[Fandom] So... Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two.
WTF did I just watch?
Saw it in IMAX 3D, and just have to say that, really, I could have had the same experience in a 2D theatre and it would have cost chrisbrad less money (I buy the next TWO sets of movie tickets, k?)
I just... I... MY UNPOPULAR OPINIONS, LET ME SHOW YOU THEM:
Is it just me, or was this an extremely dialogue-lite movie? I mean... very few people said anything. Voldemort did most of the talking, and most of that was in creepy head-whispers. (Which seemed to affect all the girls worse? Why?) It's almost like Yates and who the fuck ever else was behind this movie knew from the start that the visuals and effects were going to be the best part of this movie and didn't even try when it came to the dialogue.
(Especially with DanRad. I'm sorry. DanRad has perfect comedic timing and delivery, but when being dramatic, he's best with his mouth shut, and I think that was part of why the movie had so little dialogue, as well. Play to your main actor's strengths! Not to mention, it's possible they were trying to work under a metaphor of "the time for talk has passed, it's time for action. There sure was a lot of action.)
Ron, once again, relegated to the background while Hermione gazes lovingly at Harry. Yates, please. ROWLING SANK YOUR SHIP. GET OVER IT.
Alan Rickman NAILED IT, though. Especially the scene with the duel with McGonagall. (WHICH HOW AWESOME IS MINERVA???) You can tell he doesn't want to fight her, he respects her, and he knows she doesn't know what he does.
For that matter, all the adult actors were spectacular, and I take off my non-existant hat to them all. Including Helena Bonham-Carter, who managed to convey adorable Hermione trying to be mean Bellatrix and failing rather stunningly.
McGonagall: "I've always wanted to use that spell!" ::SNORTS:: Oh, McGoogly.
Why yes, Neville, you do have permission to FUCKING BLOW UP THE BRIDGE. BURN THE MOTHERFUCKER. Perhaps my favorite part in the ENTIRE MOVIE--especially because poor Neville is kind of treated like shit the rest of the time. I know I'm probably the only person to think this, but I sincerely wanted Neville to shut the fuck up and kill the damn snake already. Seriously, WTF was it with the speech? Especially because then Voldemort blew him on his ass immediately afterward. Which sort of made the later part when he DID finally kill Nagini into a "meh" moment.
While Ron running through the Room of Requirement screaming at the Slytherin Trio about "that's my girlfriend!" was funny and cute in a pathetic sort of way it was also just... um... pathetic. Why the Ron hate, Yates?
I have issues with Luna being the one to just outright tell Harry everything he needs to know about the Grey Lady really being Helena Ravenclaw... but, Helena was fucking creepy and scary.
So... Harry just... snaps the Elder Wand like a twig?
I have to admit, this is the point where I just couldn't hold in my disdain anymore and I might have whispered "Oh yeah right" loudly enough to make the woman next to me finally lose her patience and shush me. But seriously, what? I guess that covers the loophole (you know, the one where Harry puts the Elder Wand back and says its power will break if he dies undefeated and then proceeds to enter the most dangerous profession in the wizarding world, the one where he runs the risk of being disarmed every single day of his life... that loophole). But I just... can't see the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand in all existence, possible made by Death itself... being destroyed by a seventeen year old boy just snapping it in half.
HOWEVER... I do have to say that the creative team behind this movie made one very, very good decision.
For those of us who read the books, we knew what was coming. We knew Snape would die. We knew Fred would die, and we knew Tonks and Lupin would die. None of those deaths were a surprise.
There is a character in the books, however, whose fate is left rather vague.
They killed Lavender. THEY FUCKING KILLED LAVENDER.
This was the only moment that made me truly gasp aloud in shock. It's rather a strong move, to kill Lavender Brown outright, not only a character we've come to know slightly better than some of the others, but one of the kids. Lavender wasn't a member of the Order, she wasn't out of school like Fred, she wasn't an adult in all the ways that matter, and they killed her. Bold move, really, to kill someone young and unexpected, giving the war an even darker dose of realism as well as giving those of us who knew what was coming something to be shocked by.
There were moments when the humor was appropriate, and moments when it wasn't. There were several times (and I'm too tired at the moment to remember them exactly) when the audience I was in laughed at things I'm pretty sure were not intended to be funny, because if they were it... well, would be in bad taste, to say the least.
Also, I HATE WHAT THEY DID TO NEVILLE.
