8th Potter film = SQUEEEEEEE!!!!!
Just got back from seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2. In a word: SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*ahem*
Yeah, it's one of those very rare times where I think I liked the movie more than the book.
Before I get into the HP movie itself, a note about the previews. They ran trailers for numerous upcoming movies, including the next (and thankfully final) Twilight movie. Scattered derisive giggles came from around the theater at the most schmaltzy parts, and near the end when Bella's inspecting her suddenly pregnant belly there were quite a few people making "Oh, puhleeeeeeze" noises and laughing. Glad to know I'm not the only one in town who thinks that series is a complete trainwreck. I guess most HP fans have better taste. ;)
Random thoughts:
The dragon was great! The SFX in general were top-notch. There was just one moment in the burning Room of Requirement that the CG fire looked fake enough to take me out of the scene, but it was over in less than three seconds and the rest of the time it looked very cool. Loved the protective dome shield around Hogwarts, and how it looked as various attacks hit it.
Neville is total unchained awesomeness. Standing up to Voldemort by himself while already bloodied and limping, not flinching when the Dark Lord made fun of his name and unimpressive physique, followed by his snake-slaying moment, just made me love him more than I already did.
Also, Neville/Luna is now movie canon. Wha'? 0_o That's quite a departure by the book, but I love it--and not just because of the fandom ship nickname "The Government Stole My Toad." ;)
They did a really good job at making Remus and Tonks look dead. The mourning Weasleys over Fred's body made me tear up, the only time in the movie that I got that emotional. I cried more over the book, but here I knew more what to expect, so it didn't get to me as much.
One of the hugest gaping plot holes in the book was how Ron and Hermione managed to get into the Chamber of Secrets. Neither can speak Parseltongue, so WTF? The movie hangs a very funny lampshade on this by having Ron speak in Parseltongue to open the chamber and then, in response to Hermione's confused look, comment that Harry talks in his sleep. Bwahaha! There was no way to make that part make sense, so making it into a silly joke was probably the best bet. ;)
Narcissa got her crowning moment of awesome by lying to Voldemort about Harry being dead in exchange for info on her son, which I was glad made it to the screen.
Speaking of Draco, I laughed SO hard at the scene where he goes across to join the Death Eaters and his parents, and Voldemort stops to give him the Most Awkward Hug EVER! XD OMG, that was priceless. Not in the book, but absolutely too funny for words.
Bellatrix was her usual batshit-insane self. I still prefer the somewhat more shrewd and calculating bitch from the books, but the movie version has definitely grown on me. And they kept the scene of her frantically trying to wake up Voldemort after the King's Cross afterlife scene, which I loved in the book.
Through no fault of the actress, Ginny continues to be a non-entity. She should be a more developed character, as the hero's love interest, but she's just sort of...there. They could have done so much with her, especially with lingering effects of the Tom Riddle diary thing from CoS, but, aside from a throwaway mention early in OotP, that was never mentioned again, and she basically did nothing besides play Quidditch (who doesn't?) and snog Harry. Yawn. I want to like her but she's just so blah. Wasted potential for a strong female character.
Aberforth was done well. Of course they didn't have time to get into the whole Arianna and Gellert backstory in detail, but at least it was mentioned/acknowledged.
Hagrid with Harry = worst pieta EVAR. :p
Poor Ron, with the giant spiders in the fray. Hehee...
Maggie Smith continues to be a delight as Minerva. She has some great lines in this, both funny and badass. You go, girl!
Speaking of girl power, Molly vs. Bellatrix was just as fun as it was in the book, "bitch" dialogue and all.
As cloyingly silly as the epilogue was in the book, I felt it worked better on screen. They aged the actors quite well (I found Hermione the least convincing in that regard) and something about it just seemed more appropriate on film.
I didn't get a chance to look at the actress playing Draco's wife, though, so I don't know if it's the same one who played Pansy. To my knowledge, JKR has never identified the younger Mrs. Malfoy, and if it's the same actress that would be a clue.
