Voldemort: Origins of the Heir

First of all, let me make it absolutely clear that Voldemort: Origins of the Heir is by all means a short film. With that in mind, it really shows how much dedicated fans can accomplish with a 15,000 euro budget and a runtime of less than an hour - with no motivation other than their love for the series.

The result is a minimalistic, dialogue-heavy film full of references to characters and events from the official Harry Potter movies/books. The inconsistencies are either too small or too few to matter, though hardcore fans might notice. It is essentially a small backstory made into a film. As such, it will probably appeal to longtime fans, but at the same time leave them wanting more, due to the film's short length.

The production values are surprisingly good for being a fan film. The special effects are nice and full of eye candy, certain sequences are really well edited, and the portrayal of Tom Riddle stands out.

It is a polished film with some memorable lines here and there. They really could have messed up on this one - and they didn't. If you are a fan of the Harry Potter series, go give it a watch. It's free (due to the non-commercial nature of the film), it doesn't stray too much from the canon, and, after all, it only lasts an hour.

I really wanted to like this, or at least find it interesting. I've been a Potterhead ever since I was a child and I always hope for the best whenever any new films, spinoffs, plays, etc. comes out. What was Voldemort's origin story? That's actually a pretty good idea for a side-story, so I hoped the filmmakers' will add some interesting twists to this question even if their work is amateurish.

But nah. It practically told everything we already knew about.

Even if you take the Harry Potter brand outside of this film, it's still pretty bad. A low budget and unknown actors shouldn't be your main source for criticism, sure, but poor execution is always hard to get past by. The story is convoluted and uninteresting, the acting (and dubbing) is poor, the dialogue is overripe, the characters (outside of a few exceptions) are two-dimensional. It's an amateurish production that's also a boring one.

The cinematography, special effects, and lighting are actually competent and are almost worth being in your average Hollywood blockbuster. Some of the ideas are good. I liked the costumes and the very beginning. There was a lot of passion and hard-work behind the camera, and I will give credit there in an age of cynical, lazy cash-grabs.

It really saddens me to leave such a harsh review on a Harry Potter-based story, and maybe I'm too narrow-minded of a viewer to not notice more positives. But Voldemort: Origins of the Heir just didn't do it to me as a fan and as a viewer. It isn't insanely stupid like that Cursed Child play book, but it's nothing more than a shrug. :( I'll review something good later. I'm tired of talking trash about everything 'cause I feel like a pessimist.

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) .

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.

This short film can't be as good as a multimilion production, of course. but the special effects were ok. some questioning 1st person video-game type gamera work. Dialogues are overal poor and dubing's making everything terrible. some moments are terribly badly played, but the montage and interogation-room format is a clever idea to tell the story, with interesting final scenes that allow the viewer to rethink the previous scenes. The actor that played Tom was actually quite remarquable.