Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 Thoughts
It was much to my despair that I was not able to get tickets to a Thursday night double showing of Part 1 & then Part 2 at midnight. It was my fault of course, I waited till the last minute to go about buying tickets, using Part 1's experience as a way of estimating demand. I unfortunately had forgotten that this time around there was also a 4 nights of Potter special happening where tickets to the double showing also were valid so there were considerably less chance of waiting. So I missed out on a collectors item of 3D glasses like Harry Potter's. Anyway I ended up going Friday morning to the nearest true IMAX screen near me and saw the final chapter 10 hours later than I had expected.
Trailers: Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol looks exciting, but then again I've pretty much enjoyed every iteration of the MI movies with Tom Cruise so not really a surprise. There was no Sherlock Holmes 2 trailer but I'd seen that online so I didn't mind. There was however the Dark Knight Rises teaser trailer, and in true teaser fashion there was very little to be going on about.
Anyway, so I'll just be going chronologically with the film and as things pop into my head I'll talk about them, good/bad/funny.
It was nice to see Ollivander again but I thought they went a bit too far with having him go into Draco's wand wasn't sure of its allegiance and all that. I was a bit disappointed with how quickly Shell Cottage went by and wasn't Tonks there in the book? I felt like it would have been an easy way to get her some screen time in the background and help pass along the feeling of time or the fact that she WAS PREGNANT. More on that later.
I absolutely loved Helena Bonham Carter's performance. She might be my standout for DH2 and with her playing Hermione pretending to be Bellatrix it was just so much fun to watch. I wish they had been able to lengthen that bit, maybe have Hermione adjusting to the body and trying out her Bellatrix personality in the mirror or something. That would have been funny. The only bit of that that was a little disappointing, and let me preface this by saying it's been 4 years since I read Deathly Hallows (read it twice within its month of release) so I might be a little cloudy when I bring up things I objected to in the movie, like Hermione's struggle to portray Bellatrix well. It was all funny when she said "Good Morning!" when they arrived in the alley but when she was supposed to be imposing to the goblin manager it felt more like she was merely a stern british school mum.
The Lestrange vault confused me a little bit. I remember the replicating valuables, but I thought that the Hufflepuff cup had been one of those replicating too and that wasn't everything hot to the touch? Outside of that, I really liked that the vault door looks like they brought back the one they used in Sorcerer's Stone (those that watched the Trailing Tonks behind the scenes featurette on the Order of the Phoenix discs know what I'm talking about). That said, the dragon bursting through the floor of Gringotts on the unsuspecting goblins was hilarious and almost makes the dragons from Goblet of Fire (or just the horntail) pale in comparison to its grandiose size. Also Emma was quite fetching in Bellatrix's outfit post-unpolyjuicing.
The vision with Voldemort taking out his anger on the goblins (including Griphook) was a bit confusing. It almost looked like it was at Malfoy Manor but having all the goblins there was a little weird.
I was disappointed in the way the film chose to explain why so much of the Dumbledore storyline (Ariana/Aberforth, Grindelwald, Hallows) was glossed over with Harry interrupting Aberforth and saying "I don't care what happened between you and your brother." It's like … okay .. At least the portrait of Ariana was there, I was expecting her to be absent completely, nor did they connect Aberforth to the Hog's Head with no goat.. I wonder if the films made them into two different people considering a different actor played the barkeep in Order of the Phoenix. I did think Ariana was a bit older in the film than I imagined in the books, I don't think she was near Hogwarts age and the portrait looked like a student.
I was pleasantly surprised to see Cho not only get some screen time but also some lines! I loved seeing her and Luna have a conversation about the diadem. I always felt Cho got shortchanged as a character, especially in the 5th when she was Harry's girlfriend but honestly the film only touched on that with the kiss, the floating DA scene and the betrayal. Cutting out the Skeeter interview/Hogsmeade date really eliminated tension between Cho and Hermione when it came to being the girl in Harry's life, and I just laugh whenever the part of Order of the Phoenix comes on when Harry is walking with Cho and Ron/Hermione inform him Hagrid's back and he ditches Cho with no explanation at all. And when Umbridge fires Trelawney, Harry asks Cho what's going on and then leaves to stand somewhere else.. It's a wonder they were together at all! lol. Just one aspect of the films failing when it came to romance. More later.
It was fantastic to see McGonagall get a chance to flex her wand muscle a bit. When Harry showed up in the Great Hall meeting and Snape went to battle him, I didn't know what to expect and then McGonagall stepped in front of Harry and met Snape's magic I remembered she was the one to drive him out of Hogwarts like a bat. Especially knowing the health battles the actress has had it was great to see her look so lively and get a spotlight moment in taking down Snape and then engineering the protections around Hogwarts.
