From: EATATthebonitacafe@gmail.comWITHME   
      
   Funeral wreaths at the ready, for Harry Potter is bowing out. The   
   record-breaking film series, adapted with a stentorian reverence from   
   the JK Rowling bestsellers, totters towards the exit door.   
      
   It's going, going, almost gone, and yet its long goodbye comes in two   
   separate instalments: a prolonged death rattle. Only then can the wake   
   begin.   
      
   It's not so much that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows feels at   
   times largely indistinguishable from the six outings preceding it, nor   
   even that part one offers so little in the way of resolution(part two   
   will surely take care of that). It's simply that it's hard to mourn   
   the demise of a franchise that was never more than half-alive to begin   
   with.   
      
   Does it move; does it breathe? Were it not for the fact that the world   
   has watched Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint grow up on   
   screen, we might as well have spent the past decade locked up inside a   
   waxwork museum. Part one sees Harry (Radcliffe) attempting to   
   variously evade and defeat the dark lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes):   
   the same as it ever was. *Yawn*   
      
   Ron (Grint), who wimps out for a time and leaves Harry and Hermione   
   (Watson) to go it alone. Imagine that. Weaely being a weasel.   
      
   Instead of taking hard advantage of this, the wrters and all decide   
   not to right the obvious wrong. Punt Ginny, insert Hermione. It's all   
   so plain to see. But, alas, like a bad charm on a broken bracelet, it   
   keeps coming apart.   
      
   They cling to each other for comfort as the Potter-Granger sexual   
   tension sparks and gutters between them, much as it did for Frodo and   
   Sam on the road to Mordor. Sometimes an illuminated deer will trot   
   over to show them something important.   
      
   On other occasions, Hermione will pluck an arcane connection from some   
   forgotten bit of wizarding lore, prompting Harry to widen his eyes and   
   claim that she's brilliant. In this way the plot shunts ever onward in   
   search of closure. How Potter can master the Petronas Charm yet fail   
   to corral the right girl is yet another of those mysteries, an epic   
   fail.   
      
   Purists may like to note that Ron gets to perform his signature move   
   of scuttling backwards on his hands and heels while simultaneously   
   gawping at some off-screen monster. Practice, after all, makes   
   perfect and he's been doing this a while. No wonder the clunker is so   
   attractive. *YAWN*   
      
   How will it end and what comes next? There's no doubt the Potter   
   spin-offs have been a reliable cash dispenser for Warner Bros, and no   
   denying that they are deeply loved by the legions of fans that flock   
   to see them. What remains to be seen is how they fare once the final   
   credits roll; how they will stand up 10, 20 or 30 years down the line.   
   Try as I might, I can't shake the suspicion that these films are too   
   obviously built for purpose and too lacking in wit, warmth and   
   humanity to survive much beyond the moment.   
      
   So farewell Harry Potter, the literary marvel who became a closed book   
   at the movies. You endured and you prospered. You took up space and   
   leave no trace. After all this time and all these films, it is as   
   though we never really knew you at all.   
      
   *ZZZZZZZZZ*   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)