Harry Potter, goodbye (finally!) and a thank you
Now that Harry Potter is done, done, done, I can finally say what I've always wanted to say.
I still maintain the casting powers that be did the wrong thing by casting Alan Rickman as Snape - not because of his acting, or his voice (no), but because Rickman was too old. So, when they cast him as Snape, they had to age up the casting for the other Marauders. As a result of that, the movies lost a key visual, narrative punch.
In Harry Potter, in the last book when he's in the Forbidden Forest waiting for his battle with Voldemort, he sees his parents, and Remus and Sirius. The thing is, his parents died young- at their oldest- in their early twenties. So in the book, when he sees with a young man's eyes how young his parents are, how not much older than him, visually it should have struck the reader (and the viewer) that their lives were too short and tragic. Then for Remus, and Sirius, prematurely aged by their respective life constraints and prisons, they'd be such a stunning contrast against the youthful figures of his parents.
Indeed, the same for Snape. For all his mannerisms, bitterness et al, he was still a man just under forty at the end of the series. In the same breath, when he asked Voldemort to spare Lily (kill the father and the boy, I think I remember reading Snape say, but spare Lily), we should see that Snape was also a young man, driven by obsession, arrogance and pride, with the extra large helping of callow youthfulness, that he's since spent the next seventeen years trying to atone.
With the powers that be in the movie making Snape and the rest of that generation almost touching fifty, sixty years? Visually, it had the potency of a toothless snake.Dumbledore was already old, and Harry would have expected age shielding youth, he had Hagrid and his tutors. But his parents? His mum just a few years older than Hermione or Ginny when she made the ultimate sacrifice for him? That would have been powerful, and a hefty part of the sad romance of it all.
So yes, after watching the final movie, I'm still convinced that Alan Rickman's casting was wrong, age wise. If the beeb actually decides to ever do a Harry Potter serial in the far, far future, I'd hope that they'd just ignore that bit of casting.
The epilogue was still unnecessary. After the tight, elegant ending in the book, for Rowling to then go and tack on that epilogue did her story a disservice. A part of the magic in Harry Potter is the little spaces in the text, where you can write your own adventure as it were. Harry triumphant at the end would have been enough. The ending still felt rather like bad fanfic off ff.net.
Still don't buy Molly Weasley killing Bellatrix. I know that fandom has it as Molly's crowning moment of awesome - I just think she got lucky. Oh, well.
Anyway, the movie is done! A bit underwhelming, and disappointing, the second half, after such an exciting first half last year. But it's done.
Thank you, Harry, Ron and Hermione, you three are ace. For Harry, the leader, Hermione, the head, and Ron the heart, and how yes, three is a number of magic and power.
Thank you Neville, for showing us that it's the humblest package that has the best surprises within.
Thank you, James, Sirius, Remus and to a lesser extent, Peter - for showing how even the brightest and best do get destroyed and corrupted by life's choices, no matter which sides we take or how good our intentions in going in. It's the little things that undo us in the end. It's the yank at one thread, that key stray thread that causes even the sturdiest of plans to unravel. For that, the Marauders are their own cause of celebration and yet, their own caution.
Thank you, Snape, for being well, you - enough to bargain for the life of the one you desired, and when Voldemort destroyed the woman you wanted to distraction, you didn't go on the right side because it was the right thing to do, but because of revenge and another kind of obsession. That you toiled and got your own reward, which was to look into your beloved's eyes shining from the face of the boy who looked like James Potter. The personification of everything you hated, who got everything you wanted in the end.
I'd thank Rowling, but she's a squillionaire, she doesn't really need or want thanks from me. As much as I've had issues with the books, hung on through the delays, and wtf'd over many things have been chronicled in my LJ over the years, it's been a fun ride.
Finally, it's over.
I still maintain the casting powers that be did the wrong thing by casting Alan Rickman as Snape - not because of his acting, or his voice (no), but because Rickman was too old. So, when they cast him as Snape, they had to age up the casting for the other Marauders. As a result of that, the movies lost a key visual, narrative punch.
In Harry Potter, in the last book when he's in the Forbidden Forest waiting for his battle with Voldemort, he sees his parents, and Remus and Sirius. The thing is, his parents died young- at their oldest- in their early twenties. So in the book, when he sees with a young man's eyes how young his parents are, how not much older than him, visually it should have struck the reader (and the viewer) that their lives were too short and tragic. Then for Remus, and Sirius, prematurely aged by their respective life constraints and prisons, they'd be such a stunning contrast against the youthful figures of his parents.
Indeed, the same for Snape. For all his mannerisms, bitterness et al, he was still a man just under forty at the end of the series. In the same breath, when he asked Voldemort to spare Lily (kill the father and the boy, I think I remember reading Snape say, but spare Lily), we should see that Snape was also a young man, driven by obsession, arrogance and pride, with the extra large helping of callow youthfulness, that he's since spent the next seventeen years trying to atone.
With the powers that be in the movie making Snape and the rest of that generation almost touching fifty, sixty years? Visually, it had the potency of a toothless snake.Dumbledore was already old, and Harry would have expected age shielding youth, he had Hagrid and his tutors. But his parents? His mum just a few years older than Hermione or Ginny when she made the ultimate sacrifice for him? That would have been powerful, and a hefty part of the sad romance of it all.
So yes, after watching the final movie, I'm still convinced that Alan Rickman's casting was wrong, age wise. If the beeb actually decides to ever do a Harry Potter serial in the far, far future, I'd hope that they'd just ignore that bit of casting.
The epilogue was still unnecessary. After the tight, elegant ending in the book, for Rowling to then go and tack on that epilogue did her story a disservice. A part of the magic in Harry Potter is the little spaces in the text, where you can write your own adventure as it were. Harry triumphant at the end would have been enough. The ending still felt rather like bad fanfic off ff.net.
Still don't buy Molly Weasley killing Bellatrix. I know that fandom has it as Molly's crowning moment of awesome - I just think she got lucky. Oh, well.
Anyway, the movie is done! A bit underwhelming, and disappointing, the second half, after such an exciting first half last year. But it's done.
Thank you, Harry, Ron and Hermione, you three are ace. For Harry, the leader, Hermione, the head, and Ron the heart, and how yes, three is a number of magic and power.
Thank you Neville, for showing us that it's the humblest package that has the best surprises within.
Thank you, James, Sirius, Remus and to a lesser extent, Peter - for showing how even the brightest and best do get destroyed and corrupted by life's choices, no matter which sides we take or how good our intentions in going in. It's the little things that undo us in the end. It's the yank at one thread, that key stray thread that causes even the sturdiest of plans to unravel. For that, the Marauders are their own cause of celebration and yet, their own caution.
Thank you, Snape, for being well, you - enough to bargain for the life of the one you desired, and when Voldemort destroyed the woman you wanted to distraction, you didn't go on the right side because it was the right thing to do, but because of revenge and another kind of obsession. That you toiled and got your own reward, which was to look into your beloved's eyes shining from the face of the boy who looked like James Potter. The personification of everything you hated, who got everything you wanted in the end.
I'd thank Rowling, but she's a squillionaire, she doesn't really need or want thanks from me. As much as I've had issues with the books, hung on through the delays, and wtf'd over many things have been chronicled in my LJ over the years, it's been a fun ride.
Finally, it's over.