I think I fell in love with Helena Ravenclaw. I was really hoping that with the storyline involving a ghost we would see the other Hogwarts ghosts reprise their roles, but that was for naught. I didn't mind the recasting because honestly we'd only seen her in some quick background shots what, 9-10 years ago. I don't remember how the book did it but I do wish the scene had been a little longer.
I ended up being pretty disappointed with how the Chamber of Secrets was reintroduced. With such a notorious reputation there should have been some build up to the film's return to it, especially Hermione's first experience with it but it was glossed over, much the same with Ron's sudden ability to speak parseltongue. I would have liked to had a few wide angled shots to show the magnificence of the chamber, the slide down the sink and Hermione's reaction to it. Instead we get the line (albeit funny) of Ron commenting that Harry talks in his sleep to explain how he was able to mimic parseltongue. That said, the big part of the Chamber reprisal for many fans was probably the big long-awaited Ron/Hermione kiss, and I have to say while I'm not a big fan of that ship I thought the kiss was pretty anticlimactic - which is par for the course when it comes to the big relationships. Honestly, the only relationship that got a decent amount of developed time was probably Ron/Lavender. Harry/Ginny never got their big kiss - had that stolen by Ron/Lavender - Harry/Cho was a shell of its book self.. Hermione/Victor was nonexistent (though it was like that in the book too), Ginny/Dean had a background shot in the Three Broomsticks and that was it. Harry/Hermione was probably the most nurtured relationship in the whole film series and probably why its become my top ship (sorta burned myself out on H/G with all the fic reading I did over the years).
With the room of requirement, there was not much to say. I thought I saw the Mirror of Erised when Harry was walking around, and I do wish they had explained the fiendfyre magic instead of having Harry spike the diadem with a basilisk fang and then throwing in the fire. I also thought the broomsticks sequence felt very far away and quickly done, almost like they didn't spend much time on it. I did like how Goyle was like shaking his wand trying to stop the fire, that was hilarious.
It was really weird for the Snape death scene to be moved to the boathouse but you know what, I like that the films have really fleshed out Hogwarts (which I usually explore in the video games - I always think of the film + video game as a usual equal to the book experience although DH1 game was horrible). And getting the memories from a small tear just didn't fit what I imagined when I read the book and how messy it all seemed to me. Now i'm going to keep this part short because it is just really weird to me that I seem to be the only person that doesn't like Snape one bit and the idea that Alan Rickman's performance was anything special doesn't fly. And in regards to the strange change that had Snape at Godric's Hollow and holding dead Lily was creepy to me. Also I noticed that they shifted Snape's words when he's begging Dumbledore to protect Lily to "them" … which also changes things. But I'm not surprised by the presentation of film Snape in a better light … after all it's been done the entire series after Chamber of Secrets, cutting out all of his negative aspects.
I thought how the movie portrayed Harry as a Horcrux throughout was brilliant. Showing quickly that every time a Horcrux had been destroyed (diary/ring/locket) that Voldemort had indeed been feeling each loss and becoming more vulnerable/pained. And then for every following Horcrux destruction having Harry become pained as well was just so well done. It helped add to that ominous feeling developing as the movie went on. Which really went to another level after Harry emerged from the pensieve (which btw I loved the little floating throw thing he did with it) and accepted his fate to die. That was so heartbreaking. I was really caught off guard by how powerful that moment was especially when compared to the Forbidden Forest scene which I thought would be where I would lose it.
I was really disappointed with the resurrection stone scene. It started out alright, but after that moment when Harry reached for his mom and their hands passed through there really didn't seem to be any intimacy to the scene. I expected all four to come around him and sort of embrace him/be there for him like in the Mirror of Erised scene from Sorcerer's Stone but instead they all stayed like six feet away and it was really like each actor filmed their scene separately on a green screen on different days and it never felt like they were all there at the same time for a very emotional moment.
You know from reading interviews and the such from like Stuart Craig it really sounds like they put a lot of thought into the King's Cross limbo scene between Harry and Dumbledore but I just thought it looked like a green screen stage that they just faintly put some arches in the background to make it appear to be King's Cross because it looked nothing like it. I will say that this scene is probably the only time that Gambon's Dumbledore was more than a passing resemblance to Harris' Dumbledore, and that probably had to do with all the white in the scene and Gambon usually wearing grey. I did like that they kept in the line that just because it was in Harry's head didn't mean it was real.
