Harry Potter and the End of the Beginning of the End
Like more than a few of you, I'm sure, I went with some friends to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I last night.
I wore my black cloak. If there was ever a movie you could reuse your black garb cloak to, it's Harry Potter. Also it was cold outside and my cloak always keeps me very warm.
So, the movie. Spoiler alert: it was AWESOME.
Overall I really was very satisfied. The pacing and atmosphere went very good, I think, and obviously some things had to be dropped or not covered as thoughly what with the time limit and the many ginormous pages of the book itself, but for the most part I think they did a bang-up job.
One of the people I was with pointed out that they didn't bring in as much of the "Dumbledore was not really who he appeared to be" as they could have, which might lead to problems in the second half - at the very least it might lead to the removal of an entire emotional arc. His girlfriend also had a problem with how they didn't emphasize the whole "wand mastery" thing, which is basically the entire point behind the end solution with the Elder Wand. I think both have a point, but at the same time I feel there might still be enough room left to bring that stuff in in part 2, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
All of the stuff with the Death Eaters, Voldemort, the war and the taken-over Ministry went suitably...terrifying and depressing. Though scattered in between there were a lot of light-hearted and funny moments too, which were always a good source of some much-needed levity least the entire film drag your soul straight down. (I doubt I'm the only one who was endlessly amused by the six extra Harry Potters sequence. Daniel Radcliffe had to have had a lot of fun filming that, I'm betting - and though it was brief FWW I thought he did a good job establishing that he was, y'know, different characters. Also that image of Fleur!Harry clinging to smokin' hot Bill on the back of a thestral does not ever get less priceless.) And all of the really big scares, or high points, that I was waiting for from the book were in there and went as amazingly as I could have hoped. The entire sequence with the locket, in particular - that was something I was really looking forward to how they made it happen and HOLY CRAP, THAT WAS HORRIFYING. And I mean that in the best possible way. The fucking eldritch abomination of smoke, the creepy voice, the spiders, the evil!Harry and evil!Hermione illusions...yeah. There may have been some girly shrieking and climbing into theater chairs in our section. Because, dude.
I have to say though that hands down my favorite part was how they did the Elder Wand fairy tale. Because I was wondering how that was going to happen, whether they were going to tell it or show it, and while I hoped they would show it I definitely was not expecting sudden pretty gothic animation. So that was a very very pleasant surprise. And really, holy shit, how well was that sequence done? I would totally watch an entire movie of just that. It was aces.
I also liked the part (well, both parts, but the opening one was suitably brief, so) at the Malfoy manor, because really I can never get enough Malfoys. Plus this sequence had bonus Luna being Luna, crazy Bellatrix being crazy Bellatrix, and Dobby being adorable and awesome just in time for him to die. (Sniffle. Him and Hedwig, man. It's the little things that get to me.)
So yeah. That was the seventh (...out of eight) Harry Potter movie. I liked it; I don;t know if I'll see it in theaters again, ticket prices being what they are, but I most definitely enjoyed it and came out of it with expectations met and even surpassed a few times. It just makes me even more excited for the final-final conclusion and what they do there. So that's my review. Two wands up!
I wore my black cloak. If there was ever a movie you could reuse your black garb cloak to, it's Harry Potter. Also it was cold outside and my cloak always keeps me very warm.
So, the movie. Spoiler alert: it was AWESOME.
Overall I really was very satisfied. The pacing and atmosphere went very good, I think, and obviously some things had to be dropped or not covered as thoughly what with the time limit and the many ginormous pages of the book itself, but for the most part I think they did a bang-up job.
One of the people I was with pointed out that they didn't bring in as much of the "Dumbledore was not really who he appeared to be" as they could have, which might lead to problems in the second half - at the very least it might lead to the removal of an entire emotional arc. His girlfriend also had a problem with how they didn't emphasize the whole "wand mastery" thing, which is basically the entire point behind the end solution with the Elder Wand. I think both have a point, but at the same time I feel there might still be enough room left to bring that stuff in in part 2, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
All of the stuff with the Death Eaters, Voldemort, the war and the taken-over Ministry went suitably...terrifying and depressing. Though scattered in between there were a lot of light-hearted and funny moments too, which were always a good source of some much-needed levity least the entire film drag your soul straight down. (I doubt I'm the only one who was endlessly amused by the six extra Harry Potters sequence. Daniel Radcliffe had to have had a lot of fun filming that, I'm betting - and though it was brief FWW I thought he did a good job establishing that he was, y'know, different characters. Also that image of Fleur!Harry clinging to smokin' hot Bill on the back of a thestral does not ever get less priceless.) And all of the really big scares, or high points, that I was waiting for from the book were in there and went as amazingly as I could have hoped. The entire sequence with the locket, in particular - that was something I was really looking forward to how they made it happen and HOLY CRAP, THAT WAS HORRIFYING. And I mean that in the best possible way. The fucking eldritch abomination of smoke, the creepy voice, the spiders, the evil!Harry and evil!Hermione illusions...yeah. There may have been some girly shrieking and climbing into theater chairs in our section. Because, dude.
I have to say though that hands down my favorite part was how they did the Elder Wand fairy tale. Because I was wondering how that was going to happen, whether they were going to tell it or show it, and while I hoped they would show it I definitely was not expecting sudden pretty gothic animation. So that was a very very pleasant surprise. And really, holy shit, how well was that sequence done? I would totally watch an entire movie of just that. It was aces.
I also liked the part (well, both parts, but the opening one was suitably brief, so) at the Malfoy manor, because really I can never get enough Malfoys. Plus this sequence had bonus Luna being Luna, crazy Bellatrix being crazy Bellatrix, and Dobby being adorable and awesome just in time for him to die. (Sniffle. Him and Hedwig, man. It's the little things that get to me.)
So yeah. That was the seventh (...out of eight) Harry Potter movie. I liked it; I don;t know if I'll see it in theaters again, ticket prices being what they are, but I most definitely enjoyed it and came out of it with expectations met and even surpassed a few times. It just makes me even more excited for the final-final conclusion and what they do there. So that's my review. Two wands up!