In the final installment in the Harry Potter film series, SNAPE. SNAPE. SEVERUS SNAPE. Oh, and a battle. And magic. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Harry Potter.
It IS pretty weird that this is the final movie we will ever see devoted to the Harry Potter series. I will admit that I am not experiencing the same sense of finality as others are about the series. I’ve only been in the Harry Potter community for just over a year, and while I certainly have a huge attachment to these books, it’s short-lived compared to how long many of you have been reading J.K. Rowling. (I’m not setting this up to claim that this movie didn’t affect me, though. Did I cry? OH GOD.) I still have a lot going on with me and Harry Potter. I had my panel presenting Mark Reads Harry Potter today at LeakyCon 2011. (OH MY GOD IT WAS AMAZING OMG) In a month or so, I’ll be working my way through my reviews of the series to convert them to books, and I’ll still try to find time to re-read the series. On top of that, this was only my second midnight showing.
All that said, I have to admit I felt kind of sad when Deathly Hallows Part II came to an end. No more movies? I don’t get to see my favorite trio onscreen anymore? Am I going to sob softly to myself throughout the day?
I will say, right off the bat: I enjoyed part two way more than the first part, and was impressed by how many essential scenes were treated with the love and respect they deserved. The same problems I had with part one presented themselves here, but I definitely felt that that good well outweighed the bad.
Shall we, my Potter friends?
THE VERY GOOD
- I love how the dementors look in the films in general, but that image in the beginning of them floating over Hogwarts was a spectacular way to set the tone for this final film.
- For the vast majority of Deathly Hallows Part II, the CGI and special effects were not distracting in the slightest. I wanted the effects to accent the story and to replicate the fantastical story during the battle. I wanted it to feel grandiose and ridiculous. (I mean ridiculous in a good way.) Bravo to those who worked on this film, who captured so much of the horrific nature of the Battle of Hogwarts.
- How awesome was the execution of Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault? Not only in size and in detail, but the rapidly multiplying treasure was super creepy and overwhelming.
- Awesome dragon was awesome.
- I felt that, more than any movie, this one dealt with a lot of the more complicated aspects of the story in a way that was both efficient and poetic. From the way Harry’s links to Voldy’s mind were filmed, to things like “The Prince’s Tale” and how Voldemort was defeated, I knew the writers had to explain things to an audience who had not read the books without irritating the fans of the source material. I thought it was done well.
- I wish that Aberforth’s role was a bit fuller in the movie, but again, it was a great way to introduce the idea of Dumbledore’s failures. Obviously, I’ld like if it was as complete it was in the book, but enough was given to make Aberforth’s Patronus casting a satisfactory emotional moment when the Battle of Hogwarts began.
- UGH NEVILLE’S ARRIVAL IN HOG’S HEAD. MY GOD.
- Harry’s arrival into (what I think was) the Gryffindor Common Room was FANTASTIC. But it also made me realize how much I’m going to miss these characters.
- I don’t care how gross this makes me. Dean Thomas is goddamn gorgeous. There. I said it.
- I almost feel like I could spend an entire review discussing The Battle of Hogwarts. I wanted a film version of this to blow me away. With all of the funding and work given to this adaptation, I set my standards high. The scenes in this battle had to be overwhelming. They needed to be terrifying. They needed to make me feel tension, despite that I already knew what was going to happen. I know that this is a difficult demand to meet, but meant to be the biggest, most terrifying battle of the whole series. I’ll address some of the few bizarre things in this film later, but by and large, the Battle of Hogwarts was done beautifully. It was everything I wanted. I got chills when the stone soldiers jumped down, and the awe never went away. It was nice to get a chance to have it fully realized in the way it was here, to give us a chance to see the scope of the Hogwarts ground, and to understand just what they were up against.
- I’m so glad that Professor McGonagal got more screen time than I expected. She’s such a fascinating character here, as she takes a personal, emotional role in protecting the school she’s come to call home. It’s in the worry and determination on her face: she will save this castle even if it takes her life.
- Voldemort’s voice in Hogwarts was done well, as if it was a loud whisper that could simply be heard.
- Snape’s death was made so much more violent and horrifying. When I heard the location had been changed from the Shrieking Shack to some boat house, I worried I wouldn’t like it. But I have no complaints. It was done with the respect the character deserved. This might be a weird thing to say, but I liked that Harry at least tried to stop the bleeding instead of watching him die like in the book.
- The bodies of Lupin and Tonks. UGH HEARTBREAK.
- While I’m on the topic, virtually every moment Alan Rickman was on screen amounted to the best performances of the entire series. I loved the method used to give us “The Prince’s Tale.†I loved that they didn’t shy away from the actual point of that flashback. I loved that they kept the lines, “After all this time?†“Always.†Because I might have teared up? i might have. Rickman’s emotional range in this movie was so much more expressive, and it was great to see him pull of these other sides of his character.
- UGH. THE FOREST AGAIN. PERFECTION. This is the moment I lost it. HOLY SHIT.
- Harry’s death. I was initially a bit weirded out by him going up to tell Hermione and Ron what he was doing in the way he did, but in movie logic, it kind of worked super well, especially when Hermione started bawling. (CUE MY WHOLE THEATER BECOMING SOBBYCON 2011.) His march to his death was exactly as it should have been.
- KING’S CROSS. My god. So beautiful and they even showed Voldy’s dead soul baby thing!
- Every moment after King’s Cross up until that one moment we will discuss was done well. Harry coming back, Narcissa betraying Voldemort, marching to Hogwarts, Neville’s fantastic speech (I LOVE YOU FOREVER NEVILLE), and the re-ignition of the battle. UGH. SO WONDERFUL.
- McGonagall vs. Snape. The subtext dripping from this scene is FANTASTIC. Even before this, you can tell Snape hates what he is doing. You can see that when Harry starts to call him out, he so desperately wants to tell this boy what he’s actually done for seventeen years. And when McGonagall fights him, he’s saddened that he can’t reveal who he really is. For McGonagall, she’s believed Snape to be detrimental to Hogwarts for years, and now she gets to act on it. SO GOOD.
- why can’t mcgonagall and molly hang out all the time
- Ron and Hermione’s kiss. Unexpected and completely necessary.
- The Room of Requirement scene, for the most part. Done pretty much how I imagined, except for a couple things. I’ll address those in a bit.
- THEY KEPT IN MOLLY WEASLEY’S AMAZING LINE. EVERYTHING IS PERFECT.
THE NOT-SO-GOOD
- Sorry, will never accept the Voldemort Harry hug. Nope. Why are they flying AND hugging????
- Um, the Draco Voldemort hug was also awful? Why are you even touching him?
- NO GRINDELWALD. how dare you remove my queer backstory to dumbly. NO. NO.
- Um, doesn’t the movie audience not even know about Lupin’s kid???? WTF.
- why did Bellatrix/Voldy disintegrate. what.
- I have to complain about this. STOP PUTTING JOKES INTO SUPER SERIOUS SCENES TO BREAK THE TENSION. It gives EVERYTHING an awful pace. Up until the Battle of Hogwarts started, it seemed you could not go more than three minutes without a joke or a visual gag. STOP. DOING. THIS. It is unbearably distracting. I understand the need for humor and it’s not a bad thing in and of itself, but this was overkill. To give an example: WHY WAS THERE A JOKE DURING THE SCENE WHERE NEVILLE GAINS CONSCIOUSNESS AFTER VOLDY’S SPELL HITS HIM?? That did not need to be there! It added nothing! That is a deeply serious scene! (Also, I know realize this sounds like I DON’T LIKE FUN. Oh well.)
- Why the goddamn hell was Blaise Zabini with Draco in the Room of Requirement?
- Not enough Dean Thomas.
- Too much epilogue. Ginny looked like she was 19.
- NO LUPIN TEMPER TANTRUM. BOOO FOREVER.
As you can see, I enjoyed way more than I disliked in Deathly Hallows Part II. I’ve had a chance to discuss it with a lot of people at LeakyCon and I’m definitely happy with the way these films ended. I am feeling a bit more depressed that there are no longer going to be films after this, probably more so than when I started this review.
But I want to know what you all thought about it! Favorite scenes? Least favorite scenes? Were you satisfied?
(On a semi-related note, a post about the Mark Reads Harry Potter panel will go up later today as well, so swing by later on!
Personally I liked the jokes in the serious scenes, because it gave me a break from crying my eyes out. :'( Voldemort's awkward hugging of Draco was probably the most hysterical thing I've ever seen.
I wish they'd added in Harry's trip into Ravenclaw, i wanted to see the common room!
Oh, and Neville apparently admitting he was "Crazy about' Luna? I shipped them forever so I was kind of REALLY excited for the idea of them getting together in the movie, since they didn't in the books. I don't remember if the line was in the books either dskjhgjk
"I always wanted to use that spell!" McGonagall's face there is so "8>" and Molly side-eying her SO HARD LFMKDSHJG Maggie Smith still didn't have as a big a role as I thought she was, I'd been hoping for MORE of her, but I think the effects of the chemotherapy and battling cancer just put her in too much pain to do more than what she did. I'm not sure if she was suffering through it as much as she did in the last couple movies?
SNAPE'S DEATH. FFFUUU my friends and I held hands so hard. And I started sobbing as quietly as I could.
But the whole place cheered at Molly's line, cheered at Molly killing Bellatrix, Neville killing the snake, and Voldemort's defeat.
I'm more annoyed at my friend shushing me everytime I made a noise (I wasn't talking!) But every small noise of distress or sorrow or gasp made them shush me, AND they made fun of me for crying. :/ SO NOT COOL L M A O.
but anyway, mark!! it's over! ;__; HOLD ME.
I LOVED that line about always wanting to use that spell so much! McGonagall is awesome!
Yeah you can just picture her when she got hired to teach at Hogwarts, learning about that spell and filing it away for future use. Hee hee.
Yeah, I always want more McGonagall, but I was more than happy with what we got considering Maggie Smith's health. She brightens up every scene she's in.
I liked the Neville/Luna ship fine. I liked them in OotP, but by DH (books, I mean) I preferred Luna/Dean and Neville/somebody else (preferably me). Fictional love runs deep, yo.
Some girl in my theater, who obviously was dragged along by somebody, was LAUGHING at Snape's death scene. I don't remember which lines, maybe around the "Take my tears of memories" scene or the "You have your mother's eyes" bit. But a lot of people around her shushed her. Kind of ruined the Prince's Tale bit for me though. I did recognize how awesome Alan Rickman was though.
I know it's not possible, but I think the same girl was watching when I saw the film as she kept laughing at any of the emotional moments, including Snape's backstory. Made it almost impossible to be emotionally invested as I was so irritated.
Oh gosh, now I feel really bad because I sniggered at 'you have your mother's eyes'. But only because my friends and I have a Harry Potter drinking game that involves downing your drink when someone says that line, which makes it unfailingly hilarious to us. If it helps, I started sobbing straight afterwards? It was one of those laugh-or-cry moments. I APOLOGISE WHOLE-HEARTEDLY.
IT WAS YOU!!! I forgive you, especially as I had issues with not laughing at things that reminded me of AVPM. "I will kill every man [Ron gasps], woman [Hermione gasps], and child [Draco gasps]." But this girl was defending her laughter, saying, "Come on! That was funny!"
Best thing about the movie was that it ships Neville/Luna. I approve of this ship, Kloves.
Favourite scene? Oh god, my face HURT from crying by the end and I blame it on the beauty that was The Prince's Tale. I'm gonna cry again now..
Least favourite? When Snape asks the school if anyone has seen Harry, and would they step forward; then Harry steps forward. For a while there my brain froze. It was like watching some sort of weird fanfiction.
But overall I LOVED it and need to watch it again ASAP! Preferably without all the screamy people in the theatre this time..
I cried so much! D:
Zabini was there to replace Crabbe — Crabbe was written out of the last movie's script, about his actor (Jamie Waylett ) was convicted for possession of marijuana plants.
^^ this. And honestly, I don't think it made much of a difference. The Draco/Crabbe/Goyle threesome was never as played up in the movies as it was in the books; I think he just needed henchmen.
I HAD NO IDEA.
I'm actually really surprised you didn't know that. It was announced a really long time ago. Like, a year or so ago. I don't even think the first part of DH was out in theatres when they announced that.
Yeah-looked to me as if he just grabbed the first two he saw, like "HEY YOU GUYS RANDOMLY DO WHAT I SAY TIME TO DO THAT AGAIN."
They killed Goyle instead, since he was more familiar.
I'm so glad they did that, it makes a lot more sense.
I completely forgot about this! I had no idea why they'd recast Crabbe with an actor of a completely different race, baha.
they didn't recast him, they just used a different character (Blaise Zambini – he was in HBP)
I realise that now, I feel a bit silly! I haven't watched HBP since it came out and it didn't even occur to me while I was watching DH.2!
Crabbe doesn't appear in the film due to the drug charges against actor Jamie Waylett
Blaise Zabini is present in the Room of Requirement with Draco and Goyle as a replacement for Crabbe.
Yeah, Crabbe's actor didn't return for whatever reason, so they put in at least a recognizable face rather than try and convince us for a single scene that some new dude is Crabbe. I'm fine with it, and gave Zabini something more to do.
Remember, kids, drugs will get you kicked out of Hogwarts.
I think the only scene in the entire movie that I really didn't like was when McGonnagal told Filch to take the Slytherins to the dungeons.
I mean, one of them was willing to betray Harry, but that didn't mean the other ones were. I preferred the scene in the book where all the children and anyone who didn't want to stay got to leave. Made it look less as if the Slytherins were targeted by the good guys as suspect before they'd even done anything..
Plus, the castle was under attack. Shouldn't they have wanted to keep students safe, even if they didn't trust them? It annoyed me that they didn't even evac the first years.
Looked like they didn't evacuate ANYONE- there were still kids running around in the beginning of the Battle. Kinda looked like they just didn't finish, but…still.
I agree, since it totally contradicts Harry’s whole “it doesn’t matter if you’re in Slytherin” speech. Obviously it does matter, since teachers will automatically judge you and send you to the dungeons. Really, if thats how they feel about Slytherins, why are they even in the school? That line made no sense.
Yes, I hated that too, but there were a few other changes that made me rage-ier. They should have evacuated the first years and given the non-Pansy Slytherins more of a chance.
Though the books did often suggest that McGonagall was biased against the Slytherins all along and simply struggling to hide it.
ITA. There was quite a bit of uneasy muttering during that scene in my theatre.
YES. That was so out of character for McGonagall. In the books, she specifically says "please escort Ms Parkinson out" because Pansy had just proven she was not on their side, instead of SLYTHERIN IN GENERAL. Everyone cheering made it seem discrimination being validated ):
no, im pretty sure she said ms partkinson and the rest of the slytherin in the book.
checked the book and it says: 'Thank you, Miss Parkinson,' said professor McGonagall in a clipped voice. 'You will leave the hall first with Mr Filch. If the rezst of you house could follow.'
So it could be that only Pansy was forced to leave and the rest were given a choice. But I Have always read it that they were all forced to leave, which was something Inever liked about the book, Because I felt that the Slytherins were not given a chance to choose a side and defend Hogwarts.
That made me think of AVPM Dumbledore's line "I'll just put everyone who looks like a good guy in Gryffindor, everyone who looks like a bad guy in Slytherin, and the other two can just go wherever the hell they want." I didn't really care because the movies do simplify things a bit.
Yes! I agree 100%. This just helped to solidify that Slytherin = Bad in the heads of non-book readers. I didn't like it at all.
I've been doing some reading around the nets, and some of the opinions on this was that the dungeon is the Slytherins' common room. So she was basically sending them to their room.
even so, she wasn't sending the other students to their rooms
But even in the book, all the Slytherins left. And it's a moot point because in the courtyard scene, there are a few Slytherins on the Hogwarts side anyway.
I have always and will always hate Neville/Luna. I always liked the idea that Neville grew to become a well respected and all around fairly stable member of society, while Luna stayed true to herself and traveled the world looking for all those creatures she knew to exist. I also just think that getting everyone paired up like that was a bit too much, and I can't for the life of me figure out why they chose to add that to the story.
(also it's the room of requirement, not the Gryffindor commmon room. They don't specifically say so in the movie, though.)
I tend to agree, i'm not a huge fan of "Everyone must pair up with someone else in the story!" idea. I get that some people feel unhappy or betrayed that a character they like apparently ends up, off-screen and off-book, with some person they know nothing or very little about. But I think it's more realistic, especially when you've got a story about characters who are still teenagers. How many people end up with the person they were going out with when they were high school/college age?
OTOH, Matthew and Evanna have both grown up to be stone cold foxes, so at least they'd have attractive future kids.
well in other cases I'd agree on the pairing up with kids you know from school thing.
But think about it, this is wizarding Britain, almost every wizard kid their age would have gone to Hogwarts, so the chance of them ending up with someone that they didn't go to school with is considerably smaller than it would be anywhere else.
Good point. But even then if they're ending up with other ex-school people, I don't think it really makes sense to have them stick with their high school era love interests.
Beyond that, there's also the possibility that a lot of them aren't going to end up with magical partners.
But it's different still if it's people you didn't know well in school. I certainly didn't know everyone in my school and even if I did I wouldn't have known them all well.
The problem for me is more of a 'all the guys and girls hook up with their friends of opposite gender' effect.
Plus yeah, Neville and Luna are kind of cute, but I loved that J.K. made Luna this travel the world crazy adventure woman and Neville a close to home, duty to the community kind of person who ends up teaching at Hogwarts.
Besides which, it totally screws up the whole "Only the love of a Hufflepuff was enough for Neville Longbottom" thing. I mean, for god's sake, throw my house a bone. I like the idea of the group/family expanding to these new people in Neville and Luna's lives as the golden sextuplet grows up.
Beyond that, I don't think any of the characters we know from the books really appreciate and understand Luna's particular brand of eccentricity, not even Neville. It's the problem I have with Luna ships in general. You can't be with someone who doesn't or won't understand where you're coming from, and certainly not with someone who thinks you're a bit of a joke. I feel like Harry. Ron, and Neville all demonstrate that even though they love her as a friend and a person, they don't really take her seriously most of the time. How could that a healthy relationship make? I just don't see it. I mean, it makes more sense to me strictly in the context of the movies, but still…
It's freaking weird to me that they just through in a ship that doesn't exist. It's like, well, we couldn't have what we really wanted (Harry/Hermione) so let's just make this happen and then we can feel like we have more of a say.
It's like, well, we couldn't have what we really wanted (Harry/Hermione) so let's just make this happen and then we can feel like we have more of a say.
That's immediately what I thought when I heard about that line.
I kind of ship Luna/Dean, but only because Jo seemed to hint hard at it during the final book. Did anyone else notice that? And then it didn't happen? Confusing.
And I thought the Room of Requirement thing was weird because
a) It wasn't specified and
b) The kids are all in the Great Hall later, and aren't they supposed to be in hiding? So confusing.
I thought this too when I read the books. Jo definitely made it seem like Luna and Dean spent quite a bit of time together at Shell Cottage and I distinctly remember a scene where Luna grabs Dean's hand (can't find it now, but I'm sure it's there). I remember thinking at the time that they would end up together.
I'd always thought that Dean just didn't survive the battle. I mean I really hoped not, but in the book he was absent from the last bunch of scenes where we see Luna and Seamus. What was he upto? I would have shipped them too, though I wouldn't expect them to get together the day of the battle or anything.
Yes, they spent lots of time together at Shell Cottage! I definitely started shipping them a little as well. 🙂
But they don't end up together. Yes there is the one line in the movie but according to J.K. Rowling Neville marries Hannah Abbot who's the new Madame Rosmerta and Luna marries the grandson of Newt Scamander.
I know a lot of people who don't like the ending but I get why it's there. It's Harry's happy ending and a good way of exonerating everyone ("Slytherin will gain a great wizard") who was just there.
Well, there's nothing to say that Neville and Luna got married later. They could have dated for a while and then Luna could have gone off to chase crumple-horned snorlacks or whatever.
Meh. Neville/Luna is the only thing Kloves/Yates did better than Rowling for me. I also don't like the idea of getting everyone paired up, because I don't like Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny at all.
Neville/Luna was never canon. I've NEVER had the impression that Neville/Luna had any more of a shot than Harry/Hermione. And JKR says both of them marry other people. Am I really the only one who seems to be aware of this?
Kloves couldn't have H/Hr so he decide to stick Neville/Luna in there instead. *headdesk*
But hang on, they’re not in the Epilogue or anything, are they? (If so, I didn’t spot them either time I saw the film.) Maybe they just got together, went out for a few months, then split up for whatever reason. Or maybe she said “oh, that’s really sweet of you, but I’d rather be friends”, or who knows what. All we saw was him going off to tell her he likes her, and then later she comes and holds his hand or something – hardly a full on make out session!
Oh god I loved this film so much. The Prince's Tale was too much for me, as it kept cutting to Snape walking through Lily and James' house, and you can see on his face he knows full well what he's going to find upstairs.
Also, Ron/Hermione kiss was awesome. Bellatrix and Molly was awesome. Voldemort and Draco was just plain awkward.
Great movie. Even the fact I tripped and fell down the stairs whilst leaving the cinema couldn't ruin it for me. At least I made a lot of crying people laugh.
i tripped down the stairs to!
Was it just tripping day that day? Cos I tripped earlier in the day spraining my ankle and had to limp around the theater. I was wearing a Slytherin shirt and two girls near me thought I was pulling an injured Draco or something. Being overly dramatic. I just went with it.
During the whole movie I kept thinking, "You're cutting too much out and you're cutting the wrong stuff!" But later a co-worker who hasn't read any of the books told me she understood the movie fine, and relief was found. However, I do really wish they had kept Harry and Voldemort's battle in the hall and as talkative in the book -and more importantly, how Harry's self-sacrifice was protecting others from Voldemort.-
I managed to enjoy myself, and I actually enjoyed the epilogue, far less sentimental than I thought it would be based on the text- something the film managed to outdo the book on. I was glad they re-shot the scene; I'd seen photos of the make-up job the first time around and I'm just glad they realized that Harry and Co. are in thier thirties nineteen years later and not fifties.
I wasn't as happy as Mark and have lots of qualms with the film, but I'm happier that others enjoyed it more than me. I leave my first comment on Mark Watches with one final thought: So when Harry disintegrated Voldemort…did that mean that Harry inhaled some Voldy flesh-dust?
I loved the epilogue too, although I did find it weird that they aged Harry and Ron fairly decently but decided that the girls would, like, totally look old if they put them in STOCKINGS, no altering make-up at all for them. It made them look like they'd been cast as the mom in their high school plays.
(And I sort of suspect that they did it that way because they didn't think the girls would look attractive enough if they looked a day over 22. It's not very charitable, but it's the first thought that came into my head.)
I thought they looked older. Not as old as their husbands, or, god forbid, Draco, but they had crow's feet, slightly baggy eyes, and Hermione's nose was bigger. It made them look like young moms.
I've decided that magical botox had been invented and both Hermione and Ginny had some
Re; the epilogue, I couldn't help but snicker through the whole thing, because it really looked to me like children pretending to be 30 year olds (which they were). And Ron's gut, and where did they find an 11 year old shorter than Dan Radcliffe? (I kid, I kid, I liked the movie a lot, but I couldn't stop laughing quietly during the whole epilogue).
And I definitely said something along the lines of "It's going to take them forever to vacuum Voldy up" when he disintegrated. My friend did not approve. 😛
I saw it in IMAX 3D and when Voldy disintegrated, I literally stopped breathing because I felt like I was going to inhale him!
