Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 has been leaked online, ahead of its official release tomorrow. Studio Warner Brothers said it was “working actively” to remove the video, according to BBC News.
A spokesperson for Warner said the Harry Potter footage was “stolen and illegally posted” on file-sharing websites on Tuesday.
“We are vigorously investigating this matter and will prosecute those involved to the full extent of the law,” the company said in a statement, adding that distribution of the clip “constitutes a serious breach of copyright violation and theft of Warner Bros property.”
The penultimate Harry Potter film, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1, opened in some European theatres on Thursday and continues to unspooling at cinemas around the globe through Friday.
Here’s what the reviewers are saying about Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1.
Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian gave the film three out of five stars and said: “At the end of the last Harry Potter film, this series began to succumb to a bad case of what the industry calls the “Matrix Revolutions”. This is suffered by films that owe their existence purely to a marketing franchise momentum that has long since outlived the original creative excitement.”
The Telegraph’s David Gritten wrote: “Commerce always tends to trump art, and if Warners can gross close to $1 billion with every Harry Potter film, then eight of them look a better proposition than a mere seven. For all its strengths, Part 1 cranks up one’s feelings of trepidation about Part 2 – 3D or no 3D. At this rate of knots, it promises to be a long haul.”
The Associated Press called Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows “gorgeously bleak” but had reservations, saying: “It repeatedly sags in the middle before picking up at the cliffhanger climax.”
Los Angeles Times critic, Kenneth Turan gave the film a three out of five stars and warned those new to Harry Potter not to start now, since “this latest episode makes little attempt to bring newcomers up to speed.”
Todd McCarthy at The Hollywood Reporter calls the latest Harry Potter “the long goodbye,” saying that the film is “devoted above all to reproducing the novel onscreen as closely as possible.” A decision, he believes, “drags it toward ponderousness at times.”
Lisa Schwarzbaum at Entertainment Weekly gives the movie an A- and wrote: “Part 1 is the most cinematically rewarding chapter yet… Haunting every frame of this assured and beautiful first half is the knowledge that soon, in 2011, the screen journey will be over.”
harrypotterandthedeathlyhallows
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Watch the trailer here
– Frankie Mullin
