Voldemort: Origins of the Heir (2018) Reviews

• Low Budget is no excuse here

  lukanispeltzer2018-01-15

  I was genuinely excited when this fanfilm was announced and the trailer came out. I did not expect it to be particularly great, but I am always interested in Harry Potter Fan Culture. This movie was a disappointment sadly. However, not for the reasons I thought it would be. When it comes to fanfilms on YouTube, I am used to ... no great camera work, no good lighting, no good special effects. This Fanfilm manages to do these things surprisingly well though. The camera work, the editing and the effects are not amazing but very solid, probably a result of the 15.000 Dollar Budget. So, when people defend this fanfilm with the argument that it is Low Budget, they are really missing what went wrong here, because the flaws (for the most part) are not a result of the budget: The writing is terrible. The dialogue is often horrendous (it does not particularly get better with the very distracting dubbing in every scene) and the story itself is incredibly pointless. This does not add anything new, interesting or even a little bit creative to the Harry-Potter universe. The portrayal of Tom Riddle is not very well written here, it is sometimes even a very unnecessary contrast to his character in the books. The plot is not interesting. Should it even be called plot? In fact most of the runtime is just a very boring story (that we already know), told by bad dialogue, spoken by bad actors. Its not even an hour long but feels really bloated. There is a middle section, where they show a scene out of the books, which I really enjoyed, probably because it was left out in the official movies. You can tell, in this scene, that the writing comes from Rowling, because the characters and dialogue are suddenly very exciting and focused. The rest is, to be really honest here, just not very good. The setting is... lame. The action does not feel like Harry-Potter to me. (its just coloured lightning bolts, no real curses) The plot is pointless, the twist in the end is laughably awful. I know this is a fanfilm, I know its made as a free video for YouTube. And I appreciate the work that was put into this project. But that does not mean, that I cant criticise it. Like I said, most of the flaws are not a result of the budget. Its the writing, the acting and the storytelling. I wish that people, who spend so much time and money in a fanfilm, would put more work, effort and love into the script. If you have a good story, nobody cares if its low budget.

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• Very poor storyline

  rhobariii2018-01-14

  The storyline of this movie was very poor. It is a series of flashbacks for most of the movie, and at the very end there is a "turn of events" right before the movie ends. I only enjoyed the costumes, some of the camerawork (except those mouth shots when a character is speaking...) and some of the characters. Apart from that, a poor effort. I understand it's a fan movie, but writing a good storyline doesn't cost anything.

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• Not enough money is not an excuse

  hptmbedra2018-01-14

  Let me tell you, that I appreciate the enthusiasm of the fans who made this movie and I think it is especially good for them. They took the matters into their own hands and created something and I value such a thing and it is valued by our society as a whole, I am sure. But I refuse to give 10/10 just because they are not profis and they didn't have the budget. Instead, I take the film for what it is with that in mind, that a feedback must be sincere in order to serve as basis for a future improvement. That being said, watching this film was an akward experience for me, although I really approached it with an open mind. Basically I have 3 problems with Voldemort OotH: 1) Acting. I know, not enough money, but we have already seen unknown actors giving superb performances. Here, nobody can act, literally. They were just saying replicas, they didn't live their characters. No one from the cast is likeable or connectable to. 2) The script. I was feeling sorry for the actors here. I mean come on! Just picture it. The first dialog takes place in a casual chat between Tom and his friend, and he just out of the blue says angrily that he will become the greatest wizard ever and his friend answers to it by saying something like: "Tom, I am just a second year student and I hardly know myself, but one thing I know, you will become the greatest wizard ever." It is just silly and unfortunately, the whole script is written in such an unnatural, forced fashion. 3) The film didn't add anything relevant or interesting on top of what was presented in the books. It is about missed expectations to say the truth, I expected kind of something like Man from Earth, not much cost spent on visuals or actors, but a good idea evolving in interesting story telling us something not yet discovered in the books. What was Voldemort doing the whole time away? How was his quest for a dark magic? How come his body transformed to the snaky look during the years? And so on and so on. I also anticipated some character development, story carried by a good dialogue, but it just didn't happen. I actually don't know, what the authors wanted to say with this movie. Too bad, because one doesn't need big money for a better script and a good plot.

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• An awkward experience.

  matias-897262018-01-14

  The movie looks like was made by someone who recently learned how to create the "Harry Potter magic wand effect" in After Effect and they made a 50 minutes' film around that premise. First to all, It's not an origin story. The movie only center on some random facts about Tom Riddle. Most of the film we see some generic Howard students debating about Tom and Soviet Wizards (yes, soviet soldiers in a Harry Potter movie) questioning the main character. With all that said, the plot is not the worst part. The film is full of awkward close up shot of the character's mouth or eyes while they are reacting to stuff. I know that it was made by amateurs but I've better film with lower budget, the problem is not the money, it's the lack of vision and knowledge of the Harry Potter universe. It barely feels remotely related to Harry Potter, besides the name of the character (remember the soviet soldiers) .

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• Really disappointing

  judinazena2018-01-16

  Ok, we all know it's a fan-made movie with low budget. We all understand that. But, there is really no excuse for bad acting and bad story. If we try to put acting part aside, we are left with story that just doesn't make sense. Some of us could of done better screenplay in our sleep. Especially loyal HP fans. I don't understand what Soviet Aurors have to do with Tom Riddle or his belongings. If fans that made this movie wanted to tell the story of Voldemorts origin - than they at least should of stick to he original story. The only good thing here is Tom Riddles looks (as he was described as very handsome young man in the books). But no matter how good the actor looks - he still didn't deliver the "Voldemort" effect, even when he became him. Advice - try to watch this movie (or short film, you choose how to call it) as something completely unrelated to HP world. It will help.

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