I'll keep this in mind for when I go see it in 3D lmao
i saw it 3D and there was one person reaching out to the voldie remains as if they were trying to catch snowflakes.
What's with the GRINGOTTS GUARDS WEARING MUGGLE UNIFORM? Terribly jarring. I hate it.
Personally that uniform reminded me of the Enclave uniforms from Fallout 3, which I 'then' remembered was based off Empire uniforms from Star Wars. Which were (partly) based off Nazis. The weird workings of my brain aside: it was probably just going off of the "Death Eaters = Nazi" theme. Note that those guards weren't there in the first film, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Voldemort-controlled Ministry just added Reich-Fashioned security to keep the Goblins in line.
I hardly noticed what they were wearing. Was too focused on Belltrix/Hermione getting past the goblins to the vault to care about stupid uniforms.
I didn't even think about it when they were on screen, I just understood that they were the bank's guards, and I think that's why they did it. Wizards in robes or some other costuming choice could potentially confuse the moviegoing audience (is it a Death Eater in the bank?, is it a spy of Voldemort's?, is it a character I should remember but don't?), but the guards as portrayed were immediately identifiable in their role and purpose.
You are now nitpicking, stop it.
Haha, their uniforms totally reminded me of the BAD CHASER GUY WITH A DOG'S from the Hugo trailer that they showed before the film. Not something the film crew could have had control over, but it totally broke the tension.
But yeah, I've disliked the gradually incorporation of Muggle clothing on wizards in the movies for years– it's a tiny detail, but it's all of those details that made the series's world-building so rich and immersive in the first place. I've always missed the EVERYONE IN WIZARD CLOTHES environment from the first two movies. 🙁
Agreed. I couldn't help but notice them, and they looked out of place.
Wow, what's with the people giving you snark and attitude over noticing the out-of-place Muggle guard uniforms? You're entitled to your opinion about them just the same as others are entitled to not mind them or not notice them at all! LOVE EACH OTHER, YOU GUYS. IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME WHEN WE DO THAT IN HERE.
(I also didn't care for the uniforms much. There's a decent bit of discussion over at the Cleolinda LJ about them deliberately being Naziesque, so I guess I get what the movie was going for…but it DID seem rather out of place.)
I think the guard uniforms were the same as the guard uniforms in the Ministry in Part 1, no?
First thought that went into my head when I saw them was: "wait, why are *people* working for Gringott?" – they lookes so normal and out of place I thought they weren't wizards.
I enjoyed it. For the most part, I liked the jokes, but I'll see how I feel on rewatch in a theater that isn't full of die-hard Potter fans. The one I did have a problem with is when Neville woke up after Voldy spelled him. It didn't work for me.
When Fred and George were having their chat on the roof, my heart hurt so much. And then the walk through the forest made me cry a bit. Not nearly as much as the book, where I was SOBBING for the entire chapter, but still, I was glad I had brought tissues.
Did anybody see Oliver Wood? I heard he was supposed to be there for a split second, but I couldn't find him.
I like that they were able to keep me surprised about how things were going to go down. But I didn't like Harry strolling out into the Great Hall to confront Snape. That bothered me, but I don't exactly know why. Also, for some reason I got very distracted by people's make up. Snape and Aberforth in particular. Snape also looked very waxy in flashback, but that one I can deal with.
Also, I was able to keep Starkid out of my mind for most of the movie, but the time when Voldy said he'll kill every man, woman, and child, AVPM popped into my head and I had to stifle my laughter since it was very much not a funny scene.
And can I just throw it out there how good Matthew Lewis looked at the NY premeire?
Oliver Wood was the guy on the broom who shouted "C'MON!" before swooping down into the courtyard.
I thought that Snape looked really good during the flash-back.
When Harry asks 'Professor?' and Dumbledore turns, I was half expecting him to ask 'Can you tell me how LOST ends?'. Definitely not the right time to be repressing giggles.
I really wanted the scene where Harry tells Voldemort that his spells won't work anymore because Harry died for everyone, so I could be like "but I meant to!" at the appropriate moment. As it was, I contented myself with quietly singing "Goin' Back to Hogwarts" with my roommate before the movie started.
"And can I just throw it out there how good Matthew Lewis looked at the NY premeire?"
You most certainly can. Though may I just throw out there that I think Matt Lewis looks sexyfine all the time. Especially when he has a had wound and is being a bamf.
He does. But I think the suit just added a little something something.
YES. Neville being all beat up and bloody was hott. Which may mean there is something wrong with me.
This was Oliver Wood's appearance:
<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lodmngUyiB1qd24lyo1_500.gif">
Snape's waxiness and raccoon eyes bugged me, too. CG wrinkle smoothing? The uncanny ghosts, especially Sirius, bothered me out more. I adored Kelly Macdonald as Helena Ravenclaw, though, so maybe it was just because I was used to seeing old Gary Oldman.
I need to go back in a couple of weeks when the crowds thin out and there aren't bitter people booing and shouting "oh God, not her" when Ginny first appears.
I have no memory of this scene. I was probably too overwhelmed. Oh well. The obvious solution is to go watch it again. Thanks for posting! I'll know when I should keep an eye out.
I was pleasantly surprised that Bonnie Wright tried to show some emotion on her face. I don't think she's actually done any acting since the 2nd movie. But when they redo the movies (do it soon, please! I want to keep watching!), I hope they get somebody who doesn't murder the character of Ginny.
I don't have strong feelings either way about Bonnie, but part of the problem is that Kloves wrote Ginny so terribly. She never made the transition from terrified, star-struck kid to the clever, fiery, and self-assured character I liked. She was just there, occasionally quippy, but not passionate. Her relationship with Harry was ALWAYS awkward — I will never forgive the shoe thing — and I snorted at their kiss in the movie (though that's as much Bonnie and Dan's fault as Yates').
As much as I wish they'd redo the movies with someone who actually gives a fuck about the Weasleys, Hermione's crusade against oppression, and the backstories of Neville, Snape, and Dumbledore, I don't foresee it happening any time soon. WB will milk this film series dry, and given the budget necessary to create this world, a remake in miniseries form would need a ridiculous amount of backing. I'd happily settle for that April Fools' Joke Auror teevee show, though!
I'm still sad that the April Fools' Joke Auror TV show is not real.
That's true. I shouldn't blame Bonnie for everything. Kloves just always had her hanging around, with a line maybe every other movie. But I have issues with Kloves' writings in general. There's probably a reason the 5th was my favorite.
And yes, I know, but wishful thinking. I would totally follow a TV show based on the Aurors or Hogwarts or McGonagall's adventures.
I honestly think that movie Ginny affected me liking book Ginny. I didn't read the books until after Part 1 came out and I just never grew to like her.
I just had this conversation with a friend of mine, about how Bonnie's Ginny completely ruined book Ginny for me. I'm glad I'm not the only one.
Bleah, that's too bad.
During that Fred and George scene, TONS of people in my theater let out a very sad "Awwwwwwww!"
I thought of AVPM when Voldy said that line, too. Also, in Gringotts, when the guard was coming up behind them, the uniform just made me think, "Damn those wizard cops!"
I thought that too about the guards!!!! I blame (or thank) having watched AVPS the night before the movie….
I was definitely waiting for a 'Voldemort out, bitches.'
I seriously hate people who complain about every freaking detail.. as if the uniform of the Gringotts guard actually matters…
really? that makes you _hate_ people? do you mean you hate it WHEN people do that?
Relax, Take it eaaaaaaaaaaaasy. I'm sure that's what they meant. That's a Mika song, btw.
Oh yeah <dances like a hippogriff>
for there is nothing that we can doooo ooooo…
i may love Mika a tiny bit.
Okay before I even read the rest of that I sang it in my head like Mika…
meh, criticising =/= complaining.
the devil's in the details, et cetera et cetera.
Two things I noticed that bugged me (that haven't already been mentioned):
One: did we all conveniently forget that Harry's wand broke in the other movie and therefore since he snapped the Elder Wand (I was fine with that decision though) he doesn't have a wand at all? Whoops. Also because this would have been an incredibly easy thing to fix. How simple would it have been for Hermionie to pull out the wand (she had the bag!) and for him to say "Reparo!"?
Two: is it just me, or was Oliver Wood in the previews? I saw a ton of memes of him going around after the previews came out (mainly related to YOU CAN'T BURN QUIDDITCH kinds of things), but I didn't see him in the movie. Am I imagining things? Or is it just that I saw so much of him I assumed he'd show up again, that he was actually in the previews, but he wasn't? Questions.
Otherwise, the biggest things that I didn't like were how Harry just casually strolls out in the Great Hall like the Carrows aren't going to put the paaaaiiiiinnnnn on him, how they changed Neville's parts (okay, the scene on the bridge was some nice comic relief though), and how the whole thing about Harry's sacrifice didn't protect anyone. Is that last too subtle for the movie, though? Maybe.
And overall I was very impressed with the movie. I'd be more impressed if they hadn't started cutting vital backstory from like the fifth movie, but it's too late to change that. I did have to clear some things up for my friend who hasn't read the books (including, "wait, was Snape Harry's father?" but for the most part she got it, which I'm happy about. Also, I noticed Voldemort turned into a less-monologuing villain, which honestly he really needed, lack of backstory info-dump notwithstanding. I'm going to go see this again soon, so maybe these things will bother me less now that I know they're coming. We'll see.
Okay, wow. I was wondering why Blaise was in the Room of Requirement. That explains it!
MAGGIE SMITH, YOU ARE AN INCREDIBLE HUMAN BEING. And I was glad for the most part the movie did justice to her parts (not so much the locking up the Slytherins, but okay). Alan Rickman's performance goes without saying.
I'll admit I'm a Neville/Luna shipper, so yay!
I honestly don't remember when I started crying, but it was pretty early on, since I started crying again the second I saw Fred/George up on the screen and didn't really stop for the next hour or so. And then it was full-out sobbing during the Prince's Tale and The Forest Again. Dear god, those were executed beautifully, and I absolutely loved the scene(s) where Snape was walking around the Potters' house. I liked the epilogue better in the movie than during the book (okay, did anyone else think Albus Severus was such a cute little kid?), and of course it made me cry. Still. Again. More. At the end my friend was like, "are you alright?" since she cried some but was not a complete emotional wreck like I was. Yeah, I'm fine. I've just got something in my eye. Like my entire childhood. ;_______;
I think he just decided to keep Draco's wand. It's allegiance had shifted and he never gave it back.
I think that the movie decided to cut the complicated back-story and stick completely to the idea of wand-lore. The elder-wand's allegiance is actually Harry's, ergo Voldemort can't kill him with it and it doesn't really work for him. The rest of the stuff about Voldemort taking Harry's blood tying Harry to life and Harry's sacrifice was too complicated.
Which is a decision I completely respect considering how confused a lot of us were when the seventh book came out and how much discussion I remember having with other fans before we finally worked out exactly what had happened. JKR intentionally put lots of variables in the final confrontation to make it super complicated so that it wouldn't be a sure thing – but movie audiences are more easily confused than book audiences (not because they're not as intelligent, but because movies have different ways of signalling what your supposed to pay attention to) and I tend to accept simplification as long as the simplified version is internally coherent and makes sense within itself. Which I think the movie wand-lore did.
I agree somewhat that the explanations are complicated and hence hard for a movie audience. But I think they could have simplified the explanations and included them anyway. They're just too important to lose. They are kind of the heart of everything, imo, and cutting them out made the movie less powerful than it could have been.
For instance, the blood thing is a little complicated, though I think it still could have been managed. But just say for simplifies sake they decide not to include that. Even then it would have been easy to remind us how Lilly's sacrifice saved Harry, and then include the effect of Harry's sacrifice saving everyone. I think that parallel would have been quite easy to include without any convoluted explanations. Lilly tells Harry "you have been loved…" (an added line I loved!) in the pensieve memories: dumbledore could mention that it was that love which saved Harry. Then, in the courtyard scene they could have included neville breaking free of Voldemorts curse as happens in the book, and made a big stir about it ("why is Voldemorts magic not working?"). Then all they'd have to do is include a tiny bit of the dialogue between Voldemort and Harry from the great hall scene of the book, before Voldy dies.
Harry: "I did what my mother did. She died to save me, and I did the same thing…"
Voldemort: "you didn't die."
Harry: "But i meant to, and thats whats done it. They're protected from you. You can't touch them ever again."
…Or whatever nuances of dialogue you like. But it could have worked, and frankly I think it would have made the final fight much more climactic than a simple physical/magical duel. I wanted to see Voldemorts eyes widen with fear, and then see him fall to the ground as a nothing more than a frail, dead old man.
"Wait, was Snape Harry's father?" LAUGHING UNTIL THE END OF TIME HAHAAHA
I actually didn't go to the midnight premiere (bad HP fan) but I'm going to see the movie this afternoon. I'm so glad the movie's been getting such positive reviews and they didn't change anything really important from what I can tell.
I've just got something in my eye. Like my entire childhood.
sobbing forever.
Indeed…
I think at some point I was crying more about that than about what was actually happening on screen..
"wait, was Snape Harry's father?"
Hahaha, that's exactly what my boyfriend asked me during that scene.
What I found weird is how he could break the unbeatable wand. If that was possible, someone would have done so ages ago. Just a little thing that bothered me. Even in the book, all Harry could do is place it back in Dumbledore's grave.
"someone would have done so ages ago"
Not necessarily. It's presented in the film as pretty shocking that Harry is willing to break it, not that he's capable of it. Until then the Elder Wand had passed mostly through theft and murder in attempts to gain unrivaled power. Harry just was never the type of person to value that kind of power went it meant so much trouble.
My boyfriend thought Snape was Harry's father as well. I think the movie confused a lot of people.
Mine too.
I think that the wand was damaged from his use by Voldemort, the movie made a point of it cracking during his spellcasting.
"What I found weird is how he could break the unbeatable wand. If that was possible, someone would have done so ages ago. "
I'm not sure this is what you're getting at, but Dumbledore beat Grindelwald, who had the "unbeatable" wand. That's part of JKR's exit strategy to giving Voldy the elder wand, and Harry the victory.
One: did we all conveniently forget that Harry's wand broke in the other movie and therefore since he snapped the Elder Wand (I was fine with that decision though) he doesn't have a wand at all? Whoops. Also because this would have been an incredibly easy thing to fix. How simple would it have been for Hermionie to pull out the wand (she had the bag!) and for him to say "Reparo!"?
–>> This totally bothered me too!!! Why not keep Harry's old wand? It said that his old wand worked better so why not repair it?
Me too! I complained about that for a solid 5 minutes after the movie, until my friend told me to stop. 😀
I'm not a fan of the epilogue but I have to admit, I was happy that Harry and Ginny managed to produce such adorable kids!
While some of the things they changed from the books I wasn't fond of, but the fact that they made Neville/Luna movie!canon made up a bit for those things. I have more to say but I'll just post my thoughts later.
I really, really liked this movie, but there were a few things that irritated me. Most are small- the fact that Ginny was relegated to the girl who occasionally steps in front of Harry, for example- but the way that Gringotts was handled really bothered me.
First, by not explaining the fact that the sword of Gryffindor was goblin-made, Griphook's demand for it seemed to come out of nowhere. This led to a lack of tension between Griphook & Harry as Griphook seemed to know that Harry would betray him. I felt this meant Griphook's betrayal of Harry in Gringotts was much less motivated, and led more to a "goblins are evil" kind of feeling.
This was further influenced by the fact that the "wizard guards" in Gringotts were dressed like Muggle security guards. I felt that they didn't look powerful or sinister, let alone represent that Voldemort was forcing Wizarding control over non-human magical species. Also- why didn't Hermione just hand over Bellatrix's wand, since they just pointed out that she had it, two scenes earlier?
I don't know, I felt like the goblin thing was really mishandled. When the bank manager was eaten by the dragon, people in my theater laughed. All I could think was that he had just been imperioused and kidnapped, and was now being eaten because Harry & co. had taken him hostage. That wasn't funny to me.
This kind of led into a problem I had with the Battle of Hogwarts- it seemed too small. Not in terms of the epic battles, or emotions, but in terms of the defenders. With only the order and the Weasleys coming to the defense of Hogwarts, it seemed less like a revolution against Voldemort. I mean, in the book, I got the impression that this was more of an epic last stand, with people saying that they were standing against Voldemort, not just defending the castle. Part of the lack of this, in my opinion, was that the non-human forces didn't rise up as well. Maybe it was because the CGI would cost too much, or maybe the director didn't want to take away from the human emotions, but the lack of the centaurs, thestrals, house-elves, and Grawp lessened the battle, in my point of view. Voldemort had trolls (or giants, or ogres? couldn't tell) fighting on his side, and his is the side of oppression and bigotry. Why didn't Hogwarts have their forces?
Sorry for rambling, this has just bothered me. Overall, I really thought the movie was amazing and stunning, and a really good adaptation.
The movies have been dropping the subtext that non-human magical creatures are also symbols of oppression for years though, except a little bit with the house elves. It would have seemed out of left field to have the centaurs (have we even seen them since the first movie? I forget.) show up, and working in the goblin/wizard history of antagonism and oppression that complicates what's going on with Griphook would have been too sudden and complicated, so I don't mind that they left that out.
But I also had a problem with them killing the poor innocent bank manager.
P.S. The goblins knew that Bellatrix's wand was stolen, so presenting it would have confirmed that she was an imposter.
They knew her wand was stolen? I completely missed that. I was sitting there thinking, "You just showed us that Hermione has her wand… why aren't you using it?"
I guess you're right about them glossing over the oppression thing, but it still would have been nice to have a little more involvement, if only from Grawp and the house elves, who have been featured in the movies.
The wand bit was confusing, since that's exactly what happens in the book, isn't it? Hermione presents the wand, it's confirmed as Bellatrix's and since they know it was stolen they realise they're impostors, right?
And I kept waiting for Grawp to appear with Hagrid (btw we don't see him until he's tied up in the Forbidden Forest?) and Kreacher leading the house elves and Ron's line about warning them.
I wanted to see the house elves rise up too.
I'm pretty sure there are centaurs in the Order of the Phoenix film when they carry Umbridge off and shoot arrows at Grawp in the Forbidden Forest. That was David Yates first Potter film so I actually don't think it would have been strange for centaurs to be included. I do wish all the magical creatures would have joined in on the battle but the films have always suppressed that part of the story so I guess it's not surprising. I still thought the battle was gorgeous, it's just hard for me to quiet the book part of my brain during the midnight showing. I'm quite ready to see it again!
I thought the handling of the goblins was awful. I hated that Bogrod's death was used as a punchline for a comedic Ron line. And my audience laughed too. Basically the ambiguity of the species conflict and Harry and Dumbledore's characters was completely removed.
I see the first respondent's point about the centaurs, but I think at least Grawp and the house-elves and the threstrals could have shown up. And the spiders to carry Hagrid away. I remember hipogriffs there too.
Well the movies have been using Ron to set up horrible, horrible jokes at the expense of others since forever. Like, in PoA when Snape is all "you're an insufferable know it all, Granger" in the BOOK Ron is AWESOME ("You asked a question and she knew the answer! Why ask if you don't want to know?") but in the movie he's all "He's right, you know, you are insufferable".
As a person who went to a premiere where they showed Part 1 at nine so that Part 2 could begin at midnight, I can remember that they do realize that the Sword of Gryffindor is goblin-made in Part 1. However, you are right in that they do leave out the long goblin-human disagreements on ownership rights.
Totally agree with you on the Battle of Hogwarts point. And I was so disappointed when the second wave from the Forbidden Forest never arrived; the chaos when everyone gets forced back into the castle really would have upped the emotional turmoil. Plus, I mean, Voldemort had giants and acromantulas running all over the place, would it have hurt to put in the odd thestral or hippogriff fighting on the Hogwarts side in there? Never mind how neat it would have been to see Grawp take a shot at that one giant who attacked the trio :C
I never liked Ginny in the books or movies :/
This.
I didn't hate her. I just never cared about her THAT much. I'm just glad Harry is happy with her.
They must have explained that the sword is goblin-made at some point, because I've only read the book once and that was a year ago (because I was a late bloomer, ok? I'm doing my best to get passed this unfortunate circumstance!) and yet I understood while watching the movie that Griphook wanted the sword because it was goblin-made. Could it have been explained in Part One, maybe?
He did say something about goblin-made things in the movie. I just can't remeber exactly what it was.
Since I have been a Harry potter Fan for almost 11 years this was a very sad expierience. It was also great but still..
I loved what they did with the Prince's Tale, where I just started sobbing, especially when we see Snape cradling Lily's corpse D;
I also cried when Harry used the stone and saw his parents again..*sniff*
But there were some things that just bothered me; the inappropriate jokes during the battle, the way Bellatrix and Voldemort died (what was the point of that?) and how they tried to make Daniel and co. look older, which just failed to convince me (they look like they are in their twenties). Also most of the 3d effects seemed just put in their for the purpose of scaring us.
I actually missed the whole explanation of Dumbledores story. I know that they couldn't put it in because of time constraints and all..but it still would have been nice to see.
Overall I'd give the movie 8 out of 10 points.
Twelve years and I feel as if my childhood is now gone.
I'm getting tired of people hating Voldemort's death. Go read the many explanations people gave and accept it and not just hate it cause it 'didn't follow the book'.
I didn't hate it. It just felt a little bit awkward and more like a typical Disney death.
Hate is to strong a word for that. More like peeved..
And this is purely my opinion which I'm going to stick by just as you are going to stick by yours.
First of all, I'm glad you liked it, I didn't really have a problem with it either, but I can understand where people are coming from with this. You shouldn't be getting annoyed over people disliking it, that's their prerogative, so if it bothers you that much that they dislike it, just ignore people's complaints, (and the rest of this comment, too, I won't be offended). Otherwise, I think that there are some good reasons people have for being less-that-ecstatic about it. Just because the filmmakers had good reasons for doing it the way they did doesn't mean there aren't good reasons for them to have done it another way.
So, in defense of the critics:
For the sticklers to the book, I think that it's just that the death was such an iconic scene in the series, that they really wanted to see it, as they were familiar with it, on screen.
I think that one of the issues with the scene has more to do with the lack of info dump, and while I definitely think that would have bombed cinematically, changing that bit — of Harry explaining shit with everyone gathered around, meant that not only did the audience not get a lot of interesting plotty things, but presumably neither did any of the characters on screen.
Second of all, I think it's an issue of the sense of finality that is created. Even though Voldy blowing up is arguably more final than him just dropping, because there was no one there to witness it like there was in the book, how are the character's going to know that it's truly over without Voldy's corpse to show them? On top of this, Voldemort disintegrated in a very similar fashion in the first movie, and he wasn't dead then, so…
Finally, I know I at least thought "oh god, people are going to be breathing in little Voldy bits now," and that thought kind of ruined the drama/tension of the scene.
In re Bellatrix and Voldemort I assume it was so that it would look cool for people seeing it in 3D. And in Voldemort's case especially, neither of them had much of a soul left after their many murders so their bodies were just shells. It could be an ashes to ashes, dust to dust reference as well.
But mostly it was something to justify paying for 3D.
but this was the shortset of all the movies, when it should have been the longest. they easily could have added in the Dumbledore story and not had a time problem.
The thing that I really hated was the anticlimaticness of Voldemort's downfall. Nobody seemed to care. To put in into perspective, at the end of the first film everyone in the Great Hall was standing up, cheereing, throwing their hats in the air, hugging each other, jumping up and down… and that was just because Grfyffindor had won the house cup. Yet now the most feared wizard who ever lived who has been responsible for hundreds of character deaths and every bad thing ever in the entire series has FINALLY been defeated… nothing happens. Hagrid gives Harry a quick hug or something then walks off, but that's about it.
