Metacritic: 52 out of 100 | User Rating: 6.0 out of 10
Rotten Tomatoes: 46% out of 100 | 54% out of 100
Box Office | Domestic: $19 Million | Global: $40 Million | Totaling: $60 Million | Budget: $60 Million
This film attempts to be a Harry Potter clone from a very awkard point of view. It felt like a very poorly constructed spin-off of The Half-Blood Prince. A likely story constructed from the opposite side of what a dysfunctional magical family would look like. It had a variety of undertones that instead of being subtle and tastefully useful to the plot became overtures and horribly overacted moments from solid actors. The argument here then is what was the director and writers of this ridiculous film trying to accomplish by pushing their actors in this direction.
It felt like a reality TV version of the Malfoy and Gaunt families being placed on screen, only that instead of reality it was scripted poorly. This film had potential and totally obliterated itself by trying to hard to copy other sources. Whether the book originally took from those sources as inspiration and was adapted poorly I’ll leave up to you the readers. Everything from the “coming of age” aspect to the “chosen one” plot was poorly done. Even though the visuals were interesting to look at and the visual style was attempting to be creative, it wasn’t really enough to hold itself up as a unique entry. The book is far superior to the film and you get various parallels of this film with many others in the market, killing any other hope for individuality as a project.
Personal Ranking: ★1/2 (Nearly Passable)
Originally published October 28, 2014. Updated April 15, 2018.
