Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (2010)

“Nowhere is safe”

Well, when you’re being hunted down by the most evil sorcerer ever and everyone’s on his side, then yeah, nowhere is safe. That is the situation in the most anticipated film 10 years in the making Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.

The film follows the famous wizard and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger as they hunt down Horcruxes to destroy Voldemort. However on their quest, they run into the Deathly Hallows, which are a supposed myth that, whomever is to possess them, will become the master of Death. The Hallows prove to be the answer to defeat Voldemort once the Horcruxes are destroyed.

All this would’ve been necessary, but the film only consists of the first half of the book, where the Deathly Hallows are only explained and not elaborated.

Being a really big Harry Potter fan, I loved the film. I like the idea of splitting the last book into two films to fit everything, but then again, that didn’t seem to work out. Everything in the last book was already introduced to in the previous books, but not in their respective film adaptations. So, in this film, everything had to be mentioned that was left out in the other films, but that didn’t work out too well. I feel bad for the people who did see these films but never read the books, because the film, and I admit, was horrible at translating everything into the movie. However, people argue that some scenes in the film didn’t make sense. Well there’s a reason for a part two, duh! That “duh!” goes to all those stupid people I ran into on the IMDB discussion boards.

The film however had a lot of effort from the actors, great writing, funny scenes to lighten up the darker mood this film took, and great effects with the great action scenes. I give the film an 3.5 out of 5; I expected better to be honest (it hurts to say that).

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)

“Steady your nerves, your sleepless nights are about to return.”

…Or so they say.

Paranormal Activity 2 is the new horror film just in time for Halloween that is a sequel to last year’s Paranormal Activity. It follows Kristy, who is Katie’s sister from the first one, and her family as they start to experience “paranormal activity” after the birth of the newborn baby, Hunter.

The film takes place during the time frame of the first one, with 60 days before Micah Sloat’s death. The occurrences were caused by the same demon from the first one as it hunted down Hunter. Of course, as typical with haunted house films, the kids are the ones that experience these occurrences and the parents are the ones in denial. It then backfires on the parents and they are then forced to believe that they’re being haunted.

The film was clever but had a few tired scares, like the dragging scene and the loud bang noises. Honestly, I didn’t jump on the parts except maybe a couple. I think the only reason I really didn’t enjoy this film was because a bunch of stupid freshman in the theatre were being, well stupid. Also, there was this kid in back of me who was saying all the stuff that was going on in the film. It really pissed me off. I had to restrain myself in my seat because I was so close to jumping to the back and bashing his skull in.

Anyways, the film was clever, as I have mentioned, and I really don’t know which Paranormal Activity was better. I give the film a slight 3 out of 5, and it’s out in theatres but I recommend you wait until it comes out on DVD and Blu-ray.