And like everyone else it seems, I really didn't like the explodey-paper deaths of Bellatrix and Voldy. That was so weird.
Also, I thought Fred's death was very badly done. It was way too brief, we never even get a close-up of which Weasley it actually is that's died, and Arthur Weasley is just STANDING NEXT TO HIS BODY LOOKING BORED. Your son's just died; show some emotion.
ANYWAY… those are the only 3 big things I didn't really like. Loved pretty much all the rest of it! Seen it twice already, need to see it a third time soon. Still can't quite accept that now it's all over….
Well I thought it was good that no one cheered, after all many of their loved ones had just died. It would have been jarring if after the defeat everyone would start to dance and sing while the corpses of friends and family are lying about five feet away.
I did not like that aftermath. I wanted the exultant crowd crushing Harry in that giant group hug, and the constant shaking of hands he had to do, and Luna helping him escape so he could go off with Ron and Hermione.
So weird how they were just holding hands staring into the distance. Like they knew they were in a movie and were about to bow. The whole finale from Voldemort's death to that moment was incredibly gloomy and monotone instead of a heady mix of emotion .
I think everyone was just too tired to have a big cheer. People have lossed loved ones and the schools been destroyed, it would have seemed a little unrealistic for everyone to just be cheering and shit like that
At the very end when they were panning through all the people sitting down after the battle, Mrs Weasley is smiling. I was like 'YOUR SON IS DEAD CRY OR SOMETHING.'
Hell, even Bonnie looks devestated and she hasn't had any emotions on her face for years.
I agree completely. In the books, the final Harry/Voldy battle happens in front of an audience. But in the movie, it's just them alone and it just felt so anticlimactic. Also the disintegration was like K WTF?
Fred's death had the potential to be so much more. And I didn't like how Percy was kinda "just there"; it would've taken a few extra seconds to establish the fact that it was a big deal that he was there and Fred's death in the books is so much more heartbreaking because Percy and his other family members seriously freak the fuck out. My friends and I were discussing our issues with Fred's death in the movie and just talking about the book!death made me cry so much more than the movie!death did.
I was also kinda weirded out by Snape crying over Lily's dead body. To me, that was overkill… And makes no logistic sense. But the conversations he had with Dumbledore before and after Lily's death? Beautiful.
Overall, it was such a satisfying ending!
I forgot to mention a few things…
I think Voldy's death would've been more powerful if he had just died normally (ie without all the papery disintegration) because just having a dead, lifeless body of this … thing that has terrorized the Wizarding World for so long, I think that in itself is already very poignant.
The non-reader who'd come with us thought that Snape was Harry's father. His exact words were, "obviously Snape was skulking in the shadows as Lily and James Potter were having sex and his greasy black hair just migrated over and thus the threesome began!"
Harry telling his friends that he was going to go and die made movie sense, yes, but the emotional weight of the moment kinda got dulled by H/R's reactions. I mean, how do you react when your best friend says "k gonna go die now bai!"? Honestly, there's probably no way to actually get that part right. If they'd just filmed Harry looking on at the couple sitting alone on the steps and going another way, it would've been perfect since he basically explains his intentions as he opens up the snitch in the forest.
And I know there was no point in having the invisibility cloak in the movie and that's probably why they nixed it. But the only reason it's there is really to emphasize the completeness of the Deathly Hallows being reunited.
I would have been ok with that scene of Harry telling H and R if Ron's reaction had been better –especially if Ron had tried to stop him. Your best friend is going to go let himself be killed and you're not even going to hug him? (btw Why do Harry and Ron -never- hug or touch in the movies? Is it some sort of homophobic bro thing? It comes across as the filmmakers being completely uncomfortable with straight men touching evar. So weird! I don't get it. It comes across as ridiculous).
But honestly, I think if Harry had told R and H his intention to give himself over to V, Ron's reaction would have been "no, Harry, don't do it, we'll find another way, dont't–". Book-Hermione would have tried to stop Harry too. I was ok with movie-Herminone understanding, but I think movie-Ron should have really protested and tried to stop him, and Harry should have had to break away from them to keep going. Also I can't imagine that scene without all three of them at least swallowing tears.
So in all, a hard scene. Much easier, less explosive, and poignant just to have Harry look at them from under the cloak, as you say.
well, the only time they EVER touched in the books was after Ron killed the Horcrux in the locket 🙂
"I think Voldy's death would've been more powerful if he had just died normally (ie without all the papery disintegration) because just having a dead, lifeless body of this … thing that has terrorized the Wizarding World for so long, I think that in itself is already very poignant. "
I couldn't agree more. Well said.
Oh my God, that stupid chase scene with the damn snake. I WILL HATE THAT FOREVER!
It ruins the mood, breaks the tension, makes Hermione and Ron both look stupid, and seems to exist purely to make Neville less awesome. I literally can't imagine any reason for this scene at all other than a bunch of movie-makers sitting in a room having a conversation like this,
"Do we have to let Neville Longbottom destroy a Horcrux? I mean – Neville Longbottom – ugh!"
"I guess we'd better do it or the fans would be TOO upset," *as grudgingly as humanly possible* "But we can at least make sure that it happens far away from anyone else so only Ron and Hermione see it. No one else in the wizarding world ever has to see him doing something that cool."
"Oh, and instead of having Harry tell Neville to kill the snake, we'll have him say it to Ron and Hermione and Neville will just help them."
"That's BRILLIANT! That way, instead of Neville taking the initiative to fulfill an important task given to him by Harry, he just sees Ron and Hermione fighting and randomly swoops in. Even HE won't know that what he's doing is important."
"Man, we're geniuses."
I quite honestly challenge you to put forth any other motive for including that entire scene. There isn't one.
I'm sorry, but you know nothing about movie making, don't start to insult the creative minds behind these movies like if they don't care for the story. They clearly do. Obviously this was done to create a sense of urgency, and they accomplished it.
I was terrified for like ten minutes that Neville wasn't going to kill the snake at all. I seriously would have walked out if Ron had done it.
I also thought this for a few awful seconds- and then Neville slashed that thing and the faces came up in smoke and it was SO. BADASS.
Same here… I was clutching my Hufflepuff scarf (like I did the whole last hour of the film…) and just thinking over & over again "They can't change this, they can't change this… change everything, but not Neville's badassery!"
Me too, in every way.
seriously. When Harry told Hermione about the snake but not Neville my first thought was "Dammit Kloves, if you have Hermione steal Neville's big scene I will hate you forever."
I was absolutely terrified that Kloves would have Pink Power Ranger Hermione destroy Nagini. SO terrified. Thank god Neville got his moment of badassery.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one struck with terror that Hermione would be the one to kill Nagini.
Maybe they wanted Voldemort to lose his last horcrux during his fight with Harry, thereby making it clear to people who aren't as familiar with the books that Voldemort was at his most vulnerable and it was finally time for him to die?
But it actually ended up confusing people who hadn't read the books. Since Voldemort's…what I call, "confetti moment" happened so close to the snake-killing, my cousin and a few others had actually thought that Neville actually killed Voldemort himself by killing Nagini, considering the fact that Voldemort like, disintegrated.
I think the movie would have become too predictable for fans of the book had they not changed it. We know that Neville pulls the sword from the hat and beheads Nagini. You see the sorting hat in his hand for much of the prior scenes. You're waiting for it. This is when the tension starts rolling. Voldemort gets distracted by Harry's escape and we just know that the snake is going to die in the next moment. Instead Voldemort is on his game and he blows Neville away. I honestly wasn't sure how Neville was going to manage it, but I was still sure that it would be him.
I like what they did with Hermione and Ron because it makes them look too idle had they not tried to contribute to the snake's death.
The creators clearly didn't want to downplay Neville's moments of glory. If they wanted to do that they wouldn't have given him a powerful but understated speech, the chance to blow up a bridge full of snatchers, nor would they even mention that he was hiding out ever since he refused to perform the Cruciatus Curse on 1st years. Be reasonable. Him swinging in at the last moment was just as badass as killing Nagini immediately.
The movie achieved more tension than the books and made it clear that Neville was saving Ron and Hermione from certain death. The book plays strangely anyway. How did he know that he would pull the sword from the sorting hat of all things? He knew right away to slaughter the snake, too. I'm not sure that Harry even told him in the book the significance of Nagini. He just went for it. The movie may have been an improvement in this regards except for the fact that she explodes into dust. They probably were trying for PG13.
In the book, Harry told him killing the snake was the most important thing. In the break in the battle, in fact. There's no way Neville would not know killing the snake was Very Important.
An unfortunate thing about this change, is that for people who knew the books, it gave tension for the wrong reason. I shouldn't be worrying about a character's awesome getting undercut. I should be worrying about them surviving. It was incredibly distracting, and the friends I was with were giving me confused looks through that too because, as they said later, they ere having the same concern.
And intended or not, Neville's moment was downplayed. His confrontation in the courtyard was, honestly, kind of laughable. It wasn't just the DEs who were tittering during it, at least not when I was watching it. They took a simple moment of defiance and made it an awkwardly sappy and uncomfortable speech.
I guess I sort of understood why they did it all. I just felt of all the changes from the book, this was one of the weakest. It didn't turn out bad, but it wasn't really good either.
Okay did ANYONE else laugh when Voldemort was laughing during Neville's speech? XDD
Seriously, he's just SMILING and laughing!
You're not alone. I think half of those in the theater and I laughed pretty loudly too. For some reason Voldemort's laugh made me think of AVPM's Voldemort instead.
He was pretty awkward, but I think that was deliberate. Shows that he doesn't really know emotion. Same for the awkward Draco-hug. He's having a go at that "affection" thingybob, but it's been so long that he just isn't convincing.
My problem with the snake chasing is that it erases one of the points of Harry's death. The point of it was to destroy the Horcrux inside Harry and to make Voldemort so assured of his victory that he wouldn't keep protecting his last horcrux anymore. In the movie Voldemort only keeps Nagini next to him, but doesn't put it under magical protection (I really wanted to see the giant crystal ball) and seems to completely forget about it when Harry exposes himself.
That's not true, Voldemort was spending the entire time trying to keep Harry away from Nagini. That was the whole reason for the extended duel: Harry was trying to get at the snake so he could then kill Voldemort, but Voldemort was trying to stop him, and they became focused on each other. Incorporating Ron/Hermione into it gave them something extra to do, and then Neville still gets his big moment in the sun. Everyone wins, I thought it was all amazingly done, very sensible, very suspenseful. The only thing I didn't like was Harry and Voldy flying around, which was rather stupid, but everything else was beautiful and that bit only lasted like 30 seconds so I can deal with it.
YES! THANK YOU!! They dragged out that scene with the snake sooooo much and it was unnecessary. In my opinion (and I know not everyone will agree), it completely detracted from the awesome of the moment instead of keeping it short, punchy and badass. It also took away the beautiful moment of friendship between Harry and Neville where he entrusted that important task to Neville.
DID NOT LIKE. AT ALL.
"I quite honestly challenge you to put forth any other motive for including that entire scene."
1. Allows them to extend Harry Potter's battle with Voldemort, padding it out to an appropriate length for the climax to an eight-film series without sacrificing the pace.
2. Establishes snake as even more of a threat.
Nagini was very passive in the books – aside from that moment in book 5, she doesn't do anything particularly dangerous. Which was kind of missing a trick, considering it's a horcrux that fights back. The producers saw that trick and went "hey! This is clearly a cool thing, let's stick it in there."
Honestly, I really liked all the new bits. They really felt in keeping with the Harry Potter universe and that's just grand. For once, it felt like it was the BOOK that left bits out just as much as the film, so faithful were they to the characters and the tone. Seamus and Neville blowing up that bridge is my favourite scene-that-never-was.
I also think it's pretty grand that, even four years after the final book was published, we're getting to see our favourite characters doing a few new things. I had no idea how the bridge thing would turn out and that's just stellar.
Neville, incidentally, snake-knowledge or no snake-knowledge, comes across a lot more badass in this film than in the book, I'd say. The snake thing is bold to do right there and then, but it's at Harry's behest. Neville shows a lot more autonomous leadership and authority here than he ever did in the books, and that's just grand.
I'm not a superfan, though, so hey. Grew up with the books, read 'em several times over, but I don't spend the film worrying whether X character is going to be portrayed in a way that I feel is appropriate, I just look forward to the adaptation for adaptation's sake. So do feel free to take any of the above with a pinch of salt, I completely acknowledge that this isn't my world as much as it is yours.
Did anyone else find it REALLY WEIRD when Dumbledore and Harry talked about Snape's patronus in King's Cross? They way they were talking about it was almost as if it wasn't significant because Snape loved Lily but because Snape was Harry's father. That seriously misled every non-reader I have spoken to.
Also, something really subtle that I LOVED was how Voldemort's skin started to peel with each Horcrux that was destroyed. I remember him looking at his arm at one point in the movie and the skin was starting to peel away, and then it was happening around his head nearer the end. And I loved how he started losing his balance and his posture and voice were clearly weakening as the movie went on. It was wonderfully realised, that is actually something I prefer to the book, where he didn't feel anything. It gave a real sense of progress with each Horcrux destroyed and made him seem more deadly.
On a related note. Voldemort walking through pools of blood and corpses at Malfoy Manor has to be one of the most disturbing images ever.
I thought that was at Gringotts. Still, as you said, seriously disturbing.
And I agree that showing Voldemort affected by the destruction of the horcruxes was a good decision.
Favorite scene? It's a tossup between The Prince's Tale and The Forest Again. Both well done, and both had me in tears.
It probably would have been better if there had been some reminder that James' patronus was a stag. The symbolism of that has always signaled to me that James and Lily were meant to be together as proper partners, but that Snape's obsessive and unrequited love did not necessarily signal any kind of compatibility.
(I also think that Voldemort's indiscriminate slaughter occurred at Gringotts and that it was one of the most chilling scenes.)
Nah it was definitely Malfoy Manor, you can see the table and the armchairs and the pipe organ in that scene. And while we're on the subject, I loved that they had Voldemort's parseltongue subtitled. I mean, I've been wanting subtitles on Parseltongue for years.
I liked that the second movie didn't have subtitles on Parseltongue because it emphasized how weird Harry looked from outside. But after that, they could have started using them.
I don't remember any subtitles on the Parseltongue at all? It actually took me a second to realize he and Nagini were having a conversation.
YES!!! THAT SCENE OF VOLDEMORT TALKING IN PARSELTONGUE TO NAGINI WAS THE FIRST TIME THE CHARACTER OF VOLDEMORT HAS COME ACROSS TO ME AS TRULY, PERSONALLY FRIGHTENING AND TOTALLY BELIEVABLE. He stopped being Evil in an almost cartoonish way in my head, and became so real. The subtitles were so important to that. They made me feel like I was getting a glimpse into the workings of Voldemort's mind, something personal to him. It was chilling and very effective.
But they never mentioned that James's stag was a patronus in the first place! PoA completely missed out the whole Marauder backstory.
I hadn't even noticed that his skin was peeling.
My mom thought Snap was Harry's father. Why was that even brought up at King's Cross? I interpreted it as Harry trying to get Dumbledore to talk about his secret-keeping.
I guess to let the people who only watch the movie know why Snape responded to Dumbledore's question by conjuring a patronus. It would have seemed weird and random otherwise.
Yeah but they didn't have to insinuate that Snape was Harry's father, which almost every non-reader now seems to think. They could have addressed it and had Dumbledore say outright that it was because Snape simply loved Lily so much. Instead we got a weird ambiguous line that hinted at Snape being Harry's dad, and hinted very strongly.
Really? The friends of mine who didn't read got that it was because Snape loved Lily, not that he was Harry's dad. Otherwise it would've been addressed by more than just some weird line, you know? I feel like Harry would've been given another scene to process this fact. But whatever. Kloves, ya dun goof'd.
LOL I agree. A lot of my non-readers friends were confused at that part and asked me if Snape is Harry's dad. So Star Wars hahaha. I think because they cut out the "mudblood" detail and never mentioned that Snape and Lily broke off their friendship, hence the unfortunate misunderstanding.
so snape isn't harry's father?
My favorite scenes that I can think of right now are the Fred/George chat and the epilogue (which I originally really disliked before coming to enjoy it in the books).
Until reading this review I thought Harry was cradling Snape and that damaged the scene for me.
Too many of Neville's scenes were hurt by bad jokes, like him taunting a section of the army alone and then having to run, and where he got hit by something and woke up to find the sword. In that last scene it felt as if he was just a dope who was stumbling into the role, even though I saw that he pulled the sword out and understood it to be connected to Dumbledore's comment about those who deserve it (which I didn't like as muchas the original). The scene where he suddenly likes Luna was kind of jarring and forced. I didn't like his speech either.
Where did Grindelwald show up in this movie and ruin Dumbledore's backstory?
That also reminds me that I didn't like the King's Cross scene. Too awkward and cryptic and giving no resolution to Harry and Dumbledore's relationship, though I understand that that wasn't as important in the movies.
I thought 'The Prince's Tale" was done a bit over the top with Snape cradling Lily, and my mom thought it meant he was Harry's real father.
I really enjoyed the shield and the soldiers and Voldemort's voice. Which appears to have a similarity to the Ringwraith's in that some people were covering their ears and making agonized faces. And the dragon.
Don't know why they had Griphook die. I thought they had given him the fake sword because it was disappearing, but maybe that was to prevent confusion when it appeared from the Hat later, and to make it seem as if Griphook didn't deserve it. They made him really bad here and left out that Harry was going to doublecross him.
I wish they hadn't had Lavender die for sure. Someone pointed out to me that Colin Creevey was shown for an instant as a corpse.
But the thing with Lavender is that in the books, she was attacked by greyback as well. And I didn't mind it that much, because I didn't think it was a definite death, though it was a very, very chilling scene. And Colin (and Dennis) died in the books as well.
The scene with Greyback attacking Lavender was the one that finally broke me… after that, I was a sobbing mess for the rest of the film
I was shocked by the Greyback/Lavender scene too. But I also felt that they FINALLY got Greyback right in that scene. He was seriously one of the most disturbing characters to me in the books.
>I thought 'The Prince's Tale" was done a bit over the top with Snape cradling Lily
dude, he's seeing the corpse of the one woman he's ever loved, this is probably the first and last time that he ever got to hold her like that, and she's just been taken away from him.
Grindelwald wasn't even mentioned as part of Dumbledore's backstory (in this movie). That's why Mark thinks they ruined it. No story of their great friendship and plans for the future. No mention of Gindelwald's involvement in Ariana's death. No real explanation for Aberforth's resentment.
Oh I thought he had somehow shown up and I missed it. Yes, hurting Dumbledore's story erases most of his character including his gayness. That was one emotional thread I really missed.
Not only that, but in DH Part 1 Grindlewald tells Voldemort that Dumbledore has the elder wand. In the book the whole point is that he doesn't, and his last act is one of love in order to try stop Dumbledore's grave being desecrated.
Grr..
ngl I never put that together before. I love these books so much–there's always something new, no matter how many times I've read them.
EXACTLY. Made me unreasonably angry. It was, after all, the one thing that separated Grindelwald and Voldemort — Grindelwald had made the one effort to repair his soul, Voldemort never tried.
I don't want to sound like I'm complaining too much because I loved the movie, I really did. I even thought the Ron and Hermione kiss was an improvement on the book.
But I feel like in the last half-hour or so, the scriptwriters completely lost the plot. I have to disagree with you Mark, the good-bye moment between Harry and Hermione served no purpose and hit all the wrong emotional notes. It made Hermione look weak for not trying to stop him and Harry look heartless for not being sadder to say goodbye to his friends for the last time. It would have been so much more emotional and dramatic to have him simply look into the Great Hall at Hermione comforting Ron as he continues to mourn over Fred. It would have emphasized his isolation in addition to showing us what he was willing to give up, in addition to what he's dying to protect.
Oh, and apparently it is a good-bye scene between Harry and his friend Hermione, awkwardly witnessed by Hermione's boyfriend Ron, because the seven-year friendship between Harry and Ron doesn't merit a hug, or a tear, or even a word when it's about to end in death. It played like whoever was directing instructed everyone to forget that Harry and Ron even knew each other.
Moving the Harry/Voldemort fight outside away from everyone else made it LESS cinematic, not more. And, incidentally, how did the Wizarding World know that Voldemort was even dead? NO ONE SAW IT HAPPEN! And then his body disappeared. Did Harry just waltz into the great hall all, "You can stop fighting now, I totally killed him even though there's no body or anything?" Voldemort and Harry's epic fight was supposed to end the battle. Inside, the battle probably kept right on going as no one even knew it had happened.
I hate harping on this because the movie did SO MUCH that was right, but the ending is so important it colors everything that went before, and these three huge, pointless mistakes – (the de-awesoming of Neville, the pointless and grossly mishandled good-bye scene, and the dumb Harry/Voldemort chase fight that removed all the witnesses) have spoiled my experience so much that I'm having trouble even concentrating on on the fantastic Gringotts sequence or the epic-ness of the initial Battle, or even Alan Rickman's stellar performance.
Agreed on all these points. I didn't mind the battle itself but I minded that there were no witnesses and no emotions. I have mixed feelings on the goodbye scene, because in the movie things are more simplistic and so having him go off without saying goodbye like he tried to do in the beginning of part 1 sort of denies the togetherness lesson from that previous scene and Ron's subplot. But it really was wrong to have no emotion resting on Harry/Ron.
Oh, I loved Hermione going to hug Harry. It felt so real and sad.
But I feel like in the last half-hour or so, the scriptwriters completely lost the plot. I have to disagree with you Mark, the good-bye moment between Harry and Hermione served no purpose and hit all the wrong emotional notes. It made Hermione look weak for not trying to stop him and Harry look heartless for not being sadder to say goodbye to his friends for the last time. It would have been so much more emotional and dramatic to have him simply look into the Great Hall at Hermione comforting Ron as he continues to mourn over Fred. It would have emphasized his isolation in addition to showing us what he was willing to give up, in addition to what he's dying to protect.
Oh, and apparently it is a good-bye scene between Harry and his friend Hermione, awkwardly witnessed by Hermione's boyfriend Ron, because the seven-year friendship between Harry and Ron doesn't merit a hug, or a tear, or even a word when it's about to end in death. It played like whoever was directing instructed everyone to forget that Harry and Ron even knew each other.
—
It was emotional, it shows how mature they are too. They find out Harry is a horcrux but they don't stop him because they know deep inside that this fight is much more important than their individual lives. That if they truly want to kill Voldemort and put a stop to all this tragedy, they will need to let Harry do what he must. Hermione's "I'll go with you" still shows us that they don't want to accept that fact but they must.
By the way, Ron did cry. During that moment when Harry looked up and saw Ron's face, that was enough. It like "I know it hurts but be strong and defeat Voldemort when I'm gone". It's just that Hermione already suspected he was a Horcrux when they destroyed the Diadem, so it hit her more than Ron, who was probably in shock.
I agree with this. I think Ron and Harry did have a moment. Harry looked at Ron over Hermione's shoulder and they knew it was the end. They're bros, they don't have to hug goodbye.
I don't get why Hermione would ever suspect that Harry was a Horcrux. :S They have to have SOME things that she doesn't know. I think movie-Mione is *too* all-knowing.
