雅思阅读材料：Harry Potter还在吗?

　　Harry Potter系列的最后一集已经在中国大陆上映了，这部伴随着很多孩子成长的电影系列也即将完结。在英国有很多人对Harry Potter系列做了很多的分析和反思，它们质疑Harry Potter的精髓随着时间而流失了，那是不是这样呢？

　　My Harry Potter specialist, 13, really enjoyed this film. It is, she reckons, at least as good as any of the ones that have gone before. The main actors still look the right ages for their parts and the special effects are great. It is darker and more scary than the other films, but then the sixth one was quite dark and theyve all been getting more and more that way.

　　She didnt find it in the least bit slow and she thought the decision to film this final instalment in two parts was the right one because the book is such a whopper it would have been a six-hour film otherwise. In fact, her only real criticism was that, even at this length, they had to cut some scenes from the book ?for example, Harrys birthday, and any explanation of why Bellatrix Lestrange thought Gryffindors sword had been stolen from her vault at Gringotts.

　　On the other hand, a few incidents that are not in the book have been added to the film, she noticed, and some of these worked really well ?such as a spooky scene when passing Snatchers are able to detect Hermione by her perfume, though they cannot see her, and she stands still until they give up and go away. The deaths of Dobby the house-elf and Harrys snowy owl Hedwig were very sad, she thought, while the stand-out performance among the other characters was definitely that of Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix.

　　So if you like the Harry Potter books and films, you wont be disappointed by Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1. And thats all you really need to know. In many ways, even before youve seen it, youll already have a better idea of it than a non-Harry Potter fan who has seen it can. So please consider the rest of this review as an optional extra ?probably best not bothered with at all, if youre potty about Potter. Farewell. Enjoy!

　　I sincerely wanted to enjoy the film too and be caught up by it. For even reviewers ?human, after all, however defectively ?hope to be entertained. But I wasnt entertained and I didnt enjoy it. I found it mind-numbingly boring from beginning to end.

　　Partly, no doubt, this was because I simply dont have the deep background in Potter studies necessary to understand lots of whats going on.

　　Near the start of the film, after his friends have taken Polyjuice Potion, the real Harry and six duplicates fly through the sky, from Privet Drive to the safe house at the Burrow, assailed all the way by Death Eaters and Voldemort himself. To me, this combat seemed to be conducted with random fireworks. In fact, these bangers were Killing Curses from the one side and Stunning Spells from the other, presumably clearly distinguishable to the initiated.

　　Then again, Harry, Hermione and Rons main mission in this part of the saga is to find and destroy Voldemorts remaining Horcruxes ?Dont let me commence, as Truman Capote used to say. Being a grown-up and then some, my capacity for interesting myself in imaginary arcana was exhausted long ago. There is so much more good stuff in the real world ?Brahms, euphorbias, Leopardi ?to find out about than one will ever have time for that it seems folly to waste any part of ones remaining span genning up on this cack. If you dont mind me saying so.

　　Leaving this little difficulty aside, its still not a good film. The three leads ? none of them, incidentally, anything like as cute as he or she was when they started, providing a little study in the difficulty of predicting the development of looks, what with chins being so forthright, noses so persistent ?can barely act at all, despite having had years of practice. The default position here is for one of them to be delivering a speech while the other two stand around frozen to the spot with stricken faces. They never plausibly interact. The huge cast of supporting actors rarely rise to the level of decent panto either, with the exception of Bonham Carter, who gives her wicked witch some welly at least. Its perhaps most sympathetically approached as some kind of pageant, rather than a drama.

　　For this narrative has no internal logic, no dynamism. The plot doesnt build ?its just one damned thing after another. Of course, the way they can just Disapparate when in a tight corner doesnt help. But, even so, this film seems to consist mainly of our heroes moping in a tent, or just outside a tent, in first this bit of countryside, then that bit of countryside, for reasons that never become quite clear.

　　Scene after scene is shamelessly padded, whether by Rowling herself or the film-makers, or both working faithfully together. So this was Harry Potter And The Deathly Longueurs for me. Harmless delight for millions, though, I know. Some of them quite big.