stephen-chalmers

This seventh of the Harry Potter books transferred to the big screen continued the darker and more grown up phase of the development of the story. Unfotunately Harry Potter has been on the go for so long now with such long breaks between film instalments of the book that there is a feeling that it is being deliberately spun out just to keep the revenue stream for as long as possible. Harry Potter was unique and wonderful when it first appeared but I feel it is past its sell by date and remembering how it all started is a dim and distant memory. This episode has nothing to do with Hogworts School, the young (actually not so young now) wizards have left school and are seeking to destroy things called horcruxes which will in turn destroy the power of the dark lord Voldemort. This episode in the long epic story sees the final book being split into two parts, so we'll have to wait yet another year for the concluding part! There were long boring parts in which very little happened - the silent parts in a busy auditorium resulted in hearing all the distracting sounds of sweet papers rustling, people talking and other distractions which normal film sound tracks would have masked. Cannot help but feel the movie makers are deliberately spinning this out and much of this episode could easily have been condensed without losing the plot. Having said that it did contain much of the HP wizardry and the unique JK Rowling formula that has created the Harry Potter phenomenon over the last decade. I think it should really have run its course by now however.

Having read Conn Iggulden's Wolf of the Plains trilogy I came to this movie to see more of the Genghis Khan legend. Whilst the novels are themselves loosely based on the history, this movie is way off track. It is difficult to see from this version how Temujin who later became Genghis Khan could have united warring Mongol tribes. It would have needed someone with immense strength of body and character, and Omar Shrarif's character just did not portray this. Robert Morley as the Chinese Emperor was amusing but nobody else had any credibility especially Temujin's wife, Bortei played unconvincingly by Francoise Dorleac as far too western. Considering Genghis Khan achieved the unification of a Mongol nation at the beginning of the 13th Century, the film set looked more like early 20th Century Wild West. Give this one a miss, if you are interested in the history go elsewhere, if it is a good action adventure set in the Mongol steppes then look elsewhere also.

This was really a vehicle for Messrs Eastwood and Burton, nobody else got a look in and there was nothing in the way of character development for any of the rest of the cast. Although based on the MacLean novel, the historical points relating to German military procedure and behaviour were way off mark. You hardly saw the Nazi salute or a Heil Hitler at all, where historical footage from the Nazi era shows clearly that it was common, indeed required. There were loads of inexplicable things like when Eastwood crept up on a radio operator from behind with the idea of knifing him, then when discovered shot him anyway. The Germans, especially the guards, come over as just fodder for Burton and Eastwood's machine gun fire, somewhat unrealistic. Watching this for the first time you could well get thrilled with the action and suspense, but its weaknesses become all too apparent if you think about it and on a second viewing. Alistair MacLean is undoubtedly a master of suspense action dramas but the lack of attention to detail in Eagles left reality behind for a gun-toting rampage through reality and belief was a bit too much in this case.