I agree that it seemed to unravel at the end, and there needed to be an audience to Voldemort and Harry's fight. They had all suffered at his hands, but after Harry died to protect them, they were invulnerable and deserved to see Voldemort die so that they would never have to worry about him popping up again. Having corpses as their only audience for the fight divorced Harry from the people he loves and who love him back. He's thought that fighting Voldemort was his destiny alone, but he's always needed and received help, and now that his friends are safe, they should have been surrounding him for the end.
Agreed so much on all of this! The movies have never really explored Harry and Ron's friendship very well, compared to how close they are in the books. HARRY/RON = OTP. So yeah, that scene really bothered me, especially because it leaves out Harry telling Neville about Nagini. I always loved that moment of trust he leaves in Neville to carry on the mission. Though they did do a great job with Neville in other ways. NEVILLE, I LOVE YOU.
The flying apparating has always bugged me in the movies, but the Harry/Voldemort hugging to another part of the castle where there are NO WITNESSES was just nonsensical. Plus I really looked forward to watching them circle each other in the Great Hall with everyone watching, and Harry asking that no one help.
And since when does Avada Kedavra cause wizards to disintegrate? In the books Voldemort dies much more pathetically, which I thought was sort of the point.
I still loved so much about the movie, but these things and a few others (particularly the way McGonagall dismisses all of Slytherin house in one swoop without a choice. Wtf was that?) are my biggest gripes.
Completely agree with everything here!
I think it was the producer loving the Harry/Hermione thing – it's definitely not the first time it feels like Ron's been reduced to a shadowy third wheel. WHY COULDN'T WE HAVE A GROUP HUG OR SOMETHING ;__; I would've loved it if she hugged him and he goes and just silently clasps Ron's hand for a second and exchange a glance.
And yes, I thought that Harry/Voldemort was not as epic – there was no sense that this was the pivotal moment of the battle, that everyone's hopes and futures rested upon the fight. Even without the whole spiel about sacrifice, which I think was the ultimate point in the books (moreso than the tension-filled 'omg will they kill the Horcruxes in time so Voldemort can die?' which they emphasised in the film), there needed to be a feeling this was IT. This was the moment. And I guess yeah, it marred the experience for me a little.
I think Harry/Voldemort was not as epic because there was no dialogue. My sister pointed this out to me after the movie: Without dialogue, it was a purely physical/magical fight. Nothing intellectual or emotional going on, no clashing of ideologies, no Voldemort's eyes widening as he realizes Harry may have a point. A purely physical fight is much less interesting and satisfying than a fight with emotional and ideological subtext. To use an example from another universe, that's why the fights between Luke and Vader/the Emperor in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are so tense and so much better remembered than the squirmishes in the Star Wars prequels: Luke and Vadar are battling over their different ideologies and they have their personal relationship as father and son complicating their every move. The fights are interesting because there's so much subtext, so much meaning going on under every move.
In the book, the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort also has that sort of satisfaction, because Harry brings it up. Voldemort: "Is it love, again?" Harry: "basically, yeah. You don't get it. I do. Snape did. It's going to be your downfall, and I'm going to prove it,Tom." Voldmeort: "Oh shit. What if the boy's right?"
I mean… that thing where the hero and the villain talk before they duel is a clishe for a reason. It allows everything that's at stake to come up. I really think they should have kept that in.
I actually liked that Harry and Ron didn't say anything to each other. When they didn't even hug I was starting to get a little angry but then I realized, like, what could they say? What could Ron say, or Harry? I spent a minute trying to think of one thing, but even something like "Thank you" or "Good luck" seemed so cheap and …well, cheesy.
I like that they are still best friends WITHOUT having said anything. They didn't need to say anything. They understood each other perfectly.
I do wish they had given more of a lingering moment, maybe just a slight hesitation before a hug or something like Hermione got, but I'm satisfied. Eh.
"made Hermione look weak for not trying to stop him"
No, I think it made her look strong. In the same way Harry was strong for choosing to die. Hermione knew he was a Horcrux and hadn't told Harry cos she was scared, but when it came down to it, she knew what had to happen as much as he did, and she was willing to go with him to stand up to Voldemort.
I will agree about how awkward it was Ron just standing there, but that's always been a problem in almost every trio scene.
Also, it was some of Emma's best acting.
I think movie!Ron should have tried to stop Harry, or tried to argue at least. It would have been more messy, but including that scene opened a whole can of emotional worms and they should have gone the whole way and done the scene properly if they wanted to include it at all.
I bought that movie!Hermione would react with acceptance because of the implication that she's known this could happen for a while. That means she's had time to gain some sort of acceptance. Movie!Ron hasn't had time to come to terms with it, so having them treat it as though he accepts it in a second didn't ring true for me at all.
Also it would have emphasized to the audience what a drastic thing Harry is doing and, I think, made it all more frightening and uncertain, if one of his friends tried to persuade him out of it. He's really walking to his death. There's no chance of survival. It would have also emphasized that this is Harry's choice, no one else's.
Ron's reaction for me was so underwhelming it either played down the seriousness of what Harry was about to do, or played down the friendship between Harry and Ron. And the way I saw it, it did the latter. 🙁
Completely agree with everything you've said! Hated the goodbye scene because it goes against the character of the trio – there was a reason Harry didn't tell them he was leaving in the books, and part of that reason is because Ron and Hermione would NEVER just let him walk away. Also kind of annoyed me that Hermione had guessed he was a Horcrux – yes she's a genius but she doesn't know EVERYthing.
And I wanted everyone being shocked at Harry's death and then him appearing again, alive, to be way more amazing.
Um, yeah, the directing was like that because David Yates is a hardcore Harry/Hermione shipper.
Agree with most of your points but I thought they did get the Harry/Ron friendship in because even though Harry was hugging Hermione, he was looking at Ron. It's a classic strategy to show how one character is really focused on another character. The way the camera lingered on their eyes and how they were looking at each other showed that even though Ron hadn't guessed Harry was a Horcrux (hated Hermione knowing and Ron not knowing), they understood each other in that way which was too deep for words.
This movie was strange for me! The last time I left a theater after seeing an HP movie without being disappointed was Chamber of Secrets. And this movie really had all the same flaws– they left significant things out, they changed things for no apparent reason, the scenes they did include could have been better– but…
I LOVED IT. How amazing was that movie?!?! I was so satisfied with it! And I can't really articulate why. I'm sad they left out Dumbledore's past, I thought their handling of Snape's backstory with Lily gave the wrong impression, I don't understand why they changed certain things but left in others– it's not okay for the gold in Bellatrix's vault to be hot but it's okay for a goblin to get torched to death and to see the bloody aftermath of Voldemort killing and torturing people…?– but even with all of those things and everything else that I felt like could have been better handled… I loved it. So satisfying! I'm so glad this movie was finally, finally one I could really enjoy. BASICALLY I WANT TO SEE IT AGAIN IMMEDIATELY OMG
also my theater burst into straight-up applause and cheering at several points which was SUPER AMAZING, such a fun experience all around. *________*
You know, the vault scene was weird, I kept expecting them to start screaming from the burning, but then when they reach the shore doesn't Hermione take out something from her bag and they rub it on their hands before they change? It doesn't make sense.
She does! Maybe in the movie their hands were just sore from… clinging to a dragon for however long? I'm not sure. I was really surprised they took that element out of the vault scene, though– they make so many changes for the sake of being cinematic, it seems like, but they went and make that scene LESS tense and exciting.
Or they didn't want to deal with burning object when the multiplying did what it was meant to do.
Maybe? I just know that while being buried under the weight of multiplying gold would be scary and difficult to get out of in RL, of course, on screen it just looked sort of… silly? Like JUST WALK OUT OF IT!! But yeah, I could see them cutting it as an unnecessary special effect or maybe even something that would be too intense for the rating they were going for when combined with other scenes, but I know for me it made the scene come across as more… unintentionally campy/silly than OH NO THEY'RE BEING BURIED!!
Yeah, I thought that scene with Hermione and the Dittany was weird.
But when I saw it again this morning, I thought it was that they all had cuts on them from the glass they went through escaping Gringotts. They did go through a chandelier AND a glass dome.
I thought at the time it was something to keep them from getting Hypothermia. since they had just jumped into a lake in Britain at goodness knows what time of year (I suppose it is should be May but still). She also has the guys change clothes right away.
You know, comedy in tense scenes isn't always there to break the tension. Sometimes it actually makes things more suspenseful. North by northwest is a good example. I think some of the comedic scenes in part 2 were doing this well.
This. And I swear some of the laughter around me had a slightly *~hysterical~* edge from all the emotions!
Alan Rickman, Academy Award nominee. Someone should get on that shit RIGHT NOW. Because he was totally amazing.
THIS. In the book, I was rather underwhelmed with Snape's death scene, but in the film? Probably the most well done death I've seen in quite a while. I really wish there had been more of a chance in the films for Rickman to show off his acting prowess, but at least we got this exceptionally good bit.
I agree. He was incredible.
I basically only watched the movie for Snape, because DH is one of my least favorite novels. The only parts I enjoyed were Snape's, and Alan Rickman was absolutely phenomenal.
Why did all the Death Eaters laugh when Neville Longbottom stepped forward? This actor does not look small and wimpy anymore, and the Death Eaters haven't seen him in his 11-and-clumsy stage. Do these adult dark wizards sit around all day and gossip about who's the nerdiest kid at Hogwarts?
it's because of Neville's limping that he appears weak which stirs some laughter by the death eaters because, well, they were hoping for some strong, kick-ass, disloyal hogwarts kids. Not a limping boy holding a hat.
Mob mentality? One kid versus a host of scumbags, p. sure that's all the incentive they'd need.
"Longbottom"
Exactly. That's what I thought. The name "Neville Longbottom" seems quite easy to make fun of.
Not to mention they knew his parents.
Do these adult dark wizards sit around all day and gossip about who's the nerdiest kid at Hogwarts?
It would be four kinds of awesome if they did. I imagine they don't have much time for entertainment, and you know Bellatrix badmouths Neville whenever she gets bored.
^ This. That sentence made me laugh. <3 they totally do this! And that Death Eater (Scabior?) touches up the red streak in his hair and Bellatrix makes fun of his plaid pants or something.
Being just plain evil isn't enough. They have to be bullies to pass the time.
I bet they get into shipping flame wars, too. Except, Bella uses feindfyre and everyone else is too afraid to disagree with her.
because he's a Longbottom, and I'm pretty sure that news of what Bellatrix did to his parents was at least discussed by the death eaters. Also, he's one kid against dozens of death eaters so I'm sure there was a bit of "is this it?" being felt by them. They also probably firmly felt that there was no way one kid could do any sort of damage to them
Or how about when Voldemort announced when Harry was dead. I bent over to my friend and was like, "That's a terrible joke."
I think they started laughing when he said his name. I assumed the Death Eaters were all familiar with his parents and how they died. I figured they were laughing about that.
Not sure if someone answered this but Blaise was there because the actor who plays Crabbe/ Goyle (I can never keep them straight) was in jail and wasn't allowed out.
The movie kind of sucked, like all of them do, but I'd expected that.
Overall, I think DH1 is the best movie of the eight.
I loved the film, I really did. I was a mess by the end. But there are some things that really bothered me.
I wanted to see Harry using the Cruciatus Curse on Amycus after he had spit on Minerva. It showed that Harry wasn't perfect and I admit it, I get a lot of satisfaction from reading that scene. I mean, how dare you spit on her?
And Ginny. Why why why do you have to ruin her character so much.
Why did Harry break the Elder Wand before repairing his own? I actually threw my hands in the air when I saw that. Harry's wand was so important to him, and it wouldn't have taken them more than ten seconds to have him repairing it before putting it back with Dumbledore where it belonged.
And since I'm nit-picking, I wanted Ron's line about warning the house-elves before the kiss. And watching the trailer, I already knew I wasn't going to like the final confrontation between Voldemort and Harry. Why are they alone? And then his body disintegrated. The effect was cool, especially with 3D, but still. No witnesses!
There are other things, but all in all, it was the best film ever and I have to see it again. I'll probably find other things feel offended in my fangirl heart.
Oh, did anyone understand how Harry got that shard from Sirius' glass? Was it ever explained?
I have many of the same feelings as you! I kept waiting for Harry to pull out his wand and fix it when he was holding the Elder Wand, but then he put his hands on it to break it and I -almost- yelled at him to stop. That was disappointing. Good job Harry. You don't have a wand anymore. Now what are you going to do?
I was okay with the kiss, they had all these lines about how brilliant Ron was being all movie, so that equated to the same thing for me. Though I preferred that it was in front of Harry in a spur of the moment way in the book? I don't know I just preferred it that way rather than having them be holding hands and just shrug at Harry and look sheepish.
And the mirror thing confused me, because Harry had a shard of glass from the mirror on Aberforth's mirror, but Harry's was supposed to be a shard of the one he had destroyed in the bottom of the trunk, and Aberforth's was the one Mundungus stole from the Black house. Technically, that shouldn't work.
Oh my god I forgot about wanting Harry to be there for the kiss! 'OI! There's a war going on here!'
And yes the mirror thing is very confusing, since Harry never got the mirror from Sirius in the movie! And in DH1, if I remember correctly, Harry just has that shard, it's never explained where he found it.
At the end of Ootp, Harry threw his mirror into the trunk it broke and most of it slowly ground into mirror dust except that one conveniently sized peice. In the begining of DH when Harry is cleaning out his trunk before he leaves on his ~epic journey~ he cuts his hand on the shard of the mirror and he puts it in his little moleskin pouch from Hagrid. But I don't think any of that was in the movies, so that would lead to some confusion as to why Harry randomly has this piece of glass.
Yes, the wand thing was stupid.
Unfortunately, without Hermione's S.P.E.W. backstory and Kreacher's (and by extension, Ron and Harry's) character development, that line wouldn't have made much sense as the impetus for the kiss. I wish it – and the whole backstory – had been in there as well, because it was such a great moment, but I understand that at this point in the films, it wouldn't have fit.
Oh and also, it was the first time my country ever did a midnight screening, and yes, I stood in line for two hours and ten minutes, dying from the heat inside the shopping centre. But we got the best seats SO I REGRET NOTHING. Wait, I do regret not taking my Gryffindor scarf, my sister said she would die from embarrassment if I did. SHE CLEARLY ISN'T A TRUE FAN. But she did cry more than I did.
How fantastic was Alan Rickman in the film?
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They should market dancing bobbleheads.
This is the best thing ever O___O
I have to say, the scene where that first gif was from…
When I saw it in the cinema there was this female singing as the background music and the camera zoomed in on Snape from behind…I SWEAR I thought for a moment that it was gonna be Snape standing there and singing to himself in a girly voice.
Totally made me LOL at an inappropriate moment.
I enjoy this comment so much! 😀
I'm sorry to say, I was a bit disappointed with the movie. I was so happy I got to see it on my birthday, and was prepared to cry my eyes out. I think I was too distracted with 3D, which I hate with heat of the thousand suns, but was my only option. Somehow, none of the really emotional scenes managed to affect me properly. I don't know if it's because they were too short, or I know the book by heart so none of them managed to live to my expectations. In the end, all I felt is 'meh', and I'm so sad because of that.
However there were things I loved:
– McGonagall was amazing!
– so was Mrs Weasley
– Neville and Luna, be still my heart!
– "Ask Mr Finnigan" Ha.
– Loved that Ron knew what dragon it was, and the whole Gringotts scene, except one part.
– The statues in Hogwarts
– Shirtless Rupert (yum)
– Hermione as Bellatrix, pure perfection.
– Snape story was good. I'm one of few people that really doesn't like Snape did it all because of Lily, but it was done really good in the film.
– I agree about Dean Thomas, unf.
Things that really bothered me:
-You do not send children in the dungeon of the castle that's about to be attacked, ever. No metter who they are. Not cool film! I was seriously appalled by that part.
– Helena Ravenclaw scene. I bothered me for some strange reason. Especially when she started to yell for no reason. Also, what the hell was that last "enigmatic" part?
– The kiss was disappointing to me, all I could see is Rupert's hair.
– Goblin getting burned. It shocked me completely.
– Sorry to say, but I found Neville's speech cheesy. I don't like pre battle speeches anyway (with the exception of Théoden's). And Voldemort just stood there, listening? I half expected him to go Flasheart on him.
– When did Hermione learn how to fly, and since when it's her idea to jump on a dragon?
– Greyback is suddenly a vampire?
– Harry's life would be so much easier if he knew Voldemort was made out of tiny pieces of burned newspapers.
So all in all, it was a good film, with amazing moments, but didn't quite reach emotional depth it should. And I'm really sad I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.
I didn't cry either. Agree about the speech and Bogrod dying.
They should have just had them evacuated, not put in the dungeons. I also don't like how they made it seem like a punishment they deserve. The dungeons is where they live. It validates what many fans, even the extreme ones complained about when they said Slytherins were unfairly treated as scum in the text.
Greyback isn't a vampire-he's an extremely vicious werewolf who freaking EATS PEOPLE. The scene with Lavender was in the books too, but it was more ambiguous about whether she lived or died.
I think the flamboyant guy wasn't actually SUPPOSED to be Greyback– the actor that killed Lavender and the actor who played the Scatcher guy in this movie and the last were different, I think. I'm not sure why they replaced Greyback's role in the other scenes with the new guy, though! He was around and properly feral in the Half-Blood Prince(?) movie, so I'm not sure why he was replaced as the Snatcher that caught the trio/the leader of the werewolves.
why did Ravenclaw start yelling? because Harry had just insulted her by implying that she didn't know what Tom Riddle had done.
Feeding on a child =/= Vampire. Just because he went for he neck doesn't mean he was a vampire
I felt really guilty for enjoying shirtless Ron so much! 😀
– Harry's life would be so much easier if he knew Voldemort was made out of tiny pieces of burned newspapers.
This comment made me LOLZ
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. You just listed all of my loves and all of my hates, and then that last line about Voldemort being made out of newspaper made me LOL. Though, I do think that while the Snape story wasn't bad, it was too rushed, and wtf was he doing at Godric's Hollow? That was too jarring for me.
And yeah, lack of emotional depth. I was prepared to at least cry over Fred's death, and they didn't even show it happening!! And the cheesy speech which ruined Neville's awesome moment of badassery, and Hermione stealing Harry's dragon idea even though she *hated* being on the dragon… and ugh. Anyway. I totally agree.
Okay, thoughts! This is going to be fairly disorganized, so bear with me,
– Loved Maggie Smith/McGonagall! She was perfect and amazing and flawless and I wanted to cheer everytime she was being a bamf onscreen, also, I thought she looked beautiful?
-The whole Gringotts scene was flawless and I loved it. The muggle clothed gaurds was a bit weird, but not super distracting for me
– I'm a shameless Neville fangirl okay, so I'm bound to love everything he does. I even wore my "Neville would have done it in four books" t-shirt. His story was executed a fair bit differently from the books, and I was happy with it except for one part, which I will circle back to. I not really much of a shipper tbh, but I loved Neville and Luna. To me, it didn't feel like the writers were just trying to pair everyone off, but a sign of how Neville had grown and matured so much, he could tell Luna he loved her. "There is a good chance we will be dead by dawn, and I've got to tell her I'm completely mad for her!" Made me squee. Just a little bit. Also, Matt Lewis, daammmnnnn.
(cont)
-Speaking of good looking young men, Mark you are not alone in your -ahem- enjoyment of Dean Thomas. The first time he came on screen I was a little taken a back and just, wow, Mr Thomas, my how you've grown. And then continued to be super distracted everytime he was on screen.
– I really liked Harry stepping out and confronting Snape and then McGonagall dueling him like the badass we all know she is.
-Nobody has really talked about this, but… King's Cross: At first even I found it quite jarring, but as the scene progressed I really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed feeling the entire theatre collectively recoil and "ewwww" at horcrux!Voldemort
(cont)
– A lot of what bothered me came after Harry's psych!death. I much preferred how the Neville/Voldemort/Snake Killing played out in the book. I was actually kind of concerned that Neville wouldn't be the one to kill the snake, and that -may- have ruined it for me. I still wasn't happy with it though. It's one of my favorite scenes in all seven books, and they wrecked it.
-Voldemort hugging people? Wtf? When he hugged Draco I was like "uhh Voldemort doesn't hug. Siriusly. What is going on?" Also Volde and Harry's faces being all stretchy and weird when they were flying around. No thank you.
– Ron and Hermione kiss. Just awe. <3
-I lol'd so hard at Lucius, everytime he was on screen. Just. I love Jason Isaacs so much.
– Voldemort disintigrating into bits of ash. I accept that. But I couldn't help but imagine myself inhaling and choking on bits of Voldy.
– I'm going to have to double check when I watch again, but when the first landed in Hogsmeade it looked like it was covered in snow, so I was pretty taken a back by that.
-The epilogue was hard to watch. I'm still on the fence about it. The make-up was not convincing. The only one that was even remotely convincing was Harry. Just because Ginny cut her hair and is wearing frumpy clothes doesn't make her and adult. My whole theatre roared with laughter when they saw Draco, so that was uncomfortable to watch. I literally facepalmed -again- and the mention of 'Albus Severus'. No Teddy and Victoire, no "Give our love to Professor Longbottom,"
I think I have a lot more feelings, but I'm not organized today, so there you go. I really enjoyed it, and I'm pretty excited to go see it again tomorrow. Mark, I'm super excited to watchy your panel when I get home from work!
Also, why do have have the shortest comments ever?
Browser? It happens to me too.
1) My biggest regret in life is not buying that Neville shirt
2) Jason Isaacs was fantastic. Helen McCrory and Tom were pretty great, too. I know the Malfoys are terrible and craven, but I adore them and their actors. Still not over skunk hair, though.
3) I was caught off-guard by the snow, too, but apparently it's always snowy in Hogsmeade in the movies
4) Different browsers allow different lengths, for some reason. Chrome seems to be the best for massive comments.
1) I don't see why you still can't, the internet is a wonderful thing 🙂 In faaaaact, http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&… there you go!
3) That's bogus
4) I guess that's what I get for going on markwatches on my work computers when I'm supposed to be doing other things… 🙂
There are no GIFs to describe that movie.
IT WAS SO GOOD.
(for the most part)
I think these do a good job.
(CUE MY WHOLE THEATER BECOMING SOBBYCON 2011.)
From the moment Hermione burst into tears till Harry actually died, I was on the verge of tears. But half the audience was sniffling at that point, and one girl in the back was sobbing. But no one was laughing at her because we were all feeling the same way. I think it was the first time I'd experienced collective sadness in a theater rather than collective laughter.
I did miss that Neville's big moment wasn't in front of everyone, but what I love about the way it was done in the movie is that it reads, "Harry kills Voldemort. NEVILLE WITH THE ASSIST!!"
THE STORY OF HOW WE GOT THESE SEATS
Entertainment Weekly gave me a chance to win two tickets to opening night of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, and I took it, and I won. Anita snagged the other ticket before Jessica and Heidi even had a chance, but they bought their own tickets so they could join me too.
Jessica and Heidi cleverly took seats behind the reserved section. Anita and I cleverly chose to eat dinner at P.F. Chang's, which was super busy on Friday night. By the time we made it to the theater, only one of the two seats in front of them was free. The closest pair of seats was on the other side of the theater. Our plan had failed.
The only way to free up the other seat would be for everyone in the row to move down a seat, but I didn't want to ask that. The woman on our end, however, would be happy to, as long as the others did. In fact, she took it upon herself to ask the rest of the row if they'd mind moving down a seat. Everyone seemed to assent.
Except the woman at the other end. Who pointed out that there were many seats available on her side of the theater. I explained that I wanted to sit with my friends.
She shook her head. SHE REFUSED.
"Well, at least we'll be in the same theater," said Heidi.