I thought Narcissa jumped the gun in whispering to Harry "Is Draco okay?" without even first checking if Harry was indeed alive. I did like that Hagrid carried him out and that there was reaction from Harry's friends to Harry's body. And maybe the most unexpected funny of the film came in the form of Voldemort hugging Draco. That was so random that I can't believe everyone kept a straight face through that.
I'm willing to be flexible with the way they did Harry's reveal along with his battle with Voldemort going in time with Hermione, Ron and Neville facing off with Nagini. The movies always feel a need to try to pep up the book battles and this was more of that. I just didn't think they did a good job of showing/explaining why Voldemort was defeated. I know and I still found it weird that Voldemort suddenly starts crumbling into nothing. Just said, that was strange.
I was not a fan of how they showed the Molly/Bellatrix battle. Sort of felt like they were waiting until it was there turn and then okay Bellatrix fire at Ginny, then Molly awkwardly block it and then they fight. It did not feel like it happened mid-battle.
I also thought the ending in the "current time" felt a bit stilted and like they didn't know how to end it. Harry walking around aimlessly and then the trio walking around aimlessly before explaining about the Elder Wand's loyalty. I just wasn't satisfied, maybe for a slightly humorous spin would have been easier to take for myself, involving Harry wanting a sandwich. I did not like him snapping the wand especially since that now gives him no wand but I understand the reasoning behind wanting to avoid the baskstory needed to explain what is going to happen with it. A lot like the Dumbledore story, understandable but not liked. And with the epilogue still ahead I didn't let the slow ending bother me much.
A few things left out in my chronological coverage.. I really didn't like at all how the supporting characters were treated. Fred's death happened offscreen, and the entirety of Remus/Tonks was pretty much ignored. I mean I literally laughed in the Forbidden Forest when Harry mentioned to Remus' ghost that he was sorry about his son being left without parents and i'm like "WHAT SON?" There definitely was no sign of pregnancy in the films.
I was also wondering something about the Patils. I know one of the girls was having serious problems with her family and in the film as far as I could tell we only saw Padma. Was this why Parvati wasn't seen? I assumed she was the one being covered with the sheet by Padma and McGonagall.
Also this is just a culmination of the Yates films but I really dislike how wand magic pretty much disintegrated into sword fighting. It was almost like in Order of the Phoenix Yates "Stupified" out everyone with that Ministry scene and went to wordless magic for the most part the rest of the way. I thought it took a lot of the elegance and artistry out of magic with not letting wizards and witches try to outduel each other with different spells. I was also tired by the wandless magic moments but that has been in the films since Azkaban so I just don't want to sound like a broken record.
And finally, the epilogue. I was really hoping that they would hold it for after the credits but I can understand why they didn't. I have to say I was amazed by how great Dan looked as an older Harry, actually I thought he closely resembled a Harry version of the actor they got to play James Potter through all the films (btw forgot to mention this in the Forest scene, WTF was up with ghost!James having a mustache? So random). The kids were frigging adorable, I wish we had gotten to see Teddy and Victoire but with how they cut Remus/Tonks so much I wasn't surprised. I thought Rupert made a good older Ron too, it was only the girls that I had real qualms with. Emma pretty much looked like how she does now, maybe they rounded her face a bit but I just didn't buy her as older Hermione. And Bonnie. She just looked so serious. Lily Luna was cute though snuggling to her. BUT the best part of the epilogue was that they went back to the John Williams/Chris Columbus era Harry Potter music and it WAS GLORIOUS. All the magic, vibrant colors and wonderment was back at the end and the world was how it should be. I could watch the epilogue repeatedly on loop I enjoyed it so much. I was very happy to say goodbye to the dark times and embrace the wonderful world of harry potter once again (see what i did there? :)).
That said, the movie does feel like half a story (which it is) and it was a little weird that pretty much the entirety of the film is the Hogwarts battle. Maybe its a good reflection of the book because I have only read DH twice and both times were 4 years ago, while I've reread most of the earlier books since then several times that I don't know how many times I'll be wanting to rematch the DH movies more than the first two films. Not to mention you have to commit 4:30 hours to DH, no way you can only watch part 2 without part 1 first. I'm hoping to see it again in the coming weeks and hopefully I'll see what new I notice.
ETA: I had half of this post written Saturday night with everything divided between the things i liked, the things I was disappointed with and moments I thought was funny and then the stupid browser went back a page when i pressed backspace (even though I was in the friggin text box) and i lost the draft.. Never composing in a web entry box again.