Harry Potter 20th Anniversary Reunion Special: A Return to Hogwarts
Reviewing as a non-Harry Potter-fanatic I’m able to confidently say that this film was very interesting for the most part; The cast and staff were mostly talking about their memories, significant events, and what they thought was fascinating as they were filming the movies. As a movie, I would have loved it if they redid a lengthened skit of a part of the movie as adults, such as the intro, but longer. The Reunion was about the original cast, directors, and people on stage coming back together after many years to talk about their memories and perception of things they had at the time they were filming the movies; such as what it took to be a character. The film is enjoyable as you get to see their real personalities shine through and their flashbacks and secrets they had on stage.
The idea of the whole Harry Potter Cast Reunion was very intriguing seeing how the former actors would interact with each other after all these years. For example, Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy)’s touching hug in the beginning. Their conversations with each other were very amicable after not seeing each other for such a long period of time. When Rupert Grint recalls the scene in the fourth movie “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” when he has to dance with the teacher hre says he felt very awkward not as the character, but as an actor because he says “I had never danced before.” and in this scene he is ridiculed by his classmates as they laugh so he was able to immerse himself in that scene quite well. At times he said, “I feel like I lost track of who I was and who the character was.” seeing as how they were kids when they began to film this Harry Potter movie series.
The visual quality of the film was very nice as well as how they transitioned from one interview to another. I enjoyed seeing the cast reminisce on the set as they would roam on the old Harry Potter set. The realism and imitation of the sets were impressive as well as the Harry Potter themed backdrops. As the people are recalling scenes, they show the specific clip of the movie they're talking about as they explain their thoughts and ideas while filming it or being filmed. The props they had used definitely gave off the same old Harry Potter vibe; maybe even better. The entire visual of the film was very appealing to the eye and gave you the intended vibe of mystical, mysterious, and nostalgic in order to get you intrigued as to what they are going to say next.
There was no acting for the reason that they were there as themselves and not the character. I was most interested in their conversations with each other as they shared how they felt in some scenes they were filming, while the other would share how they felt watching those scenes be filmed. Especially so when they expressed that they liked how the director made some scenes impactful and memorable in order to capture those moments in the book perfectly in real life. The actors themselves looked very comfortable during the one-on-one interviews as they talked through moments in the movies. In the end, I give my overall experience of the movie and 4/5 because there were parts I had a hard time watching since it was so dull. However, the film all together was wonderful, if you’d also like to view this movie, it can be watched on HBO Max.
Comments