But then both the dude in the seat I needed and the considerate woman offered to move all the way to the other side; the latter won. THANK YOU, CONSIDERATE WOMAN, FOR REMINDING ME THAT ALL PEOPLE ARE NOT ASSHOLES.
So we all got to sit together and listen to each other sniffle.
BONUS STORY
After the movie, I really had to pee. I motioned to the restroom and remarked, "I'm going to Expelliarmus."
A couple laughed, and I believe they hung around until I came out specifically so the man could retort, "If that's what casting Expelliarmus is, I don't want to know what the wand is made of."
Mark, you are correct–Dean Thomas is FUCKING HOTT.
Also, I was PISSED during Deathly Hallows Part 1, when we didn't get ANY HARRY POTTER THEME MUSIC WHATSOEVER. I mean, I know the composer got switched, but god damn…you don't do that to people–get them used to associating one piece of music with a series for SIX WHOLE MOVIES and then remove it like "whoops, no big deal." It left me foaming at the mouth angry.
During Part Two's opening, I was pissed again when I heard no theme music. I kept grumbling to my fiance and roommate "God damn it…no theme music…doesn't even feel like a Harry Potter movie…god damn it….rargarargargargh…."
AND THEN HARRY STEPS OUT OF THE PAINTING AND THIS GORGEOUS SWELL OF THEME MUSIC COMES DRIFTING OUT OVER ALL THE FAMILIAR HOGWART'S FACES OMG OMG.
Such a good reveal!!! Also, the epilouge was much better in the movie than in the book, I thought. We were only subjected to one ridiculous child name (Albus Severus Potter), unlike the book where we were subjected to about twenty, with each one seeming longer and more ridiculous than the last ("Hello, Hagrid Hermione Hippogriff Buckbeak the third!") And that MUSIC again–the same music that we saw young Harry walking around to in Movie #1. *Sigh* Happiness.
And now, pictures! This first one is of me and my dear roommate (you may know him as shirtninjas!) Yes, my wand lit up, and yes, he looks just like a Weasley.
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And that guy up there is the guy I am marrying. Today.
HOLY SHIT IT'S MY WEDDING DAY WHAT AM I DOING ON MARKWATCHES I HAVE TO GO GET READY.
Congratulations! Have a lovely day!
Yay! We saw Harry Potter!
Also, some girl asked me if I would take my picture with her because she was dressed like Hermione and I "look like Ron." Holy awkward, Batman.
What are you doing on here?? Go take a shower right now we have to get ready!!!
Nice to see you and shirtninjas! Have a wonderful wedding!!
I can't figure out what that fluffy thing you're holding is. Bubblegum Tribble?
I thought it was a Pigmy Puff.
Aha! I'm still in the early parts of Book 5 in my audiobook re-read, so I haven't gotten that far yet. So many details I have forgotten! (It probably made the movie experience better since I didn't know what I was missing.)
It was, indeed, a pygmy puff.
And thanks for the well wishes! The wedding rocked ultimate.
Congratulations!
"AND THEN HARRY STEPS OUT OF THE PAINTING AND THIS GORGEOUS SWELL OF THEME MUSIC COMES DRIFTING OUT OVER ALL THE FAMILIAR HOGWART'S FACES OMG OMG. "
I LOVED that! I remember that piece of music from Chamber of Secrets the most. Made my heart burst.
Congrats! You two make a cute couple. I hope you have an amazing day, and I hope you listened to HP music while getting ready!
Actually, in part 1 "Hedwig's Theme" DOES play in the opening, just belatedly, and weakly, as a way of showing the dark turn that everything has taken in story.
My sister and I both grew up with the Harry Potter series; we've been reading it/having it be read to us (I started with the Jim Dale audiobooks, my dad read a chapter a night to my sister) since we were in elementary school. After the movie was over, we had to stay in the theatre for a good five minutes afterward so that we could finish sobbing our eyes out in peace.
Awe, I almost did this. I started to get up and leave with my friends, but I got half way up and had to sit down again so I could be wracked with sobs. But my friends made me leave 8<
SPOILERSS A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF SPOILERS. DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE SPOILED BEYOND BELIEF. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Sorry, this is long. 1000 words. I HAVE FEELINGS, OKAY?
Overall, it was good. Not fantastic. Alan Rickman deserves all the awards. So let's start from the beginning.
They got a LOT wrong. Just too much for my liking. They took too much liberty in adapting it for Hollywood and not enough for the fandom. Like for example, Ollivander isn't supposed to know about the Deathly Hallows, only the Elder Wand. Also random thought: did anyone else notice they made Fenrir Greyback gay? I wanted him to be more wolfish and suave and badass, not flamboyant. And the whole Voldy/harry LET'S FLY THROUGH THE CASTLE scene. Hated. With the intensity of a thousand supernovaing suns. AND THE ELDER WAND. JFAWOKLMSDVAIO;SKDFJM I'll get there.
Anyway. The beginning. Too little time in Shell Cottage. Too much time on the tracks of Gringotts and not enough in the battle or the dragon. That being said, the battle in the vault was fantastic and everything I hoped for. I wanted the Dumbledore story. There was too little on Aberforth. Dumbledore still looked like an asshole. The hideout scene in the RoR was fantastic. Fred and George on the bridge was a nice touch. Crying from then on. Remus and Tonks almost holding hands broke my heart. Shattered. Completely done. McGonagall acted out of character, but that being said, still badass of the century. I absolutely LOVED the stone soldiers. That was fantastic.
Also. Dean Thomas. And the line with Seamus blowing stuff up was beautiful and nothing hurt.
The addition of Neville on the bridge was fantastic. I laughed too hard to care that it wasn't in the books. I've said since book 3, Neville has my heart. Forever. I don't care. He is a certified genuine badass. I wish he could have zinged Voldy but I'll get there.
My comment was too long so posting more here:
I don't know how I feel about Harry stepping out of line to see Snape. I need to see it again to pass further judgement.
NO PERCY MEANT NO FRED DEATH. ANGER. SO MUCH. FURY. NO WORDS. AND NO GEORGE REACTION. FURY. FURY. ANGER. RAGE.
The Prince's Tale was absolutely perfect as was Snape's death. As I will often repeat, Alan Rickman can do no wrong. Kinda in love with him. I loved the addition of "You have your mother's eyes" before the "Look at me." Full circle. I sobbed so hard during that scene. It was fantastic. Gorgeous. Just. Ah. Exceeded my expectations immensely. If I could marry any scene, it'd be that one.
I liked the addition of the Chamber. I didn't like their kiss. I wanted the "OI! THERE'S A WAR GOING ON!" line.
The RoR scene with Draco was good. No complaints.
Nice touch having Parvati and Trelawney finding Lavender. Lovely throw to all the book fans.
And the fact that Harry didn't see Neville but instead saw Ron and Hermione and Ron didn't say goodbye but Hermione did. NO. I WANTED NEVILLE TO SAY "We're going to keep fighting, Harry." NOT RON TO NOT HUG HIS BFF AND HERMIONE TO CRY. THEY WOULD HAVE STOPPED HIM. OR AT LEAST TRIED. FIJOAWKLSM ANGER.
The Forest scene. Where to begin. First off, sobbing hysterically. I liked the ghost thing. I wish they panned around to everyone, but I might have missed that due to the fact that my tears literally steamed up my glasses and I couldn't see. THEY SCREWED UP "Until the very end." FURY. FURY. FURY. FAVORITE LINE IN THE HISTORY OF LITERATURE. GIAJOKWMVSD. That being said, I truly appreciated the whole Voldy speech and the way Harry died. I thought it was brilliant. I wish the "crucio" thing would have happened. Hagrid needed to react more.
The horcrux montages and Voldy actually realizing they were gone was an awesome addition. But on the other hand, I didn't like them because he wasn't truly evil and this makes no sense. I don't know how to word my thoughts here.
King's Cross was okay. I didn't like how Dumbledore's story wasn't resolved. Also, wasn't he supposed to be naked? Just random accuracy thought. Also. Dumbledore is Gandalf. At that point in the movie, I leaned over to my friend and just said, "Gandalf. YOU SHALL NOT PASS." and it made sense.
When Harry just rolled out of Hagrid's arms, I laughed. It looked so freaking stupid. Terrible. I wanted the whole "Lay him at my feet where he belongs" line. I wanted more crowd reaction. I wanted everyone to freak out and then for Harry to zing Voldy in front of everyone. I was not okay with how Voldy died. It was totally against everything in the books. The fly through the castle thing, as I said earlier, was the worst. thing. ever. Freaking hated it. But Neville can do no wrong, and his speech was beautiful. And Voldemort got atomized. Or was I the only one who realized that and in my head I heard the Doctor say "Oh well, he's atomized. You're breathing him." No? Okay. There. I've gone and ruined his death for you all. You're welcome.
OKAY. NOW TOTAL RAGE. THE ELDER WAND. NO. YOU CANNOT BREAK THAT SHIT. HE NEVER REPAIRED HIS OWN WAND. NEVER. IT WAS JUST MEH. NO WRAP UP THERE. AND THEN HE BROKE IT. NO. YOU DON'T DO THAT.
They never fully came out and said Remus had a kid until the Forest scene. Another thing that made me angry.
The epilogue. The makeup on everyone but Harry was terrible. Harry's was perfect. The goodbye with Albus Severus was so good. I wished they included the line with Ron saying "Okay Rosie, thank god you've got your mother's brains, kick his ass" or whatever it was.
And I've just vomited a thousand words on the final film. There will be more after I see it again.
And shallow last note: HOW FREAKING COOL WERE THE 3D GLASSES. LIKE SERIOUSLY.
>Ollivander isn't supposed to know about the Deathly Hallows, only the Elder Wand
Dude, the elder wand is one of the deathy hallows and if he knows it exists, it's a fair bed he's gonna assume the other two do as well. And it's not as if the deathy hallows are some hushed up secret; it's a wizarding fairy tale
>Also random thought: did anyone else notice they made Fenrir Greyback gay? I wanted him to be more wolfish and suave and badass, not flamboyant.
I'm totally confused as to what character you think was greyback. because it wasn't that one snatcher. Also flamboyant=/= gay
JSYKBTW
I thought Fenrir was that snatcher. If he's not, my bad. Retract that statement.
In the books, Ollivander has no idea what the Deathly Hallows are. He only knows that there's a super powerful wand.
I loved reading Snape's redemption in the book. What I wasn't prepared for? HOW WELL ALAN RICKMAN WOULD BE AT BRINGING THAT TO LIFE ON FILM. I can easily say that from The Prince's Tale on? The movie was just AMAZING!!! I really hope Alan's talents get noticed awards wise.
I loved the jokes because they kept me from falling completely apart and helped a lot of people in my theater from dissolving into loud, distracting tears. The amount of cheering for key scenes were amazing.
And…I kind of want Harry Potter to be my dad.
All the death scenes were done well, in my opinion. but I did laugh when that dumb Goblin got himself burned to death. Oopsie!
Lavender's death shocked me so much, it was freaky.
Snape's death was SO BRUTAL AND SAD. Did you see how the glass wall shook from the impact of Nagini and the blood stains.
Lupin and Tonks lying there dead. Oh god. :'(
Ron crying over Fred was horrible and made my heart sore.
And yes, I loved how Bellatrix and Voldy broke into a million pieces!!
AUGH YES, with every strike of the snake I was all "AUGH PLEASE STOP HE'S ALREADY DYING ANYWAY." It just…drew it out and made it that much more horrific. And of course how Rickman played it as he was bleeding out was just AUGH but that goes without saying.
And D: Lavender! It took me a moment to realize who that was.
OH GOD, those noises Rupert Grint made as Ron was crying over Fred were just so raw that it broke me.
I felt the same way about Lavender. I was like,"Whaaaaat?" I don't remember her dying in the books.
I was kinda bothered when the goblin got burned to death. He was imperiused by Harry at the time, so doesn't that mean that Harry pretty much murdered this innocent side character to death?
So glad someone finally said something about this. It goes to show why the Imperious Curse is unforgiveable.
I don't think the goblin was entirely innocent. Afterall, he worked at Gringotts and so was complicit in the grotesque and brutal treatment of the dragon. Getting roasted by the same dragon? He had it coming
First off, I’m sorry I couldn’t get to your panel, Mark, but I searched for 20 minutes and couldn’t find it.
My biggest complaint is that Teddy Lupine was mentioned once, at the ressurection stone scene. The audience who has not read the books will be very confused.
I’m actually glad that Ron and Hermione were trying to kill the snake, because it is kind of ridiculous that they didn’t try anything in the book.
I liked the movie canon Neville/Luna because they do seem closer in the movies. At one of LeakyCon”s panels, Evanna Lynch mentioned that the two of them wanted to play it up a little. It helps that I never saw it as pairing the spares because I shipped them before I did Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny.
I guess maybe the 'pairing the spares' aspect might be why Jo backed away from it (apparently she considered it), but, eh, I kinda think they made a better match than Harry and Ginny. Particularly movie!Neville and Luna vs. movie!Harry and Ginny.
I agree with everything you said. The good parts were very, very good, and the not-so-good parts were just sort of “eh, okay.” Nothing to go into a nerdrage about. All in all, it was well worth seeing at the midnight premiere. Dad and I dressed up, and were instant celebrities. About forty people (some of them also in cool costumes) asked for pictures with us, which was totally awesome. XD Here’s a pic a friend of ours took of just us.
Aw, crap, I fucked up the embedding. Any way a mod could help with that?
Fixed. Great picture! Great costumes!
"Why the goddamn hell was Blaise Zabini with Draco in the Room of Requirement?"
Because Jamie Waylett who played Crabbe got arrested in 2009 for growing weed at home or something. He hasn't been in an HP movie since then.
"why did Bellatrix/Voldy disintegrate. what."
I liked that, actually. I liked that they didn't just drop dead but they broke into tiny pieces and are GONE FOREVER!!!
"Too much epilogue. Ginny looked like she was 19."
Lol! I agree. The epilogue was weird for me. But also nice in a way. The "Albus Severus Potter" line got lots of giggles in the theatre.
"NO LUPIN TEMPER TANTRUM. BOOO FOREVER."
I don't remember a Lupin tantrum :/
Just the one where he shouted at Harry in Grimmauld Place. But that should have happened in part 1 right? What are you talking about, please help me! I haven't read the book in 4 years ok. Don't judge me x__x
I loved the Gringott's scenes. I thought the dragon and the vault were flawless.
I was irritated that one of the themes of this book is Harry's lack of guidance and the necessity to figure out things for himself sometimes. The movie stripped most of his plans away by having another character tell him explicitly where something is hidden rather than letting him figure it out. For example, Harry didn't know about the diadem horcrux because he knew Voldemort placed special significance on artifacts from the Hogwarts houses and had used other artifacts from the founders. In the movie he knew because Voldemort's visions were explicitly about Ravenclaw. I suppose this was necessary because none of the lessons with Dumbledore in the Half-Blood Prince explained or even hinted at any of this. But still it seemed weak and belittled how much Harry had actually done on his journey to destroy Voldemort.
And I suppose it's a small detail since Neville's speech on the bridge served the same purpose and his killing of the snake was still cool. But the moment with the burning sorting hat was so much cooler and more defiant and I would have liked to see that in the movie instead.
I just saw the film last night with a good friend of mine. The film would have been a lot better if there hadn't been a four year old who was sitting in the row in front of us who kept babbling nonsense. I was so angry that someone brought a child that young to see such a film. *Deep Breath* Anyways, I liked the film despite the changes which at some I was irked at. The fact that Neville didn't kill the snake in front of everyone pissed me off. I also was mad that there was no mention of Grindlewald at all with Dumbledore.
The scenes that made me cry were of course seeing the bodies of Tonks and Lupin, it made me cry silently. Then the forest scene with the ghosts, I was shaking and crying and had to stop myself from sobbing out loud. The epilogue was hilarious to me and my friend, I could not take any of the age transformations seriously except for Harry's. I laughed especially hard at the name Albus Severus. I was sad to see it end, since I have grown up with Harry Potter. But, I will continue to read the books and pass them along to my children (if I ever have any).
1. Sorry, will never accept the Voldemort Harry hug. Nope. Why are they flying AND hugging????
2. Um, the Draco Voldemort hug was also awful? Why are you even touching him?
3. NO GRINDELWALD. how dare you remove my queer backstory to dumbly. NO. NO.
4. Um, doesn’t the movie audience not even know about Lupin’s kid???? WTF.
5. why did Bellatrix/Voldy disintegrate. what.
6. Why the goddamn hell was Blaise Zabini with Draco in the Room of Requirement?
7. Too much epilogue. Ginny looked like she was 19.
—
1. They are apparating and fighting. 🙂 It's apparently suppose to symbolize how different but similar they are spiritually.
2. It was meant to look uncomfortable because it's suppose to show us how unnatural Voldemort is with humanly(?) actions.
3. 🙁 🙁 🙁
4. I know right?
5. Molly shot her with a spell that completely dehydrated her body, then the second just shattered what was left into nothing. Voldemort disintegrated cause he was nothing by that time, just a body with no soul. It follows what was happening throughout the movie. That everytime a horcrux was destroyed, he will become weaker and his body would begin to flake off.
6. Because the actor who plays Crabbe was arrested on growing weed so they replaced Crabbe with Goyle and Goyle with Blaise.
7. Epilogue was perfect. 😐
The only things I was really worried about for the movies was that Kloves wouldn't fuck up the script for The Elder Wand, and the Prince's Tale because I knew that if they were reasonably intact Alan Rickman would ACT THE SHIT OUT OF THEM. AND HE DID.
SO much of the movie was so freaking awesome, but it's the Snape stuff that is STILL BREAKING MY HEAD WITH THE AWESOME, because he's always been one of my favourite characters. Just AUGH. Snape's death was actually really hard to watch with the way Nagini just *kept striking* and I was watching the little we see with this feeling of "OH GOD PLEASE NO". And then the Prince's Tale and AUGHAUGHAUGH.
I. Just. I HAVE NO WORDS. I can't even be coherent about this yet.
Also, I could totally sense the entire audience just waiting with anticipation as Molly jumped in front of Ginny, and they EXPLODED as Molly said her LINE OF AWESOME.
Oh and one last thing; at the end of the movie as people were starting to applaud, someone yelled "Mischief managed!" BEST WAY TO END THE MOVIE EVER.
I absolutely loved it. by FAR my favourite out of the films!
But wasn't Snape's death fucking BRUTAL?? I mean, I thought they'd tone it down a little for the film but nope! When the snake kept attacking again and again…I winced every time it struck I swear.
Very very well done.
Blaise Zabini was there because Crabbe's actor got caught with a ton of weed and faced legal troubles so Goyle died in Crabbe's place and Zabini took his place as the third lackey.
Which is a shame. I liked that Zabini and Theodore Nott didn't give a damn about Malfoy's name in the book and spoke to him as equals.
Oh well.
Also, Voldemort backhanding Harry into a wall was glorious.
I thought so too!
I saw it in 2D because 3D gives my friend migraines, I'm thinking about seeing it in 3D. Is it worth it?
Nope. Save your money. It's the same movie.
I really don't see the point in 3D with most movies, and this was one of them. The only thing that I really liked about the 3D was the brilliant Harry Potter 3D glasses. Which won't fit you if you have a wide head, according to a bunch of people who were in my theatre.
This was the best of the Harry Potter films in my opinion.
I loved the first half, there were so many times I flailed around due to excitement or tenseness that I can't even list them all.
LOVED:
. The students being made to march. Oppressive, creepy visual, both times it happened.
. All of Gringotts.
. Ron's disguise was hot!
. Ginny/Harry reunion. Ron's face when he's ignored. LOL.
. The entire first half of the battle. Actually the build up to the battle,. Does anyone know what music played when the stone knights started moving? It was amazing. The whole desperation and solemness of the scene where they made a shield around all of Hogwarts, an amazing atmosphere.
. Snape's memories. They were sweet and made me feel for him. And that's a big thing, because I severely disliked Snape. I get that he did great, heroic things (at least after he became a spy…) but I never considered him to be a particularly nice person. The flashbacks did a great job of making me regret his death though.
. The entire atmosphere. I liked it a lot more than the first deathly hallows, though I can't explain why.
. The MALFOYS! Extremely well done! Lucius looking all unhappy and unkempt. Draco joining his parents (Not Voldy! His parents!) Narcissa being a badass and lying to Voldy all calm-like. And best of all, Draco and Narcissa literally walking off into the horizon, holding hands, ignoring the war behind them (with Lucius running to catch up). Literally that redeemed a lot of their actions to me, knowing that they prize their family more than anything.
. Dean Thomas. Blatant reason that he even got any lines is that he walked back on set and they went 'Oh. Hm. Interesting."
WASN'T SURE ABOUT:
. The second half of the battle. It all became a bit rushed, and there was a lot of focus on things that didn't matter. I mean, why only give us a second of Fred's death (which made even Harry stop in horror in the books) to focus on… a Snake chase.
. Neville wasn't as awesome as he could have been. 'I'll join you when hell freezes over!' anyone?
…I didn't actually mind most of the jokes. Though some were…badly-timed.
. The Voldemort/Draco hug. What. Just what. People in the cinema LAUGHED. Best part was that Voldy clearly didn't know what to do with his hands.
. Voldy's laugh at Neville. Again, he made the audience laugh.
. There was no celebrating after Voldy died. Like, I understand 'war is a terrible thing' but…one cheer? Please? I just want you to be happy ;_;
Is this the music you're referring to?
[youtube jTp7VeeHcZU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTp7VeeHcZU youtube]
If the video gets deleted before you have a chance to watch, it's called "Statues."
That's it! Thank you so much! So awesome (with a hint of sadness) perfect!
This music played while everyone was preparing the castle for battle and it gave me freaking chills. I had been listening to the soundtrack all week, but to see it put to life for this was… wow.
Everyone in my cinema laughed at the Draco/Voldie hug too. I think there has to be one unintentionally hilarious moment in each HP film, or it doesn't count. 😛
". The MALFOYS! Extremely well done! Lucius looking all unhappy and unkempt. Draco joining his parents (Not Voldy! His parents!) Narcissa being a badass and lying to Voldy all calm-like. And best of all, Draco and Narcissa literally walking off into the horizon, holding hands, ignoring the war behind them (with Lucius running to catch up). Literally that redeemed a lot of their actions to me, knowing that they prize their family more than anything. "
THANK YOU. Most people I've seen complain about that scene are mad at him joining Voldemort, but that wasn't what happened at all. Yeah his parents were standing with the other death eaters but it's made pretty obvious in the book/movie that they all abandoned him in the end, in my opinion. Then again, I neve liked fans portrayals of Narcissa anyways, since in the books she was pretty nice outside of one scene in Half Blood Prince (and even then she was only defending her son) yet every fanfiction makes her out to be a horrible person. /rant
It's funny, because most of the fan-fiction I read is Draco/Hermione (*is mildly ashamed*), I'm used to seeing Narcissa portrayed as really wonderful in fan-fic (vs. super evil abusive Lucius). Also, the picture in my head of Narcissa has been somewhat influenced by Makani's fan art, so I have this totally skewed picture of her in my head.
There is still a part of me that wanted the Malfoys to be there in the Great Hall with the rest of the survivors at the end though.
I still think the Draco hug was supposed to be sort of darkly humorous. Just to see someone as inhuman as he is do something like hugging.
Don't sob softly for the rest of the day, Mark. Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home. It’s been wonderful following this series from beginning to end with you over the course of slightly more than a year! I can’t believe it hasn’t been longer.
