the night is full of glowing screens
I went to see the midnight premiere of the last Harry Potter film last night! Here are some things I thought about it!
1. I like that someone decided to make Neville and Luna a couple (or...at least hint at it heavily). I suppose it's a little cliche to match up the two designated misfit/uncool characters in a school story, but I actually think that the pairing is, at least in the movies, quite plausible and fitting and cute. (For me, the main respect in which they're similar people is probably that they are both excellent examples of their respective houses' primary positive qualities-- courage and wisdom-- but because they're so awkward/odd, the people around them completely fail to appreciate those qualities most of the time. Speaking of which, I really enjoyed the scene in this movie where Luna is trying to share some important information with Harry, who isn't listening to her or giving her a chance to speak-- he obviously thinks she doesn't have a firm grasp on the situation at hand and is just going to say something nutty, in spite of the fact that she's proved herself to be competent and insightful in the past. I guess it's just hard to take a breathy-voiced conspiracy theorist in lavender jeans very seriously, no matter how helpful they've been. So Harry's like, "Not now, Luna," in the sort of patronizing voice someone might use when speaking to a child or a senile elderly relative, and she gets visibly pissed off for the first time ever in the film series and yells, "No! You listen to me, Harry Potter!" and it's not exactly the most badass thing that happens, obviously, but it's an awesome moment.)
2. Oh man, I don't even remember whether this was in the books, but! That scene when Professor McGonagall animates all those giant knight statues around the castle and calls upon them to defend Hogwarts was the coolest, probably the high point of the whole thing for me in terms of special effects. Creepy! And I love McGonagall, okay, and I love the way Maggie Smith plays her. She just stays calm until all the statues have been deployed, and then she gives this little close-lipped smile and says something like, "I've always wanted to use that spell." Because who wouldn't, right? Minerva McGonagall, you are a rock and nothing can faze you. (And you are way more ethical, practical, and genuinely concerned about the students of Hogwarts than Dumbledore ever was, seriously.)
3. You know, I'm still bothered by the fact that Harry and friends use unforgivable curses (well, maybe just Imperio in the movies, but a character who has not harmed them or done anything particularly evil still dies horribly as a direct result) without ever being properly called out on it or anything; I don't think that the good guys shouldn't use unforgivable curses, necessarily...I just don't think they should if the narrative isn't going to explore the thorny ethical problems this raises, if it's going to expect us to just go on believing that anything these people do is right because they are, in fact, the good guys. If a story wants to take a stand for utilitarianism or for the ends justifying the means, that's fine, but I think it has to take that stand and stick to it and not gloss over the problematic aspects of its position. (Yes, I take children's fiction too seriously. I'm aware of that.)
4. And I still enjoy the way that even death itself can't stop Albus Dumbledore from showing up to provide Harry with exposition and cryptic advice.
5. And I still like how, when it comes time for a climactic battle scene, the opposing armies decide to just stand around making faces at each other for a bit while Voldemort and Neville (Harry's still recovering from having pulled a Jesus at this point) make speeches like they're competing at the high school debate team regionals instead of actually, say, fighting or anything.
6. And for some reason, when Death Eaters die in this movie, their skin starts flaking off like they've used too much magical Retin-A, and they sort of shrivel up, and then they burst apart in an explosion of black-and-gray CGI shards. It was rather interesting the first time, but after that it got a bit silly.
7. Tiny Snape and Lily are adorable. I cried, my sister cried, I think a lot of people cried. It's not that I don't get that Snape is a complete douchebag and that his love for Lily was actually quite unhealthy and selfish in the end. I get that. Really. But I can also kind of empathize, and I can certainly feel bad for Snape; I think it's likely that Lily was literally the only person who was ever genuinely kind to Snape, who was his friend because she liked him, rather than his "friend" because she wanted to use him as a (metaphorical) human chess piece.
8. ...Another thing that bothers me, come to think of it, is when McGonagall sends all the Slytherins to the dungeon because, basically, Pansy Parkinson can't stand up to Voldemort's telepathic torture/mind control. Despite some pretty half-assed attempts to rectify or justify the situation, Slytherin still comes across as the House of Future Villains, and it's clear that most of the characters themselves think of it that way. Slytherins are automatically suspicious and untrustworthy (at the very least), and if even one demonstrates a readiness to go Benedict Arnold on you, you lock them all up, just to be safe. I really think that getting sorted into Slytherin at age eleven would fuck a lot of kids up; I mean, you tell Aaron over there that he's Brave, and you tell Betty that she's Smart, and you tell Carlos that he's A Really Good, Dependable Person Who's Nice to Have Around, and you tell Diana that she's Ambitious, but it quickly becomes clear that "Ambitious" is politically correct code for "We Think You're A Bad Egg, And Decent People Will Avoid You Like the Plague; It's Only a Matter of Time Before You Inevitably Turn to Evil..." what do you suppose is going to happen, Hogwarts? Do you think you could maybe be setting up kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy here? If everyone assumes you're a member of the Junior Death Eaters League of Darkness anyway, why not just join them? At least it would relieve some social isolation. You'll be accepted in that environment, if still not particularly loved or trusted or anything. (Yeah, the House system is a bit more complicated than this, but it's a problematic element of the story nonetheless.)
9. The whole theater stood up and gave a standing ovation, with cheering, for both Neville cutting Nagini's head off and Molly Weasley's NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH. Yeah!!
I really like communal pop culture experiences, on the whole. Well, I guess I prefer them on a smaller scale-- my siblings and I have been watching Arrested Development together, and it's been fun and wonderful and kind of a bonding experience, and I probably wouldn't enjoy the show as much if I were working my way through it by myself-- but still! I don't understand why some people seem to think it's a bad, bad thing to like popular media, or that a person is not unique/interesting if he or she has a lot of common interests...it's neat to get excited about things together, and one of the reasons it's neat is that sometimes the thing you're getting excited about, whether that's a sport or a movie or a book or a band or a noble cause or a goal you share, is a way of bridging the gap between your disparate psyches. And, note to Internet culture, there's always a gap. It's so insulting to humanity to say that people aren't unique and special, each and every one (like snowflakes! yeah, I went there); there's that stupid old truism that if every person is unique and special, then none of us are, and the terms become meaningless, but that only makes any kind of sense if you're confusing "unique and special" with "better than all the other people." Those aren't the same thing.