The beginning of the end, as it were. 2001 seems a long time ago now, when we first laid eyes on Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as real life interpretations of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Grainger respectively. Back then they were young, unknown, children. Now, they're worldwide celebrities, and more importantly and tellingly, adults. The film doesn't appear to hide what it is inevitably trying to do. It is solely a prequel to the final installment, due July 2011, and doesn't really add to the series of films as a whole. Sure, the background information is handy and probably needed but surely it would've been possible to do this book in one film? The 2-part system had been considered before, concerning the fourth chapter, HP and the Goblet of Fire. They decided against it then, and in my opinion would've been better off making the same decision now. In not doing so, they have been forced, almost, to create a film that is slow and ponderous for much of its middle section, dwelling on matters that needn't be dwelled upon, adding scenes that really don't need to be added, such as the cringeworthy dance scene between Harry and Hermione, which shows nothing but Radcliffe's tendency to become uncomfortable and awkward in such a big role. Nevertheless, the film has definite high points, and has managed to keep the tongue-in-cheek humour from previous parts of the series. For example, the animated scene explaining the Deathly Hallows themselves is a surprisngly welcome addition and change of feel for the series. Overall, the film does its job, it is a good lead-up to the second part, which ought to be a lot more entertaining, however surely the Potter universe will always wonder how much better the book would be interpreted as a one parter, guess we'll never know.
London Boulevard - 4/10Haven't I seen this before? I'm sure i've seen this before. British gangster films are not hard to come by, one usually appears every year, recently the not-so-bad RocknRolla, but that was by Guy Ritchie, the guy basically invented the genre as it is today. Yet, he, nor any other director, has ever hit the heights of Snatch, or Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It's disappointing, the genre has a lot of potential. Oh well, life goes on, and more and more British gangster films hit our screens. This one, featuring Colin Farrell doing a rubbish 'Landan' accent and Ray Winstone being typecast, falls very far short of the high standards set by the films mentioned above. The plot is fairly simple, ex-con comes out of jail, tries to stay clean, gets mixed up with the wrong crowd etc etc, yet it still somehow manages to confuse itself, when you sit there wondering why you're watching the scene you're watching, asking yourself, 'what was the point in that?'. The ad campaign and trailers would suggest that Keira Knightley has a pretty big role in the film, in my opinion, her character is a side-plot. She is somewhat unneccessary, the story could have been told with her character being far more low-stated. She gives Farrell's character a job, and a love interest, but that's about it, I reckon Ray Winstone should be on the posters. Anyway, London Boulevard is a British crime/gangster movie, it tries hard, probably too hard, to stay in that bracket, and is a worse film because of it, it is overemphasised and obvious, quite a let down if you ask me.
This film isn't what you think it is. It's not another War of the Worlds, not another Cloverfield even, it's more of a mixture of John Hillcoat's 2009 post-apocalyptic interpretation The Road, admittedly a bit of War of the Worlds, and, perhaps most surprisingly, Titanic. You may scoff, but what does the whole two-characters-from-different-social-backgrounds-who-learn-from-each-other-and-share-a-forbidden-romance subplot remind you of? Told you. The story is basically that a few years before the film is set large octopus-esque aliens landed on Earth and have been pretty hard to budge, thus creating an 'infected zone'. The film comprises of two main characters, one male, a journalist who is asked by his boss to escort the lead female, who is the boss's daughter (forbidden romance much?) back home. Inevitably, things conspire against them, and they have to go through the infected zone, where they come up against rustling in the woods, obviously inhuman roars and eventually come face to face with two actual aliens. It is this scene where the moral of the movie finally hits home, a hostile conclusion ends with us asking ourselves the question, who is the title really referring to? A superb first-time effort on a shoe-string budget, a must-see.