I really like Deathly Hallows II! It’s not my favorite of the movies, but it was an excellent cap to the series. All of my irritation with the crowd for my theater had completely dissolved by the time Snape was looking out on the students, and let me tell you, that is some NEWT-level magic.
Hermione Bonham Carter was magnificent. I wish there had been ten more minutes of her failing to be terrifying. Gringotts was stunning, and the poor abused dragon made my stomach turn. I know it wasn’t Hermione’s idea in the book, but it seems right to have her free the dragon since she’s always been ardently pro-magical creature welfare. Obviously she did it because they needed a way out, but it was poetic to have Hermione do it.
I really liked Aberforth, though I prefer his more crotchety book version, and I wish we had some Dumblydore backstory. I realize that could have interrupted the narrative, but I loved the look into his life in the book. At least the sentiment that Dumbledore had sent Harry on a difficult quest without revealing much of himself was still there. Gambon was a flawless Dumbledore at King’s Cross; maybe losing that beard chain allowed him to finally reach perfection.
My theater lost it every time Neville so much as breathed. I appreciated their good taste. Cardigans are now a trigger for joy. 🙂 Dammit Matt Lewis, how did you grow up so well? You too, Alfie. Oh, and I spent an inordinate amount of time searching the background for Oliver Wood and never saw him. Apparently he was on a broom for two seconds. I might have to go see DH2 again for some Biggerstaff ogling.
McGonagall, moon of my life, never change. Maggie Smith was amazing, and while I wish her duel with Snape had been as animated as in the book, I can’t complain about anything she does. She finally got to use piertotum locomotor! I liked the added scenes, but I wish that the Order and students’ side had been as fierce as it is in the book. There was so much more that I wanted from the battle, and from Harry and Voldy’s final fight. I don’t want to say it was anti-climactic, but I was ready to have my mind blown and it never reached that point. I think part of the problem was all of those interspersed comedic moments that you mention. But I'm glad you loved it!
Did Harry say anything to Voldemort about love and remorse? I forget. There was a half-second of Fred twitching to death, so that was underwhelming. And Tonks and Lupin’s hands never touched on screen. 🙁 Neville’s speech was lovely, and his beheading Nagini was incredible. I also loved that the Malfoys high-tailed it, because 1) Lucius is wonderful, and 2) no film will ever overpower Makani’s interpretation of them in my head, so it’s best to do something completely different. Every scene with Voldemort or a Malfoy was hilarious or terrifying, and perfect. I'm sorry, but the awkward hug was the best part of the movie. Everyone cracked up. I like creepy troll Voldemort.
<img src="http://i54.tinypic.com/hvx98y.jpg">
However, I wasn’t nearly as broken up as I thought I would be. I was blubbering at the speeches from the premiere, but only the Weasleys mourning Fred, and Tonks and Lupin’s bodies made me cry, and that brought on the most sniffling in my theater, so I wasn’t alone. I also teared up at Hagrid carrying Harry’s body. It’s weird that The Prince’s Tale and The Forest Again make me bawl while reading, but they had little effect on me here. I realize it’s silly to criticize a movie for differing ever so slightly from the books, but I didn't like the dialogue change in the resurrection stone scene. Certain words are powerful.
And I know everyone loooooves the Prince’s Tale in the movie, but I’m annoyed that they left out the memories that painted Snape in a bad light. It was touching, especially the patronus scene, but no mudblood, no argument about the terrible things Snape’s friends do, not even a tree branch falling on Petunia? I wanted something to make up for the butchered OotP memories. Snape’s my favorite character because of his underlying complexity; he was always a jackass, but he did a good, brave thing, albeit in a misguided fashion, to atone for a very specific mistake. It was great finally seeing Snape emote, but the one-sided depiction — aww, look at his gooey canary cream center — along with the “you have your mother’s eyes” CUT TO BROWN-EYED GIRL really took me out of that scene. Those nasty bits were evidence that he knew he had been terrible and wrong, they were signs of his remorse and why he was redeemed. Without them, he's just fluffy woobie fangirl Snape. Alan Rickman played the part wonderfully, but I had high expectations for the writing, editing, and directing of that scene and they weren’t met.
<img src="http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lod6ti5crp1qgzymco1_500.gif">
You won't get to really oggle Bickerstaff, I'm afraid. He's on a broom for five seconds, shouting "Come on!" and you don't even really see his face.
I know everyone loooooves the Prince’s Tale in the movie, but I’m annoyed that they left out the memories that painted Snape in a bad light.
Urgh, I know, right? I was like "Way to make Lily look like a fickle girl who fell in love with James because he made her drop her books and was in the same house as hers." Also WTF happened to young James's glasses?
Haha, they probably forgot them. Or maybe glasses don't go well with the ~bad boy~ they made James into. When I first heard that people who weren't familiar with the books came away thinking that Snape was Harry's dad, I was surprised. But just looking at the memories in the movies, it seems like Lily was caught between two guys, because her falling out with Snape because he's a jerk was never shown. Whoops!
My thoughts:
I think this is probably the Harry Potter film that dragged the least for me, largely due to the fact that there was very little exposition and where there was some it was punctuated with frequent and lengthily action/battle scenes. It's certainly superior to Deathly Hallows Part I, though I think overall, as with the rest of the films, the book still wins.
The epilogue wasn't nearly as dreadful as I thought it might be. I still groaned over Albus Severus' name. Actually, I think I preferred the movie to the book as far as the epilogue went. They kept dialogue to a minimum and it helped to prevent it from sounding too forced and twee. I did however, roll my eyes rather a lot when in the middle of the battle multiple people (I'm looking at you Ron/Herminone and Harry/Ginny) took time out of fighting for their lives to snog. A good use of acknowledging relationships was when Tonks and Lupin reached for each other just before the battle started. I found it believable and was called back to beautifully in the great hall when the dead are shown.
It was an interesting choice that they decided to kill Lavender dead rather than just maiming her. I'm not necessarily sorry about it. I'm not really sure what to think about it except "interesting". Also interesting was showing Griphook as dead, rather than leaving his fate ambiguous.
I wish there was a little bit more about the Room of Requirement and showing those people actually living in it rather than apparently moving between the Room and the rest of the school for classes and assemblies and stuff. I also wish they'd included Harry fixing his Phoenix feather wand before breaking up the Elder wand and throwing it away.
My favourite scenes were the Snape flashbacks in the pensieve, which I thought was really beautifully done (especially the Patronus bit) and made me feel complete sympathy for Snape (Alan Rickman is an acting god), and the resurrection stone scene, where Lupin, Lily, James and Sirius appear to Harry as he's about to sacrifice himself. They were both perfectly pitched in tone for me – not too sappy, just the right level of emotion. The combination of the two caused tears.
Neville Longbottom and Minerva McGonagall are complete and utter BAMFs.
I loved the inclusion of a line for all Luna/Neville shippers. I love Luna/Neville as a couple (I think it's suggested in canon, even if JKR decided it wasn't a pairing in interviews). As Neville telling Luna he had a thing for her wasn't contradicted in the epilogue I'm inserting that in to my own personal canon.
This was definitely the least draggy movie, but I actually had issue with how fast-paced it was. I mean, I don't want to obsess over every little detail, but there were some things that really should have been in there purely for the sake of people who only watch the movies and will probably be unbelievably confused with what's going on.
Overall, yes, yes I enjoyed the movie very much. I have a couple qualms (which have almost all been discussed at length in the comments already) but one really stands out to me, and has ever since the very first moment of the very first movie.
HOW HARD IS IT TO WEAR FUCKING COLORED CONTACTS, SERIOUSLY.
I mean, it's one thing that maybe Hermione's eyes aren't the right color. I think they are, but honestly I couldn't say off the top of my head what color they should be.
But I'm pretty sure the books mention fifty-two dozen times how GREEN HARRY'S EYES ARE or how RED VOLDY'S ARE or how ELECTRIC BLUE DUMBLEDORE'S ARE. And even in the VERY FIRST scene of Sorcerer's Stone, the camera zooms in on Radcliffe and it's like "what that is blue. wtf, movies." And then Aberforth's eyes were this ambiguous browny color and Voldy's were blue as well. It wouldn't have bothered me so much if the movie hadn't spent what felt like half an hour zoomed in on Harry/Voldy's eyes.
Also, wtf at using Snape's tears? Did you run out of special effects money, WB? I was just, like, oh look at Snape MANFULLY WRINGING TEARS out of his ducts, instead of memory gas billowing out of his head.
about the tear thing, I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be that when a person was dying they 'cried' their memories out, the only reason I think this is because there was a shot near the end where it looked like Voldy was tearing up. The reason we haven't seen this before is because Dumbledore removed memories when he was still living. Just a thought.
Also, wearing coloured contacts for months every year for ten years had to have been damaging or something.
People that actually need contacts for corrective purposes wear them every day, color-changing or otherwise! I MEAN, I agree that there might have been another reason for the actors not wearing them– DanRad at least has been said to have had a really bad reaction to the contacts he tried!– but idk, CONTACTS BEING POTENTIALLY DAMAGING just struck me as funny. XD
I've read before that DanRad was originally going to wear green contacts for the movies, but his eyes reacted badly to them! Which, well, okay, that makes sense. BUT DID LILY'S ACTRESS REALLY HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM…? It was a little funny to cut to brown-eyed Lily soon after Snape mentioned blue-eyed Harry having his mother's eyes. I'm going to be charitable and assume that what I've read about dark eyes being hard to change with contacts is true and that they couldn't find a blue pair that would do the trick…!
they could have easily altered it digitally, then, especially in the closeups.
With the tears thing, IIRC in the books the memory-substance starts leaking out Snape's eyes & ears? Not sure though as I'm on break at work and don't have a copy of the book to check.
Page 657 of Deathly Hallows:
"Something more than blood was leaking from Snape. Silvery blue, neither gas or liquid, it gushed from his mouth and his ears and his eyes" – I think the silver tears looks better
Oh my god. I saw this movie last night, and…SO MANY THOUGHTS
-THE FOREST AGAIN. ALL THE TEARS (Except the ones from Iroh's Tale)
-the image of Voldemort walking through the lobby of Gringotts, the floor covered in blood and all the blood on his feet…that was fucking creepy.
-Snape. Just Snape, man.
-NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM. JUST SEEING HIM KILL NAGINI…FUCK YEAH.
-ROOM OF REQUIREMENT SCENE=AWESOME. All those animals made out of the fire… that was cool.
-Not my daughter you bitch.
-McGonagall!
-Kings Cross!
-"My word that I will never reveal the best of you?" Oh god.
-They did cut out a lot of what I thought was important, mainly with dumbledore's backstory. I wish they'd included Harry telling Aberforth about the potion that Dumbledore drank to get the fake locket, and what he thought it made him relive. That was a good moment in the books.
-I really don't like what the movies have done with the Patronus Charm. That pulsing light that drives the dementors away? No, I want to see dementors getting gored by antlers and shit.
-Voldemort's robe. What the fuck, did we just enter final fantasy?
I have issues with the stuff they left out, but the movie was still amazing. And this really is the end of an era for me. I've been reading Harry Potter since I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. Actually, now that I do the math for how old I was when book 1 came out in the US, probably since 1st grade.
Lately it occurs to me,
What a loooooooong, strange trip it's been.
It was Blaise Zabini in the Room of Requirement instead of Crabbe because Crabbe's actor got arrested for drug use. :/
>>â—¦Um, doesn’t the movie audience not even know about Lupin’s kid???? WTF.
I thought it did, it was at least mentioned in the last movie I'm sure.
Also personally I needed the jokes, if they weren't there I would have had to leave to stop annoying people with my crying. It made it more tense for me and I'm glad they were there.
The lack of Dumbledore backstory bothered me, but I'm not sure where they could have fit it in at all, I was watching it thinking it was going to come up, but I kept thinking 'nah, it can't come up here, it wouldn't make sense here and would totally break up the pace'
idk. personallly I loved loved loved this film, and there wasn't much I didn't love about it.
I watched Part 1, and there's 1 half mention of Tonks being pregnant. It goes something like:
Tonks: Wait 'til you've heard the news. Remus and I are –
Moody: WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR TALKING WE'VE GOT AN ACTION SCENE TO FILM
aw shit son, xD I could have sworn there was more than that, I'm probably confusing it with the books though
Favorite scenes? So many! In our theater, every time an awesome character came on (NEVILLE) or a great part happened, there would be, like, a second and a half of concentrated cheering, and then everyone would shut up really fast to hear what was being said. It was amazing, and so cool to be a part of.
Went like this: *awesome thing on screen* "WOOOOOOOOYEA*rapt attentive silence*"
I would have to say Snape's flashbacks (holding Lily and crying? TEARS FOREVER), and McGonagall ("I always wanted to use that spell!") and Ron and Hermione, and of course "Not my daughter, you bitch!" and Neville with the snake, and Harry's saving Draco actually saves the day, and Neville and Luna at the end.
Can just say I'm so glad they changed that? All the fans of the books were like "well, Neville and Luna are consistently at every single battle, outcasts that are awesome in every way, adorably quirky. Clearly they will get together at the end." And then J. K. Rowling's all "Say what now? Huh. *shrugs,crushes fandom dreams*"
Also, they knew there would be hell to pay if they didn't include Molly's Shining Moment.
And the Grindelwald thing- was he even in the last one? Didn't they make a huge deal out of casting that one guy? Man, I forgot about that whole thing. I was gonna say there wasn't enough time, but Aberforth totally could have mentioned it, so I agree with you on that silliness.
I didn't even notice that the humor-y bits messed up the pace of the movie, but I noticed that it was really difficult for them to include everyone. For example, Hagrid gets two words and they don't even have him blubbering while he's carrying Harry's supposed corpse. I'm sad that Lupin didn't get more face time, but I understand why.
I also thought it was weird for them not to show Harry repairing his wand at the end, before he broke the Elder Wand. Wouldn't that have taken, like, fifteen seconds? And I thought there should have been more epilogue, like showing Lupin's son and more of the interactions between the kids.
I am so ridiculously glad that they split it into two movies. I wish they could have done it for more of them. I'm not feeling particularly sad that it's over, which surprises me; I just keep spontaneously squealing in glee whenever I think of it. I kind of feel like my life is temporarily complete.
well, that was frustrating. I was typing this reply out on my iPad when the battery died. boo.
I would give this movie an 8 out of 10. I really enjoyed some parts (as in EVERY SCENE OF ALAN'S), but other parts just kind of rubbed me the wrong way.
The Good:
–ALAN. One of my friends has a cardboard cutout of him in her garage, which at one point has made it in my shower.
–I loved the chilling scene of Voldemort walking through the dead bodies at Gringotts with the blood on his feet.
–And, for that matter, the totally chilling scene of Greyback and Lavender.
–I loved how they did the dragon. the CGI was excellent.
–I liked seeing the Chamber of Secrets again, along with the little line of "Harry talks in his sleep." it made me laugh.
–And on that note, I liked how all the water rose up in the Chamber, and Ron and Hermione are expecting certain death, and it just kind of…fell.
–Again, Alan. When Snape died, I was bawling my eyes out. The repeated attacks made me wince.
–To be honest, I really liked it when Snape was like "if anyone has any information on Potter, please step out." And you see someone step out and you notice that they're wearing a Gryffindor robe and you're like "oh, crap!" (I though it would be McClaggen, to be honest). and then it's not. it's Harry.
–Rupert Grint, ILU okay? Don't cry 🙁 you're too good of an actor, it's too real 🙁
–Remus and Tonks please don't die 🙁 all the tears forever
The nitpicky bad:
–Neville got the short end of the stick. My favorite scene in the entire series is when Voldy immobilizes him, says there will be only one house at Hogwarts, and then proceeds to put the Sorting Hat on him and set it on fire. "I'll join you when hell freezes over! Dumbledore's army!" And then proceeds to rock. I was really unhappy that it wasn't in there.
–No non-human magical creatures on the Order's side? boo.
–On that matter, way too little Hagrid.
–The whole King's Cross scene just irked me. I've never really liked Michael Gambon as Dumbledore, he just seems too forceful and has way too little sadness and emotion for me. I wish Richard Harris hadn't died, he was perfect. 🙁
–really nitpicky, but hey. When Voldy and Harry are dueling, neither of them were using their phoenix-core wands. which means Priori Incantatem should not have occurred. Harry broke the connection before any incantations could have regurgitated themselves, but the connection existed nonetheless. that really bugged me.
–The whole Voldy/Harry battle, for that matter.
–Ollivander didn't know that the Deathly Hallows were, and Voldemort didn't either. They just thought the Elder Wand was an immensesly powerful wand.
–No resolution to the Deathly Hallows, as in King's Cross. You don't get to see why Dumbledore gave Harry the Ressurection Stone, you don't even learn that Dumbledore cared about the Hallows.
–Not enough Dumbledore backstory.
–I really wanted to see more people coming back though the Hog's Head Passage (as well as Ron spouting out Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration)
–Cho shouldn't have been there, same with Luna. and Dean. Cho had already graduated, and Luna and Dean came later because they were still at Shell Cottage.
–ELDER WAND WTF?!?!?! now you're screwed, Harry. Your wand was HOLLY and PHOENIX FEATHER, specific to YOU, as both are symbols of rebirth and conquering death. you're the master of the Hallows. AND YOU COULDN'T BOTHER TO MEND YOUR WAND?
–Also, Teddy Lupin. I was really looking forward to that, because we named our dog after him. And it's mentioned once total that Remus had a son.
–The epilouge made me laugh so freaking hard. especially Tom Felton's makeup.
Done nitpicking. Despite all of these things, I did really enjoy the movie.
Well, a major part of the book was that Harry and Voldy had the Priori Incantatum even when Voldy used Lucius's wand, so that didn't bother me too much. But did anyone notice that Arthur Weasley totally had a Priori Incantatum at one point, right before Shacklebolt did that AWESOME time-stopping spell on the Death Eater Apparating in?
heh, in my cinema, when Harry was about to break the elder wand, someone behind me yelled 'DON'T DO IT HARRY!'
They really could have put in a quick scene of him repairing his other wand though. It kind of looks like he's given up magic altogether this way?
Good point! What the hell WAS Cho doing there?
For that matter, they never explained how Luna even got back to school! The trio left her at the cottage! Then all of a sudden she was at Hogwarts.
Also, if they had the ability to put Dean in the movies at all, why did they put him in scenes that were different than the book? It's like they rewrote his character.
And I never even thought of the fact that Cho graduated. I just remember her returning for the battle.
In the movies, Cho is in Harry’s year. Hermione in OotP talks about Cho worrying about OWLs.
I felt like my chest was going to explode during the Prince's tale. I had tears flowing & I was trying SO hard not to sob out loud. omg it was beautiful & i loved it.
I also had great difficulty not sobbing but there were so many tears when they showed Fred, Tonks, & Lupin. omg. heartbreak. The way they had Tonks & Lupin laying. jeez.
I loved the Gringotts scene. It was amazing.
I LOVED that they had the kids blow the bridge up & Seamus got to let his pension for blowing things up get put to good use. For some reason I just really really love Seamus. I do not know why, I just do.
Draco/Voldemort hug was the most awkward thing EVER. I did not understand.
So glad they kept in Molly's line.
I was terrified that when Harry told Hermione & Ron that they needed to kill the snake that they were once again take something amazing that someone else did & give it to Hermione but in the end I liked the way that it worked out & it let Neville shine.
How awkward was aged Draco? I think they took that a little too far.
I also didn't like that they left out the Grindelwald story.
I usually try not to compare the books to the movies too much because I know that the movies will never be perfect & will never be as good, but during this movie I kept thinking they left this out, why didn't put this in? But do not get me wrong I still loved this movie.
I feel like I've been told to grow up & my child hood is officially over. 11 years. 🙁
…Hey guys? Did nobody else notice that Mini!Lily doesn't actually have the same color eyes as Harry? That is a MAJOR OVERSIGHT.
All seriousness, though, I bawled my eyes out for the last hour or so of the film. Like, I'd be crying, and then something even worse/more heartwarming would happen and I wouldn't be able to cry any harder so I would just do this open-mouthed silent scream of heartbreak.
I think they say in the epilogue that Albus is the only one of the three Potter children who has Lily's eyes.
Mini!Lily as in Lily Evans, not Lily Potter II
Ah, I see. That makes so much more sense!
Ok, I don't know if anyone as mentioned this yet, but Lavender Brown totally was killed by Greybeck! I was totally shocked. I know she's a minor character, but I don't remember her dying in the book. I could be wrong though.
I definitely thought that was Tonks, and was FURIOUS that they showed Tonks dying but not Fred.
I'm like 95% sure it was Lavender Brown. I want to see it again to make sure though.
I'm with you on this. I'm pretty sure Lavender dies. They even show Trelawney and Parvarti covering her up with the blanket.
Oooh that shocked me too! I'm pretty sure in the book they see her being savaged by Greyback, but then he's stopped by Trelawney dropping crystal balls on his head. I don't think it's ever explicitly said whather she dies or not.
In my head-canon though, Lavender was totally a werewolf after the battle. 😛
I believe it was mentioned that Lavender started to stir after Trelawney stopped Greyback–and Lavender technically wouldn't be a werewolf because he wasn't changed when he maimed her, like Bill, but if that's your head-canon 🙂
I thought I saw somewhere that JKR confirmed Lavender lived. Or I might be making it up, but I swear I've seen something like that.
Lavender wasn't even maimed. Lavender and another unidentified person were blasted from a balcony and landed on the concrete. Greyback saw Lavender land and started charging towards her but Hermione blasted him away before he could even touch ever,.
Yeah I was thinking about it later and was like "Wait, did Greyback even hurt Lavender at all?" but I guess all the talk about whether or not Lavender died from Greyback (before the movie) made me forget–I've only read DH twice so far so I don't know it as well as the first books.
yeah, I just read this too, and, for the record, Greyback had changed. It talks about how Harry saw a grey blur he assumed to be an animal racing over towards Lavender, and how he started to sink his teeth into her, where Hermione blasted him off and Trelawney smashed a crystal ball on his head.
Which, if you think about what Rowling intended being a werewolf to symbolize, Greyback is utterly disgusting.
So let's talk about the whole Voldemort's death thing. It was the one thing in the movie that really bugged me (I actually loved the film for the most part)
But WHY did he explode like that? No one was watching the duel, no one saw him die. So no one knows he's really gone except Harry. Are they really just gonna take his work for it? Given that they've already seen this evil guy come back from the dead once before? Surely the whole wizarding world is just going to be living in fear for the next…well, indefinitely really, because they'll keep expecting Voldie to return.
And it's not like they shied away from having the corpses of the good guys littering the damn place. Why was it too much to show Voldemort's body?
Though my friend suggested that since Bellatrix and Voldie both exploded in the same way, they're now living together for eternity in the air, a la Corpse Bride.
<img src="http://musingsteele.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/by_the_sea_by_makani.jpg?w=300" alt="" title="Voldy-Bellatrix" width="300" height="215" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-9" />
Via Makani.
lol love this
OH WAIT sorry, one more thing that annoyed me! (I swear I loved the film! I really did!)
That Goblin that got burnt to death by the dragon and Ron saying 'That's unfortunate'.
I'm sorry, but what the actual fuck. That is a living, sentient person who just died in front of you in a horrible, horrible way. It's entirely your fault (the trio's, not just Ron's I mean) and he was only there because you performed an unforgivable curse on him and forced him to obey you.
That is not a funny moment AT ALL. I get that war has it's inevitable casualties, but jesus christ, show some damn respect. Just because he was a Goblin, his death isn't important? That guy probably had a family. It was just an ordinary day at work for him, and now he's dead and you're trying to make us laugh about it?
