harry potter and the sneaky hate spiral

[_thirty2flavors]

First up, as a general disclaimer, I've been feeling incredibly mood-swingy these last couple days for some reason -- like, I'll be fine one minute and one innocuous comment later I'll be ready to BURN UTICA TO THE GROUND -- so if I've been snippy with you lately that is probably part of it. It started yesterday with a Sneaky Hate Spiral kind of day and has just not really stopped.

Anyway, I saw Harry Potter yesterday, and the few hours surrounding that event were basically the few on Friday where I didn't feel like burning things.

Overall, I liked it. I almost always enjoy the Harry Potter movies to some degree, so that isn't a big surprise. Plus, while I found Part 1 underwhelming because I had just reread the book, this time I had more distance from it and for the most part didn't bother getting indignant over the surface-level aspect of the movie. Having said that, I mean, it IS surface-level the same way all the movies have been. They just don't have the time to get into the depth of world-building and themes and all that that the books can. Fuck human/goblin relations, Griphook is just a douchebag! etc.

Things I liked:

• Helena Bonham-Carter as Hermione. I wish the movies didn't use the "their voice stays the same through Polyjuice" thing (though I see why they do) because I would've loved to hear HBC as Hermione as well. But even just watching her was pretty hilarious. I liked, for instance, that she couldn't walk comfortably in the heels.
  
• The Gringotts chase scene was easy to follow on screen, whereas I found it confusing in the novel and I remember having to go back and reread it because I was busy being like "wait, what?"
  
• McGonagall is the best ever, she is so fab and fierce. I loved her duelling Snape to ~defend Harry, and I loved basically everything she did. My audience clapped at the "I've always wanted to use that spell" line. HBIC.
  
• I thought the scene with the Fiendfyre was also reasonably well done. Again, the characters are more surface-level than in the books, but it was visually very interesting and it was trimmed the way it needed to be, given everything. I liked Harry being like "why didn't you give us away?" to Draco and Draco being like UHHHHHHHH.
  
• Actually, basically all the visuals. The battle at Hogwarts is my favourite part of DH as a book and while it didn't translate quite exactly, the visuals of the big shield and the shield cracking and all that were really neat, plus the animated gargoyles and the paintings running and all of that. Super cool.
  
• I liked that we kind of got the movie-version of everyone piling in; we saw lots of characters only for a second or two and you knew they only had that 1 line so they had the one shot of screentime in the last movie, but I was okay with that tbh.
  
• LOL VOLDEMORT LAUGHING WHEN HARRY IS "DEAD". IT WAS A HILARIOUS NOISE OMG. Apparently some of fandom didn't like this? IDK I thought it was hilarious.
  
• Neville is awesome. I also didn't mind the hint of Neville/Luna.

Things I Did Not Like:

• I don't like how they did the final battle between Harry and Voldemort. Where the fuck was everyone else? Why did Voldemort disintegrate? Did Harry just wander back into the Great Hall and say LOL NVM GUYS IT'S FINE I JUST KILLED HIM LOL? It was way more powerful having everyone watch in the book, and way more powerful having Harry's "signature spell" of Expelliarmus be the thing that defeats Voldemort, rather than Generic Red Light vs Generic Green Light.
  
• THE PRINCE'S TALE LOLOL MOVIE, YOU KEEP ON PRETENDING SNAPE'S LOVE FOR LILY WASN'T CREEPY AS FUCK. I c u, trying to make him a tragic lost prince~ and less of a racist who can't drive. Movie Snape is just some dude who had unrequited love for his childhood friend and was basically a grade-A dude all the time (except for those times he inexplicably bullied innocent children)! Book Snape was way more fucked up than that and I disapprove of this encouragement of Snape/Lily as True and Beautiful and not fucked up and possessive like it actually was. James/Lily 5 lyfe, etc.
  
• The non-reaction when Hagrid carried out Harry's corpse. I liked Ginny's anguished scream and run forward, but I missed McGonagall screaming, all that. Neville's big speech was alright but I liked it better as it happened in the book. I also didn't like that Harry told Ron and Hermione he was off to die, Hermione gives him a hug, RON DOES AND SAYS NOTHING UGH FFS and that is that. I guess I see why they included Harry talking to them but then like ugh have Ron say something at least! Have Ron give him a man hug! SOMETHING. GODDAMN. I'm glad they had Neville kill Nagini but as always I preferred it in the book, wiht Harry telling Neville beforehand to kill the snake, than with Neville just stumbling across Ron and Hermione and saving their lives while coincidentally killing a Horcrux. IDK.

I think those were my main beefs. There were lots of things that I thought were so-so -- like lol wtf why did the Chamber of Secrets randomly flood with water when the Horcrux was destroyed? etc -- but I'm forgetting most of them now. Anyway, overall I enjoyed the movie a lot, possibly my favourite of the franchise but then I say that after every new movie almost, so take that what you will. I didn't cry, and I'm not that sad because for me Harry Potter "ended" on July 21, 2007, but I will miss new movies coming out, ngl.