"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" Teaser Trailer Movie Review

By our guest blogger, Rob Stammitti

After eight long years, the "Harry Potter" film series will be drawing to a close in the next couple years, with the final novel in the series "Harry Potter and the Deathly Halows" due to be released in two parts, the first on November 19, 2010 and the second on July 15, 2011. It'll be ages before we get a good look at what's to come, but at the very least, we did receive a sneak peek/teaser trailer released this week, and while it shows very little, it's quite promising.

The teaser shows us brief glimpses of the many locales we'll be visiting in the film, including the forest where the three leads spend a lot of the story (at least in the novel), and we also get to see some new characters (one quick close-up shot near the beginning is surely the wily visage of the wonderful Bill Nighy, and I may be mistaken but I think we also see the back of Jamie Campbell Bower as Grindelwald, one of the film's new villains). We also get a couple charming looks at two characters we haven't seen since the first film--Warwick Davis' goblin character Griphook and John Hurt's wandmaker Mr. Ollivander. The film appears to continue the toned-down but sophisticated look of "Half-Blood Prince."

Director David Yates introduces the clip, making it a point to express how pleased he is to be the one who gets to close out the series. I can't say as I blame him. With the average of one director-per-Dark Arts teacher, the series seemed to be stuck on after original helmer Chris Columbus left, Yates is pretty lucky to have gotten both the fifth and sixth adaptations as well as the two-part final chapter (this also means he's directed the most, at four). I'm also pleased for him. He's shown a greater understanding for the material than any of the other directors, even Alfonso Cuaron, whose entry ("Prisoner of Azkaban") is often cited as the best but which I thought was a bit too focused on stylization over plot or character development.

It'll be a while before we get a proper trailer, but for now I think this teaser will please the fans. My hunger for Potter news certainly has been satisfied for now. As for everyone else who either isn't interested in the films or hasn't liked the films thus far...well, I think it's safe to say you can pass on this one. But shame on you.

View the teaser trailer for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" below. Thoughts?