That took me right out of the moment. I know I'm probably taking it too seriously but given all the stuff in the books about how creatures like House Elves and Goblins have been mistreated and seen as sub-human…it just struck me as incredibly insensitive and slightly sinister that none of our heroes batted an eye at that.
I've been with HP since I was three the books where picked up early by my librarian mother when only book 1 was out (SO MUCH WAITING) this series has been with me as long as I can remember so when I walked into the theatre to basically say goodbye to my entire childhood ENDLESS TEARS FOREVER. My friends had to move away from me because I was causing such a scene. Only my girlfriend stayed with me because she was losing it too (almost as bad as me) I will miss you Harry Potter.
Hey, when it was the whole forest-resurrection-stone scene:
When Harry mentioned 'your son' to Lupin, who else expected Lupin to go '…what son?'
He aint mine, Harry.
I'll start this off with a quote I made from another forum and then expand:
Just saw it a few hours ago. It's by far the best movie of them all in my personal opinion. Infact, I've only got three issues with it:
– Hermione's characterization prior to the start of the battle.Am I to feel like they made her too dependent/dumbed down her intelligence a bit much?
– How they changed how James and Lily met. By making them friends from the beginning, they may have created a plothole (haven't seen the fifth movie so I don't know if they left out the chapter on Snape's worst memory or what). A bit minor in comparison to the first point, but still there.
– The deaths. I feel like the glazed over them too much with the exception of Snape/Harry and I still don't understand why when the villians died they crumbled away/turned to dust.
Aside from the issues, it was pretty good.
And to expand on that, I don't think they really needed to add Dumbledor's backstory. It wasn't really all that essential to that plot (although it was nice to know) outside of showing that he had flaws and the fifth book already did that. Plus it wouldn't have flowed well with the movie, in my opinion.
Lily isn’t shown in movie-Snape’s Worst Memory, so no plothole as such.
Don't get me wrong, it was a great movie and all of my creys were had.
But there were some things missing.
Not major things, just nitpicks.
1. They left out him fixing his old wand.
2. They just left out Percy completely, and since that was the saddest/heartwarmingest scene in the books ever….I was kinda miffed.
3. 19 years later was done poorly. They never mentioned Neville becoming Herbology teacher, or Teddy, or the snogging, or even the names of any of the kids besides Albus and James. And also, they could have tried to use computer technology to age up the actors.
4. Has he been wearing that same pair of glasses for 26 years? WUT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN
Wasn't Percy at the Battle of Hogwarts? I thought I saw a couple shots of him w/ the rest of the Weasleys. Of course they left out the reunion but since they hadn't mentioned the fact that he'd broken off from his family in the 5th book it wouldn't really have made sense.
but when he made the joke and then death and oh god
I don't think they have Stein Optical in the Wizarding World.
I thought the part in the book where Percy comes back and tells his family that he's been an idiot was very powerful and emotional, but since they never ever mention the rift at all in the previous movies, it would have been out of place in this one as well.
They left Grindelwald out so they can do a ninth movie all about Dumbledore's past.
I mean what?
Wouldn't that be fucking amazing I mean seriously
oh god i would so watch this.
If JKR ever writes another book in this universe, it should be this one. I've wanted a whole book about Dumbledore's life, and especially his tragic friendship/romance with Grindlewald, for many years.
They did.
It was called 'X-men: First Class'
(I kid, I kid.)
SO TRUE
Eleven random and hopefully interesting thoughts. I have to split this into multiple comments, apparently – sorry for all the space taken.
1. I absolutely loved when the soundtrack went back to the "Family Portrait" theme John Williams wrote when the epilogue came. It makes sense that as we see Harry with his happy, complete and whole family, the music should remind us of Harry's longing to have parents, to have a real family – that desire which has now been achieved. "Family Portrait" was what always played when Harry looked at Lily and James's portrait in the album Hagrid gave him in the first two movies – it's how the first movie ended, when Harry realized he found a home in Hogwarts. In the last scene it totally gave it total closure, and for me, it made the whole statement the epilogue was trying to make very clear – that this story is all about the intense power of love and friendship, that it's the reason our main characters triumphed over Voldemort in the first place, and that, after all these years, they still have it. And now it's time for them to live happily in the abundance of it.
2. The overall inclusion of "Hedwig's Theme" (the main Harry Potter theme) in the movie – it appeared way more than in the last movie. Especially in the scene where Harry arrives in the Room of Requirement – in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that's why Mark liked that scene so much.
3. A final comment on the music; this may seem superfluous, but as a musician, it was very important to me. I'm one of those people who usually stay till the end of the credits to see what the composer does when left to their own devices. For the first minute and a half, it was great – John Williams's themes finished, and it left us uplifted at the end. Then Alexandre Desplat's stuff came in. Now, please don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed and respected what he did in this score – it was truly beautiful music, and for the scenes they were in, the cues were really magnificent. But what was playing during the last 3/4ths of the credits was intense, scary and depressing, the stuff that was playing during the battle and death scenes. The ending music in the credits, the final chord you heard, the very last moments of film in the Harry Potter saga, The End: a jarring crescendo to a loud, scary, altered minor chord, then silence. WHAT?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THAT'S HOW YOU'RE GOING TO END THIS?????? Whoever made the decision to put that music there (and I am by no means sure that it was Desplat) entirely missed the meaning of the last scene of Harry Potter, of the message of love and kindness. Perhaps something iconic, like Hedwig's Theme, or something beautiful and lyrical, like Fawkes's theme, or Family Portrait – but not some cheap, depressing cue you'd hear when a monster jumps out at you from behind a corner, not for this! I was happy and mostly satisfied with the movie, but that cue left me walking out of the theater with a very sour taste in my mouth. ERGH.
4. Harry Potter and the Ever-Disappearing Facial Hair. Did no one else notice the atrocious continuity involving Harry's 2-day stubble? I know it's really nitpicking, but there's a shot in the Hog's Head scene where Aberforth's talking, and the camera goes back to Harry watching him, and Harry, who up till then has had this unkempt stubble, is now totally clean-shaven and neat-looking. And I realized – oh, there was some problem with this shoot, and they had to insert this shot in later, and this is not a shot of Harry listening to Aberforth, or of Daniel Radcliffe responding to Ciaran Hind's acting; it's of him just standing there looking serious on a different shoot, while they dub the dialogue from this scene in to make it seem continuous. Sure enough, in the next shot, Harry had his facial hair again. From then on, I noticed several shots with varying degrees of facial hair, and it was really distracting. With production values like this, you'd think they'd try to fix an obvious continuity glitch like that?
5. Lavender Brown's death. Yes, it added drama and sadness to the experience, but since in the film, they never adequately explain that the death eater chewing her neck out is in fact Greyback (and there's only one quick line in Deathly Hallows Part 1 about Greyback being a werewolf), it looks as though you have some random death eater eating a girl's throat out. For me, it was a little too jarring, too grotesque, and not properly explained. Plus, after that, you want to see him get killed viciously and instantly, (like getting a crystal orb to the head, anyone?) and it only looks as if Hermione kind of throws him back with a spell. I think it made much more sense in the book, and (again) it only left a sour taste in my mouth.
6. I love how Neville killed the snake – unexpected for someone who hasn't read the book, and totally awesome. I only wish it could have been right in front of Voldemort, like in the book, but you can't have everything, I suppose.
Hi everyone, turns out I was wrong about the facial hair – on a second viewing, I noticed that the varying degrees of facial hair were due to the angle of the shots, and the 5 o'clock shadow on Harry sometimes looked like two-day stubble due to the lighting. Now, I'm not sure if he's clean-shaven in Gringotts, (that would take another viewing) but what I'm assuming is that we're meant to believe that he shaved at Shell Cottage. I'm sure all of you have been hanging onto my every word here about this quibble, but I just needed to get it off my chest. 🙂
7. Overall, I loved the King's Cross scene, but did no one notice that Dumbledore NEVER EXPLAINS why Harry even has the option to go back? There was no mention of Voldemort taking Harry's blood in the fourth movie and therefore keeping that protection Harry's mother gave him alive. For someone watching the movie for the first time, maybe it will go unnoticed, and they'd just be happy Harry survived, but to anyone who's actually paying attention, it would just seem like a bad Deux-ex-Machina at a very pivotal moment in the series.
8. Voldemort's death; it could have worked, if only they had shown a clear shot of his killing curse being pushed back into his wand. But it's done vaguely, and it leaves the audience confused about what's happening until Voldemort actually begins to break apart – and then it's like, "What? Wait, um . . . ah, he's dead. Oh." Plus, I'm sorry, but it is WAY more dramatic with everyone else at Hogwarts watching, and I really would have wanted to see everyone react to the news of Voldemort's death. I actually liked the slow breaking apart of Voldemort, but the rest was awkward and anticlimactic.
9. I actually liked how they did the makeup for the main characters' aging in the epilogue. It was subtle, and it got the point across. They're older, but they aged gracefully. It was way better than some overdone prosthetic goop thrown on their faces making it look awkward and overly comical, as I've seen done so often in lesser movies. For me, it worked.
10. I also actually liked the scene where Voldemort hugs Draco – it's so unnatural, and it puts his inhumanity and deceit into greater focus when you see him feign warmth in that way to gain everyone else's trust.
11. I loved the scene with Harry, Ron, and Hermione on the bridge at the end. Even though I was a little apprehensive to see Harry standing so close to a thousand-foot drop on that walkway (As a final note, Harry stumbles and falls to his death anyway! Artistic license, everyone!), it was nice to see a kind of final bow from the three main characters. Bravo.
Overall, fabulous. Some irritating aspects for me, but still, wonderful film.
Yeah, the fact that Dumbledore never says why Harry can come back to life bothered me too.
Omg. I just realised that the, apparently random, girl who was killed by the werewolf was actually Lavender Brown )':
What I thought was unbelievably great was the score. I mean, the music throughout the movie was spectacular as usual, but what I found truly beautiful was that they reverted to the score from the first movie at the very end. I've seen that movie about thirteen billion times, and hearing that music really set the tone and ensured that I was crying until the last moment. It was a bit like how JKR reverted to the prose of the first book, although less jarring.
The only thing I really missed was the one Professor McGonagall moment. In the movie, they had Ginny scream "NO!" when they revealed Harry's seemingly lifeless body, but in the book it's McGonagall who screams. I always found that moment to be so painfully heartwrenching, and so I guess I loved it. That said, Maggie Smith did a mindmelting job. She was just a perfect actress in this movie and she set me to tears, along with a lot of other things in this movie.
I didn't expect the whole "My childhood is ending" thing to hit me, but when the movie started I just got this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and I almost had a panic attack. Just the act of seeing the movie was an emotional rollercoaster for me. There were parts I didn't like, but all in all it was really quite something. Bravo.
I agree. Everytime they started playing the theme from the first movie I started to tear up.
I'm pretty sure the music in Bellatrix's vault was a variation on the theme from the Chess Game in the first movie, but I'd have to watch the movie again to be sure. Which I am doing, as soon as I come home from Comic-Con!
I know there was at least one other instance in which they used music from the Philosophers Stone because I remember saying "That's from the first movie" out loud and tearing up because of it, but I have no idea when it was. XD
He DEFILED it with DARK MAGIC.
I cried at all the parts most people did (Fred’s death, Tonks and Remus, etc.) but what really got to me was seeing Hogwarts being turned into rubble. Hogwarts has always felt like another character to me, and seeing it destroyed was almost physically painful.
I loved Seamus getting to blow things up, the Neville/Luna bits, and Voldemort and Draco’s really awkward hug. And speaking of Draco, the bit where he and his parents just kinda went, “Screw you guys, we’re going home,” was strangely funny to me. I’m not sure why.
All in all, I thought the movie was a great send off to a great series.
Overall, I absolutely LOVED it… and I never cried so much in a movie theatre before…
It was weird, the cinema was half empty (on pre-premiere day!) and not many people seemed to be fans, except maybe the girl a couple of seats away from me… and it's the only theatre in my city showing it in 2D aswell… but that's by the by.
I can't really put my thoughts into words, the film is kind of a mess in my head by now…
I'm fine with most of the changes they did, except that the Harry/Voldemort finale felt a bit off…
I remember actually saying "What the fuck?" at some point, related to a change, but I can't remember why, so it can't have bothered me that much after all 😀
Prince's Tale was so beautifully done and the whole urgency and overall constant danger in the battle was so poignant!
I was sad that Fred's death was so by the by, because that always breaks me in the book…
Gringotts was pretty perfect, except for the weird uniforms and the Goblin BBQ (wtf?), Hermione-Bellatrix was utter perfection in my book!
I'm watching it again tomorrow… maybe I can make more sense then! 😀
Just came back from watching it again, with Part1 before.
That film really grows when you're not watching it through an unending curtain of tears…
Though Prince's Tale got me really close to tears again!
The thing I yelled out "what the fuck?" at was the moment when Harry steps out of the crowd of pupils, but I'm actually okay with that… it makes sense to shorten it that way…
I'm sorry, I hated the movie. I truly hated it. For many reasons that I don't feel like writing them all down, but I will make a list of things that bothered me most of all.
-The Prince's Tale. SO MUCH HATE. SO MUCH DISAPPOINTMENT. Confusing, so poorly put together, some of it wasn't even Snape's memories (WTH?), and pretty much everything that revealed Snape to be such a complicated intriguing character were taken away. I honestly don't know how anyone who hasn't read the books could understand what the hell went on in that sequence.
-I can't stand movie!Hermione. I really can't. And I hated her more than ever in this movie. It's HER job to take out Nagini?! She comes to the conclusion on her own that Harry is a horcrux?! It's HER idea to escape on the dragon?! I'm sorry but I just can't take that shit. She is given everything just short of being The Chosen One herself to give her more of a spotlight.
-They took away Neville's epic bad ass moment. Screw them.
-Professor McGonagall has all Slytherin students locked away in a dungeon… because they're Slytherins. I think this may have been what pissed me off the most. Who the fucking hell thought this was a good idea? I'm sending bad thoughts to everyone who had anything to do with putting that bullshit scene into the movie. How dare they send such a prejudiced message! It's not as if the books have some moral against shit just like that or anything. (Though, yes, I admit that even in the books Slytherin got a bad rap and not much to contradict the bad image. But there was evidence.) No, go ahead and label innocent children as evil and lock them up. What the fucking hell? I'm not even Slytherin and I am so angry about this. I can just imagine how Slytherins must have felt!
I always felt they were the smart ones in Deathly Hallows. They went to get help, then came back to fight! YES, MOVIE PEOPLE, the Slytherins did indeed fight against Voldemort and his army to protect the school and Harry! … People in my theater actually cheered at the mistreatment of the Slytherins and I was appalled. I was sitting there fuming!
-Neville and Luna..? What? Is this Kloves pushing another couple he's a fan of? Were they.. trying to appeal to the Neville/Luna fans? I just don't get it. It bothers me.
I suppose I'll stop now. I wish I could like this movie, but I really, really can't. I was so excited about it before I saw it, but now I'm just upset and bitter and angry. And here I thought I'd like it since I liked Part 1. But they just went in a completely different direction in the second part. It doesn't even feel like one continuous story, not to me, anyway.
Okay, I disagree with Mark on so many points (obviously), but there's one that I for some reason feel compelled to state my view on: The McGonagall vs Snape thing.
I don't believe Professor McGonagall always thought Snape was detrimental to the school. I think both Snape and McGonagall had a lot of respect for each other and I believe they were friendly, in their own way. They had a friendly rivalry going on over sports and the House Cup. And it was always the two of them that Dumbledore counted on to get things done. They were always there together when he needed them. They may not always have agreed, but I always had the feeling that they were on good terms personally and professionally, though not close. Even their teaching methods were similar.
And another thing regarding what Mark said about how you could tell Snape was unhappy with what he was doing. This has been a complaint of mine, actually. This feels, once again, like something entirely intended for readers of the book. If I had seen only the movies, there's no way I could think Snape was on Voldemort's side because he always looked so damn sad about being the bad guy. Book Snape was actually acting his part, so you couldn't tell about him. He was smug as hell in that Death Eater meeting and I'll bet he acted like a smug bastard as headmaster of Hogwarts, too. He had to fool Voldemort and everyone else into thinking that everything was going how he wanted it. But the movies never tried to do this.
Now, being a reader of the books and a Snape fan, I can appreciate Rickman's portrayal of Snape's inner suffering, but at the same time I felt like it was a total rip off for movie viewers to see that this guy was clearly unhappy with what was going on and what he was doing.
The movie really wasted a perfect opportunity to clearly show a detail that got lost in the book: the Slytherins returning to the battle. What with the color-coded uniforms, it would've been simple to show some students in green among the reinforcements. But no. (At least, I assume they didn't; I stopped watching the HP films after PoA.)
That's true. If only! Instead of clearly showing them helping in the fight, they unjustly lock them all up! >___>
I am still pissed.
How do you feel they took away Neville's badass moment? I actually thought it was more badass because he did it of his own accord not because Harry told him to.
I'm also really disappointed in McGonagall's treatment of the Slytherins 🙁 AND the Hermione overkill. I didn't mind her taking charge ad all that, what I hated was how she completely replaced Ron. In the books I think Harry is closer to Ron than he is to Hermione, so I can understand if in the movies they wanted to balance it out a bit and make it more like a trio. However, instead of doing that Kloves practically removed Ron from the picture and made it all about Harry and Hermione. Ron was just like the goofy side kick or Hermione's tag-along boyfriend. Even if in the movie's Harry is closer to Hermione there should have been more Ron and Harry moments. They're still best friends
I feel the complete opposite. It was far less awesome because he had no idea what he was doing when he did it. Not to mention his little speech to Voldemort was just cheese, in my opinion.
Here's how I see it: Neville, who had been fighting all year of his own accord against Voldemort's regime was specifically given a hugely important mission to help take out Voldemort. Which, for me was a big acknowledgement of everything he'd done so far and how much he'd grown and how much he could indeed be counted on to get the job done. All Neville's life no one had really believed in him, but he stepped up like no one thought he could. It MEANS something for Neville to show everyone his bravery, daring, and willingness to fight and stand up for what he believes in. And this was not by accident. With every bit of him he risked his life to defy Voldemort to his very face and was steadfast in his mission, given to him by Harry. Through pain, trauma, and with remarkable quickness and clarity he used Gryffindor's sword (which the appearance of must have surprised him) to chop that snake's head right off, right under Voldemort's nose! He stared the most feared wizard for a century in the face and didn't even flinch. Neville Longbottom is THAT strong and now no one can say otherwise. Every single person who laughed at him and degraded him for being worthless and dumb have to eat their words because he is so much more than they ever gave him credit for!
That, is all completely lost in the movie, in my opinion. He may have spoken out against Voldemort, but it was nothing at all like the book. It did not hold the same meaning or have the same impact. "I'll join you when hell freezes over! Dumbledore's Army!" is hardcore, bad ass defiance all the way. Some cheesy speech about dead people living on in our hearts is not. Also, Harry's been dead for a few minutes and Neville's already saying it doesn't matter if he's dead? What?
In the movie, he stumbled blindly into his role of destroying a horcrux. It was by accident. He didn't know it needed to be done. Had Ron and Hermione not been in danger, he probably would have never gone near the snake. It's not as if Neville figured out on his own that killing the snake was important to stopping Voldemort. Which is why I say, his original badass moment was taken away. He was never in direct confrontation with Voldemort. It wasn't an act of defiance and dangerous move to bring him down. He was just there, with a sword, having no clue as to what he was actually doing.
The intention to fight and bring Voldemort down versus a complete accident makes all the difference to me. His character arc took him from a self-conscious child with low self-esteem who no one had any confidence in, to a strong, sure person who would stand face-to-face against Voldemort himself; and who was given a great task in helping take him down, which he fulfilled splendidly.
That arc does not work if no one put their faith in him for him to live up to.
I'm so glad I finally found someone else who disliked that Slytherin mistreatment! I swear, I haven't seen a single other person so far say anything about it. Of course, I'm not searching the internet too hard, but still!
Ok, I can see how his bad ass moment was taken away. I definitely did NOT like how they took away his epic speech (although I didn't reeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaally mind the one they gave him. Still would have preferred an epic one over a heartfelt one). Also, for some reason I thought he did kill Nagini under Voldy's "nose" but now that I think back, that makes no sense. My memory is a bit fuzzy already. I like to think Neville would have killed the snake anyway, even if Ron and Hermione weren't in danger, but you're right, he wouldn't have gone looking for it or anything.
STILL SO MAD at the Slytherin thing! I loved McGonagall's verbal bitchslap to Slughorn in the book. I also feel like I spend way to much time defending Slytherins. Slytherin =/= evil. This movie is NOT helping my cause.
ILU, those are some of the EXACT same problems I had! Stupid movie people… grrrrrrrrr. Also, that stupid hug thing, the duel being ALONE instead of in front of everyone, the stupid explosion rather than corpse, that STUPID, STUPID BOATHOUSE, and more stuff. Waaaaaaaay more stuff. I was fuming the entire movie. Battle looked kinda cool though.
I can't describe how much I loved this film. I feel like it's on a higher level to every other film I've watched. I've watched it twice now, and the bit that reduces me to a snivelling mess on the floor is, I have to admit, the Epilogue. When the music from Philosopher's Stone begins and the children speed off into the distance I got this overwhelming feeling of finality, a poignant and yet peaceful sense of closure that I've never felt before.
I have to say though, the second time I watched it, during the bit after Snape's death when Voldemort does another of his "Surrender Harry" speeches, I couldn't help but add "Voldemort out bitches" like in AVPM… bit of a mood breaker but oh, so hilarious!
Overall I am distraught that it has come to an end but, as they kept pointing out in the film, those who die never truly leave us: we can always find them within us, as we will always find Harry. Ok now I'm going to cry!!
Fun Fact, the crowd I saw the film with at the Midnight showing was PUMPED. My friends and I were in our seats around 11:00, and the crowd was wild. There was a pair of people putting on a fake duel, and the whole theater cheered when the lights dimmed…for the advertisements! Same thing for when the previews came on, simply for the fact that the movie was CLOSER. The straight up erupted when the film actually came on.
They lost their shit when Neville killed Nagini, when Dumbledore simply CAME ON SCREEN, when Molly uttered her amazing line, when Bellatrix died, when Voldy died. For a second it looked like that shot of the Trio would be the last scene…and then the title card "19 Years Later" came on and they BLEW THE MOTHERFUCKING ROOF OFF THE PLACE.
Siriusly, probably the most excited crowd I've ever watched a movie with.
Awh, that sounds so awesome, good for you!
I had a half empty theatre with a really less than excited bunch of people. Oh well…
Me too! We were the only ones dressed up in our theatre, because they messed up our tickets and we were in a theatre that started a little later (15 minutes after twelve, instead of just after twelve!). 🙁 But the movie theatre did have signs on the bathroom doors saying "this way to the Ministry of Magic. No Muggles allowed"… and in the stalls over the toilet: "Ministry of Magic," with an arrow down. Baha 🙂
I cried from about a minute before Fred's death to about the end of the movie.
i didn't like that they didn't give Fred's death the amount of screen time it should have, i felt it treated him like a extra instead of the loved character he was.
once the flashbacks started with Harry in the first movie, i saw both twins behind him so happy and cheering and i just cried harder.
Then at King's Cross Dream Station, all that occurred to me was that Fred is there too; he's just one choice away from being seen again.
