyline second, and the effects are astounding. The first few minutes of the film where the aliens start their invasion and begin sucking people up for their crazy purpose are genuinely eerie and troubling, but it's just the rest of the film that lets it down. But even though they were the highlight of the film, they still seemed tainted as The Strausi seemed to have lifted ideas from several other Sci-Fi films as well. I stopped counting the amount of times I saw flashes of Independence Day, War of the Worlds and even The Matrix, as I lost spare fingers and toes.

Despite its potential and stunning visuals, Skyline leaves you feeling unfulfilled and angry at the obvious sequel it's hinted to. Please Strause Brothers, don't give us another Skyline. If you don't, I'll even call you by the name you prefer?

Rating - 2/10