The end. Good night.
Saw it in IMAX 3D, and just have to say that, really, I could have had the same experience in a 2D theatre and it would have cost chrisbrad less money (I buy the next TWO sets of movie tickets, k?)
I just... I... MY UNPOPULAR OPINIONS, LET ME SHOW YOU THEM:
Is it just me, or was this an extremely dialogue-lite movie? I mean... very few people said anything. Voldemort did most of the talking, and most of that was in creepy head-whispers. (Which seemed to affect all the girls worse? Why?) It's almost like Yates and who the fuck ever else was behind this movie knew from the start that the visuals and effects were going to be the best part of this movie and didn't even try when it came to the dialogue.
(Especially with DanRad. I'm sorry. DanRad has perfect comedic timing and delivery, but when being dramatic, he's best with his mouth shut, and I think that was part of why the movie had so little dialogue, as well. Play to your main actor's strengths! Not to mention, it's possible they were trying to work under a metaphor of "the time for talk has passed, it's time for action. There sure was a lot of action.)
Ron, once again, relegated to the background while Hermione gazes lovingly at Harry. Yates, please. ROWLING SANK YOUR SHIP. GET OVER IT.
Alan Rickman NAILED IT, though. Especially the scene with the duel with McGonagall. (WHICH HOW AWESOME IS MINERVA???) You can tell he doesn't want to fight her, he respects her, and he knows she doesn't know what he does.
For that matter, all the adult actors were spectacular, and I take off my non-existant hat to them all. Including Helena Bonham-Carter, who managed to convey adorable Hermione trying to be mean Bellatrix and failing rather stunningly.
McGonagall: "I've always wanted to use that spell!" ::SNORTS:: Oh, McGoogly.
Why yes, Neville, you do have permission to FUCKING BLOW UP THE BRIDGE. BURN THE MOTHERFUCKER. Perhaps my favorite part in the ENTIRE MOVIE--especially because poor Neville is kind of treated like shit the rest of the time. I know I'm probably the only person to think this, but I sincerely wanted Neville to shut the fuck up and kill the damn snake already. Seriously, WTF was it with the speech? Especially because then Voldemort blew him on his ass immediately afterward. Which sort of made the later part when he DID finally kill Nagini into a "meh" moment.
While Ron running through the Room of Requirement screaming at the Slytherin Trio about "that's my girlfriend!" was funny and cute in a pathetic sort of way it was also just... um... pathetic. Why the Ron hate, Yates?
I have issues with Luna being the one to just outright tell Harry everything he needs to know about the Grey Lady really being Helena Ravenclaw... but, Helena was fucking creepy and scary.
So... Harry just... snaps the Elder Wand like a twig?
I have to admit, this is the point where I just couldn't hold in my disdain anymore and I might have whispered "Oh yeah right" loudly enough to make the woman next to me finally lose her patience and shush me. But seriously, what? I guess that covers the loophole (you know, the one where Harry puts the Elder Wand back and says its power will break if he dies undefeated and then proceeds to enter the most dangerous profession in the wizarding world, the one where he runs the risk of being disarmed every single day of his life... that loophole). But I just... can't see the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand in all existence, possible made by Death itself... being destroyed by a seventeen year old boy just snapping it in half.
HOWEVER... I do have to say that the creative team behind this movie made one very, very good decision.
For those of us who read the books, we knew what was coming. We knew Snape would die. We knew Fred would die, and we knew Tonks and Lupin would die. None of those deaths were a surprise.
There is a character in the books, however, whose fate is left rather vague.
They killed Lavender. THEY FUCKING KILLED LAVENDER.
This was the only moment that made me truly gasp aloud in shock. It's rather a strong move, to kill Lavender Brown outright, not only a character we've come to know slightly better than some of the others, but one of the kids. Lavender wasn't a member of the Order, she wasn't out of school like Fred, she wasn't an adult in all the ways that matter, and they killed her. Bold move, really, to kill someone young and unexpected, giving the war an even darker dose of realism as well as giving those of us who knew what was coming something to be shocked by.
There were moments when the humor was appropriate, and moments when it wasn't. There were several times (and I'm too tired at the moment to remember them exactly) when the audience I was in laughed at things I'm pretty sure were not intended to be funny, because if they were it... well, would be in bad taste, to say the least.
Also, I HATE WHAT THEY DID TO NEVILLE.
The end. Good night.