While George was my favorite twin, Fred was definitely loved. i shudder to think how i might've reacted if their places were swapped.
tl;dr i hate that Fred's death was treated like an extra, and i couldn't stop crying.
Wait… I thought Harry arrived in the room of requirement and not Gryffindor common room. At least, that's how it was in the book. Also, there were people from not gryffindor in that scene.
Anyway, I'm going to watch that movie again. The first time around, I cried so much I had to wipe my tears every second and had to remove my 3D glasses and I missed many scenes because of that… -_-"
Why is my comment not being submitted 🙁
So gonna try again:
Here is a direct c/p of my tumblr post from three in the morning when we got home from the midnight showing:
Warning, spoilers ahead!
Molly Weasley got her line.
Neville got to be a badass, despite several misleading moments and gets with Luna. I highly approve!
Snape’s memories…crying.
Everyone in the theater clapped, awwwed and cheered in harmony.
While waiting for the movie to start, a guy ran around doing his best Quirrel impression. Troooll!
I loved Draco’s exit!
They kept the epilogue, thank god. And the kids are adorable!
The King’s Cross scene is fucking bright. You might want some shades. It felt rushed and cut the Ariana/Grindenwald explanation, which was a bit annoying.The Voldemort baby might’ve been the most disgusting thing in the movie, hands down.
When Lupin, Sirius, James and Lily come back. Just someone rip out my heart please.
Oh Minerva, you are awesome.
The battle of Hogwarts was tense, action-packed and fairly detailed. Although it might induce seizures. Seriously. Amazing though.
When Harry and Tom jump off…it’s cool…but weird. The reason for Tom’s final death is vague.
Helena Ravenclaw.
Why didn’t you fix your damn wand before snapping the Elder Wand and what happened to your cloak??
Spoilers over.
It’s hard to sum up my experience. It was great. Thank you, J. K. Rowling for writing this series.
Alright, now here are some *deeper* thoughts now that I've had a day or two to think it over-
The dragon made me sad inside. I mean, I know it's rather obvious as abuse isn't ever funny, but the film did a good job with it. And in hindsight, I was disappointed the gold in the vault didn't burn. But no one in our theater laughed when that goblin got roasted. And poor people who fell off the tracks into the rocks :/
I actually liked the uniforms. They screamed "security" and required no explanation.
And I don't want to be a jerk, but I think nitpicking over Snape's line (among other things) is ridiculous. This film (aside from the first three) kept the most details in. The only thing that seriously bothered me was how rushed some parts where such as the King's Cross. I mean they dropped in Ariana's painting and then left that subplot hanging. Better to have had a random painting, imo.
And the humor was welcome to me, aside from Neville's woozie wake up.
Fred's death didn't affect me until I saw Ron crying.
The parts where we all as a theater applauded:
The Ron/Hermione Kiss
Neville Killing Nagini
"Not my daughter, you bitch!"
Snape/Minerva fight (I think, it's fuzzy two days later)
And I really liked how Draco/Narcissa/Lucius just left. My friend wanted to clap, but later on said she felt no one else would have. I actually expected Draco not to go at first, since it took him so long. And the Voldy/Draco hug wasn't intended to be humorous-they immediately cut to uncomfortable faces. It is meant to be an awkward scene.
And the Voldy/Harry flight was good, imo. It is some pretty heavy symbolism, but fun to watch! 🙂
The subtitled moment with all the bodies was brutal. But that baby beat it out in sheer "ew!".
I'm immature-when Harry climbs up on the broken stone, right before he snaps the Elder Wand, I whispered jump and thought of Bella Swan. /shame.
Universal laugh moments in the theater:
Ron running back from the fire after running after Draco and co. "That's my girlfriend!"
Honestly, don't remember the rest. I'm sure if I saw it again it would jog my memory.
Though the first time we see young adult Snape he looked puffy? But the rest of the flashback he looked naturally younger.
Oh, and to give all of this some context: we were seated in the third row down in the front.
I think the biggest negative reaction i had to the movie was the sequence where Voldermort and Harry were dueling. The idea that Harry, with all 6 years at Hogwarts, could hold his own against Voldermort was the only thing that really brought out my side-eye. I mean Dumbledore could barely keep Voldy at bay during the ending of OoTP. Plus i don't think voldy would have been using anything curse other than the killing curse in that situation, which is yenno unblockable. Not a huge thing and I definitely enjoyed the movie.
Oh thought of another thing, I was kind of disappointed that the final clash between Harry and Voldy happened out in the courtyard with no one around to witness. I always like the sequence in the books when Voldy sees Bellatrix die and lets out a wave of rage which pretty much knocks everyone back. It feel like someone should have congratulated Harry on destroying the most evil wizard in the history of the universe right? At least a high-five or a red vine.
The fact that Harry was able to properly duel Voldemort made me kind of suspicious as well. I guess they figured a big fight would play better on screen?
I just hope someone makes a Youtube Poop of Voldemort bitch slapping Lucius for like ten minutes. I couldn't even be sad because I kept thinking of that scene and just laughing.
I shouldn't be taken to movies, I just kept making cracks through the whole thing, like yelling at Snape to get out while he still can and to save his hair. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but there was a lot of cheesiness. But I like cheese, so I had fun. Ralph Fiennes, you keep chewing that scenery, you magnificent bastard.
Also, I laughed really hard during the Breaking Dawn trailer when Edward broke the bed getting it on with Bella. I am so looking forward to that movie. Please, let it be in 3D so we can all see that baby coming out at us from the screen. Gosh, there is something deeply wrong with me.
Haha, I noticed that bit of the Breaking Dawn trailer as well and had to laugh.
Aww. I didn't get a Breaking Dawn trailer!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4d_qIGAiCE Enjoy, if you haven't seen. It's hiliarific. Especially with the intense music making it sound like it's the goddamn LoTR.
I really enjoyed it, well, most of it. Me and Steve Kloves still have some serious issues, just because this is the last film doesn't mean he will escape my wrath unscathed! (I'll explain those issues later.)
So.
Good stuff:
I loved the beginning with the Dementors floating about. This film is the first one I've ever seen in 3D. When I saw a Dementor right infront of me, it gave me goosebumps and put me on the edge of my seat right from the beginning, (where I stayed for the entire film!)
Gringotts looked amazing. The effects of the Dragon, the vaults, the mutiplying treasure and the Dragon escaping were some of the best I've ever seen.
Rupert Grint with curly hair and a beard. Need I say more? ;D
Helena Bonham Carter's impression of Hermione/Emma was spot on. I loved it when she tripped over her heels. I really wish they didn't keep the original actor's voice though, I would have loved to hear Helena impersonate Emma's voice.
Rupert Grint taking his clothes off…..
The battle. Holy fuck, the battle! It was chaos, noisy terrifying chaos and I loved every single second of it! The effects of the spiders, the giants, flying Death Eaters, the Dementors were absloutely phenomenal! If they don't win all the awards for those effects then I shall sue everyone!
Ron crying over Fred's dead body. And the noises Rupert was making, he sounded like a wounded animal. I'm feeling emotional just thinking about it.
Lupin and Tonks's bodies next to each other with their arms out strechted like they were trying to hold hands before they both died. God, I'm feeling emotional again now!
Mathew Lewis: Sir Fitty of Handsome Town, Smexyvile, in the land of Swoon. He's so dreamy *sigh*
Hermione and Ron's kiss. I loved the giggle they both did afterwards. I got the feeling it was Emma and Rupert giggling, not Ron and Hermione.
My favourite moments over-all:
Professor 'bad ass mother fucker' (that's right, I'm bringing out the words, not the letters. DEAL WITH IT) McGonagal bringing the Knights of Hogwarts to life. Her absolute delight at finally being able to say that spell was adorable, It put a massive smile on my face. The only thing that could have made that moment more perfect was if they had the galloping desks as well, but that might have looked a bit silly.
Molly 'bad ass mother fucker' Weasley. "Not my daughter you bitch!" The way Julie Walters said that line was perfect! Gah, I love you Molly!
Every single scene with Alan Rickman. Wow. He completely blew me away. Snape's death scene was perfect, even the horrific noise of his body banging up against the glass of the boat house. His memories were also perfect, though I wanted MOAR of them! I was sobbing by the time he was hugging Lily's dead body. Alan Rickman needs awards. Lots of them. All of them.
Harry in the forest with Lily, James, Sirius and Lupin. The day that moment stops making me cry will be the day my heart turns to stone! "Stay close to me." "Always." WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
Bad stuff:
I wanted Kreacher to burst through the doors leading an army of House-Elves all carrying cleavers and frying pans. 🙁 < sad face is sad. That is my absolute favourite moment in the book, it makes me cry everytime (I can't explain why.)
Where the feck was Hagger and Grawp during the battle? I wanted a giant on giant fight! Booooo hiss.
Kings Cross. I can't decide if I like or not. The look of it was beautiful and was so jarring . But they left out so much of the stuff that explains things. That's the moment when Harry sees Dumbledore as an ordinary, fallible human being instead of his idol. I didn't really feel that from the film.
Harry and Voldemort sky-diving off the edge of a cliff. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttt?! It served no purpose at all. It was just filler. Idiotic filler.
Neville's confrontation with Voldemort. I want to love that moment, I really do. But I can't because he didn't say "I'll join you when hell freezes over! Dumbledore's Army!" Instead I got some speech about Harry always being in our hearts, and yes, he is right. But, In that moment I was expecting fierce, brave, Gryffindor-Neville not some watered-down, Disney, Hallmark version of Neville. I'm so sorry Neville, I love you I really do, I just can't love that moment.
Hermione Jean Granger – defender of House-Elves – coming up with the idea to use a frightened, blind, tortured dragon as transport. AND THEN, stunning the poor things tail to make it take off from the roof. I'm sorry, but, NO! There is no way I'd ever find that acceptable for Hermione's character. They should have left it as Harry's idea.
Ginny/Bonnie kissing Harry/Dan. How can it be that the woman who ripped my insides to shreds when she screamed "NOOOOOOOOO!" after seeing Harry's dead body, can kiss him goodbye with so little passion or emotion? Harry/Ginny is my favourite ship in the books, and Ginny is my absolute favourite character. But in the films their relationship is so weak, I will never not feel sad and let down by that.
And finally, my biggest problem with it was Voldemort's death, him turning into floaty chunks of ash. Again, NO!
In the book his death is massively significant to his character. He spent his entire life telling himself that he was special, that he wasn't like anyone else, that he was more than just a wizard, more than human. He altered his appearance and was hell bent on making himself immortal, to the detriment of his soul. But, when he died he became nothing more that an empty, pathetic, life-less human body, dead on a cold stone floor.
To have him turn to ash makes him special, makes him different to everyone else.
I love his death in the book, it was absoultely perfect for his character. When he died in the film I was meant to feel overjoyed that Voldemort had been defeated and that Harry had won, but i was just angry. It totally ruined that moment, even though I knew it was going to happen that way after reading Edward's review on the Leaky Cauldron, so I was prepared for it, but it still managed to ruin it.
Steve Kloves why you no understand me?
I can't decide how I feel about the epilogue. I think I need to see it on a much smaller screen to be able to form some sort of opinion of it. GIVE MY THE DVD LIKE NOW TYVM.
I need to stop now or I'll be writing all night.
So inconclusion: The film made me laugh, cry, sob, squeal in delight. It made my hands all sweaty and my heart race like it was trying to jump out of my chest.
I loved it.
The same thing bothered me about Voldemort's death. The whole point of him dying was that he was just an ordinary, mortal man after all without the Horcruxes.
Rupert Grint taking his clothes off…..
Siriusly, I enjoyed that waaaay more than acceptable…
I…. sort of liked it?
Things that were Awesome:
Snape
Death Eaters chasing Neville over the bridge
Draco looking all tough in the Room of Requirement, and then looking scared and running away
Things that were Sort of Good but also Annoyed Me
I liked how in the last battle there were the three or four different fights going on at once, with Neville, Ron and Hermione fighting Nagini, Harry fighting Voldemort and Molly fighting Bellatrix. It made the pacing appropriate for the movie, whereas it would have looked like one-thing-after-another if done the same as the book. But it lessened the emotional impact of Neville being tasked with destroying the last Horcrux, and also some of the Harry/Voldemort fight was just FUCKING WEIRD!
Things I Hated Cos They Were Stupid
I. Hate. Ralph. Feines. (or however you spell it)
He wounds like he is asthmatic and constipated at the same time. When he says Avada Kedavra, the whole cinema, myself included, burst out laughing. And then kept laughing every time he was on screen afterwards (especially when he hugged Draco, and when he tried to tell a joke, and laughed at his own joke).
Also, the movie went back to being lots of scenes from the books thrown together without any room to breathe, and the whole thing had a dream-like feel, with the camera never stopping, and just swooping and panning everywhere, not giving any reality to hold on to.
I loved Part 1 because it felt like real people with real problems, but this seemed like a dreamy fantasy CG extravaganza with little emotional impact or grounding in reality. When Harry, Ron and Hermione stared off in the distance, I didn't feel like they had gone through any emotional journey, and were just standing that way because thats what heroes do at the end of films.
I'm sad because I was hoping for a big finish so I could have closure on the franchise, but it sort of drifted away into nothingness 🙁
But still – OSCAR FOR ALAN RICKMAN!
Why the goddamn hell was Blaise Zabini with Draco in the Room of Requirement?
Becaue Crabbe got busted with a lot of pot and kicked off the movie XD
THERE IS NOT SUCH THING AS TOO MUCH EPILOGUE. Cute Daddy!Harry is cute.
My very very long comment hasn't shown up yet 🙁 so here are some of my favourite memories of Thursday night instead:
Walking into the cinema dressed as Hermione (my mum was a random Hufflepuff student), a girl saw us, her face light up and she said "Oh, wow!" That moment made all the stress of getting ready, and burning my head with a curling iron so totally worth it.
Seeing two of the most epic people ever dressed (very expertly) as Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange standing in a que waiting to buy popcorn. The girl dressed as Bellatrix was so convincing I had to look at her again to make sure she wasn't Helena!
Me and my mum laughing at random stuff before the film started.
My mum very loudly saying "Oh no, not Neville!" when he fell off the exploding bridge.
My mum clapping when Molly killed Bellatrix. I was so proud.
Being the only ones who watched the film to the very end of the credits. Though my mum wanted to leave as she needed the toilet, but I made her stay. I'm a terrible daughter.
One of the credits was for a Professor who made up the Parseltongue in the film, I found that interesting for some reason.
During the car journey home I was beeing all sad and depressed and my mum made me LOL when she told me that all the way through the film she really needed to fart! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. She will kill me for telling you that!
It was my first, and last, midnight screening and I had so much fun!
I love Ginny and Harry/Ginny so much in the books, and I've always been disappointed how they handled them in the movies, but I have to say, the little we got in this film, I loved. I mean, when they kissed, and Harry was like "Ginny, I…" and she was all "I know". I mean come on, HOW FUCKING STAR WARS WAS THAT???!!!
Ahem
I cried so hard. And then, the epilogue, they used the music cue that I have always felt needed to be used to end the series, and I just…my childhood, you guys. I'm not saying it's over, because that would imply that I'm not going to be constantly rereading Harry Potter throughout my life and reading it with my kids and rewatching all the movies and occasionally checking out fanfiction, etc.
But it's…different now. I still remember when I read the first book. The first three books, actually. My family and I took a 3 week vacation and drove from Nebraska to Oregon and back. The first 3 books were out but I had not read them. Right before we got to Oregon I asked my brother if I could borrow his books because I was bored. I read all three of them within a few days. To me, Harry Potter is linked in my mind with the smell of the ocean and with the Oregon forests (and with Mandy Moore, who had just released a new album that I conned my mom into buying for me, but let's not dwell too hard on that).
Every now and then, when I'm rereading, I recapture that feeling that I had the first time I discovered the magic. And watching this last movie was like that for me. They weren't perfect. And maybe in 30 or 40 yeas, when plenty of time has passed, I wouldn't mind seeing another series of movies, to see what they look like when they know the whole story from movie 1. But they brought to life a story that will stick with me for the rest of my life.
There were a few parts I didn't like (most of them have been covered by everyone else), but the good bits were amazing, and definitely made up for it. I may have possibly bawled my eyes out just a tiny bit.
I don't have much else to say, except that when McGonagall bewitched the soldier statures, my sister turned to me and said, "Don't blink!" Oh yeah, I have taught her well!
EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL AND EVERYTHING HURT.
/sobs for weeks
I seriously cannot believe it is over. I literally grew up with Harry. The first book came out when I was in 1st grade and I have been on adventures with him, Hermione and Ron ever since.
Just saw it! I don't have many wooords and I have to do things other than post on the internet (my life is cruel), but by far the best scene in my opinion was the Prince's Tale. Perfection. The only possible nitpick I could come up with was that the movie audience has never seen a real version of Snape's Worst Memory, but, that said, I don't think they could have put that into this sequence of the movie without ruining the pacing and feel of it.
Seriously, it was just gorgeously done, writing, acting, and definitely the visuals.
This movie was my first ever midnight showing of ANYTHING and I loved it. I like being in a theater where everyone else is cheering and laughing at all the best parts.
So there was stuff I loved and stuff i not-so-loved. Loved loved loved a million times McGonagall. I didn't even care that they changed stuff from the book when she dueled Snape because that was badass. And then lighting all the torches in the Great Hall after Snape escapes and using her magic on the stone soldiers…epic. Loved. (Though when she woke the stone soldiers my first thought was "Whee, substitutiary locomotion!")
I really liked how they did Snape's death, though I have to admit that when Harry said he knew where Voldemort was I waiting for him to add "When the hell did Hogwarts get a boathouse?" I mean, I know they must have had one since there were boats, but we've never seen it before and it was weird. But I loved the way that scene was shot, with Harry and co hiding, unable to do anything, while Nagini just gets brutal on Snape. It just seemed so much more…tragic and awful than in the book.
Loved and hated The Prince's Tale. I thought Alan Rickman did a bang-up job in the flashbacks. When he goes to see Dumbledore, both before and after Lily's death and he just seems so terrified and broken, it was masterful. And that "Always" broke my heart. A million points to you, Mr. Rickman.
But while I loved lots of that part, I really *hated* how they cut out Snape calling Lily a mudblood. That was a *huge* part of the tragedy Snape's character, IMO — not just that he lost the girl he loved, but that he lost her and *it was all his own fault.* And I felt the movie really whitewashed Snape by cutting out all the information that he was hanging out with future Death Eaters and that, at least at first, he was with Voldemort because he really believed Purebloods were superior, until it cost the life of the woman he loved. The movie made Snape into more of a tragic woobie than the layered character I felt we got in the books.
This movie also seemed to have a big problem with people just appearing places with no explanation. Like when Harry and co. follow Neville into the Room of Requirement and with everyone there Luna just happens to show up too…even though last we saw her was at the safe house. Why the heck was she in Hogwarts? In the book she comes in after Harry shows up and her entrance is noted, but here she's just there with no explanation. It happens again in the forest scene, when Hagrid's just there, captured by the Death Eaters, with no explanation of how they got him or why he's there. The camera doesn't even acknowledge his presence until he speaks, so it's just like "Okay, Hagrid's here. Wait, what?"
I didn't like that they replaced Neville's awesome "I'll die before I join you! Dumbledore's Army!" with an Inspiring Speech About The Harry Potter In All Of Us. And I was so worried they weren't going to let him kill the snake. I don't get why the filmmakers decided to change what's widely regarded as one of the best scenes in the book. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. (That said, I did like that he just found the Sorting Hat in the rubble, rather than Voldemort randomly retrieving it. That part always seemed awkward to me in the books. This made more sense — you can even fanwank it that the Hat appeared because the sword sensed a need and so appeared where it was needed.)
I actually liked the awkward Voldy-Draco hug. I dunno, it made me giggle. And I liked the Malfoys just walking away from the battle, no longer interested in fighting, just wanting to be together and safe.
The final battle: so, when Harry and Voldemort are on the parapet or whatever it was, and Harry's all "You and me, Tom" and grabs Voldemort's face: was I the only one who kinda thought for a sec Harry was going to kiss Voldemort? And was maybe a little disappointed that he didn't? Because that would've been kinda bad-ass.
Finally, I saw this in 3-D because at the time I bought my tickets that was the only showing that was available and I didn't think it was worth it, though we did get awesome 3-D glasses in the shape of Harry's glasses (I totally kept mine instead of recycling them because c'mon, Harry Potter glasses!).
AGREED about Snape. If he never calls Lily a mudblood, then she just looks like one more girl who went for the "Bad Boy" instead of the "Nice Guy," which is a narrative I hate. But they didn't even put that scene in the fifth movie, so I guess bringing it back here would be weird? I don't know. Also, I thought the actor who played Young Snape was cute, but didn't look ANYTHING like Snape OR Alan Rickman.
Also agreed about Neville's speech. Moar badass in the book.
Blegh – YouTube embed fail. Let's try this again –
[youtube ySN8Q4U6wys http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySN8Q4U6wys youtube]
Hi, Mark! I'm a long-time lurker and I need to let out my Many Feelings, so:
"Lucius, how do you live with yourself?" "I don't know." And Narcissa pulled Draco away from him and then he went after them slfjasf
I really liked Kelly Macdonald as Helena. I LOVED the idea that Luna wanders around and befriends ghosts. "He's lied to a lot of people." "I KNOW WHO HE IS! I KNOW WHAT HE'S DONE!" And saying that Harry reminds her of Riddle a bit- okay, let's go back to my favorite theme that was last examined closely in Order of the Phoenix. I can get behind this.
"We never left." There is so, so much written about death (including in this very series, of course) and how the dead haven't really left you, but coming so succinctly from Harry's mother… oh god. Leave me here to weep.
They cut I Have Something Worth Living For! Probably for the best. I liked when their fight got physical and Voldemort was just kicking Harry around.
The scene with the subtitled Parseltongue and the dead goblins and the blood on his feet. When they edited the blood off Hermione's hands for the first trailer there had been pictures (or something) of it still on her, so I wasn't shocked when I saw it in the movie. But I had no idea they edited it here and it was really disturbing.
DADA LOVES YOU
So many reviews singled out Fiennes, who is as amazing as usual, but ALAN RICKMAN. I left the theater wanting to shake his hand. The Prince's Tale was flawless. Gambon was also very good- his intensity worked here instead of being jarring.
BOOM
I didn't like the scenery of King's Cross, idk it looked like someone was playing with gradient on an old version of Microsoft Word. "Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who deserve it." I am half like WTF, who doesn't deserve it, and half Gambon is a Flawless Badass. Also, fetal Voldemort. Mass recoil.
OVERALL I AM DELIRIOUS WITH JOY
Oh oh and the girl screaming in the Great Hall. Terrifying shit. I liked the bits of his 'announcements' that we got in the trailer with his voice clear better than the ones with his voice distorted, but oh well.
That screaming was really, really hauting… it set the tone very well!
DADA LOVES YOU
<3 YES.
Oh goddd I can't. And then they played Dumbledore's Farewell when Snape is CRADLING AND WEEPING OVER HER DEAD BODY OH GOD. ;____;
Oh god…I know. ANd I'm gonna have to pay attention to the music next time. :(((
I was upset that the Harry's-love-saves-everyone thing was not there, but at least they got Lilly's love right. And Snape's. *sob* When have we ever heard anyone tell Harry they love him before? Pretty much never?
Time to go cry for Harry and Snape. ..
I think the reason Blaise was there instead of Crabbe/Goyle/whichever one of them it was (I forget) is because the actor for the original guy was arrested a few years ago for pot… or something. But yeah, it wasn't planned that way, haha.