The post-pensieve scene also worked better on screen than it did in the book, in my opinion. In the book, Harry didn't bat an eyelash at the whole "Eew, Snape loved my mom!" thing, or the "WTF, Dumbledore, you sneaky manipulative bastard!" thing, and was just like, "Well, okay, guess I have to die then. Darn." On film, we're left to imagine what is going through his mind, but the devastated, stunned look on Harry's face gets the emotion across very well. Kudos to Radcliffe's acting in that scene.
I loved the final confrontation between Snape and the faculty before he flees the castle. Again, it seemed a bit silly in the book (a "Snape-shaped hole" in the window...really, Jo? Really?) but with the stellar acting at work, the screen version worked much better. Have I mentioned how much Minerva rocks? Because she totally does. Knowing what I already knew about Snape's true allegiances, it was cool to see how skillfully he defended against all her spells but never attacked back. In fact, he deftly manages to deflects two of her spells around to the side so they knock out the Carrows before he flees.
Earlier in that same scene, I loveloveloved the bit where Harry comes strolling out from the rows of students to confront Snape. His lines about "How dare you stand where Dumbledore stood? Tell everyone about how you looked him in the eye, a man who trusted you, and killed him!" must have absolutely been like a knife in the gut for Severus, and you can just imagine his brain racing, torn between defending himself and not blowing his cover. I wish it had been longer, and I wish Snape had said something cryptic in reply, but it was still really satisfying to have a scene where Harry and Snape are face-to-face in the Deathly Hallows time frame (when neither is dying, of course.) :P I won't repeat my familiar rant about the lack of emotional resolution between those two in the book, but I was very glad to see an attempt made to rectify that in the movie version.
As for the big snake attack scene, that, too was incredible. The way it was shot, with only the blurry shadow of Nagini and Severus visible through the frosted glass, made it even more visceral and effective. We had the sound, the movement, and the reaction of Harry and Co., but not a direct view of the attack. Definitely a case of less is more, and what we're imagining being worse than anything they could show.
(Although I'm sorry, a massive snake bite to the neck produces a hell of a lot more blood than what they showed. Unless that's evidence for the "Snape used dittany and other herbs/potions to save himself, faked his own death, and escaped after Harry left" theory. In which case, carry on. Heh.)
My only real complaint about that scene was the fact that Alan Rickman is too old and overweight to be Snape, and his jowls were really noticeable from that angle. Otherwise, the scene was spot-on perfect and I loved it. Good acting on both sides, not too over the top and hammy, just right. And I liked the addition of "You have your mother's eyes" as dialogue, since we can't have the text clue about the two eye colors meeting. Tears instead of wispy memories was a bit odd, but it worked.
As for the pensieve flashbacks themselves...OMG SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Better than I hoped. Just...gah! SO GOOD! I was afraid they'd cut out a lot of the Prince's Tale for time, since they cut out the Worst Memory scene from the OotP movie, but they included pretty much everything else, minus the argument about Severus hanging out with Death Eaters. If anything, they smoothed out some of the darker hints and made Snape even more sympathetic than in the book. (He asked Dumbledore to save/hide all three Potters from the beginning, instead of just Lily, etc.) The confrontations with Dumbledore were excellent, and the whole flip-flop "OMG it's actually Dumbledore who is a scheming dickface and Snape's been devoted to protecting Harry all along" mindfuck was presented really well. The horror on Snape's face and the coldness on Dumbledore's as they discussed how Harry would have to die was great.
And, the Godric's Hollow snippets. OMG. Wow. Holy crap. Yesssss! THANK YOU! SQUEE OMG SO SAD AND AWESOME AND MELODRAMATIC BUT AWESOME AND TRAGIC AND DID I MENTION FREAKING AWESOME? Seriously. For years I speculated about whether or not Snape came to Godric's Hollow that fateful Halloween night to try to save Lily, but JKR flat-out denied that anyone else was there that night, and the books gave no hint of it. In the movie-verse, however, Snape arrived just minutes too late to save the Potters, and after passing James' body with barely a glance he found Lily on the floor in front of Harry's crib. He fell to his knees and hugged her body to his chest, sobbing (while a confused baby Harry just sat there drooling and wondering why his forehead suddenly hurt). OH EM GEE THE TRAGEDEEEEEE!
Over-the-top and melodramatic? Oh hell yeah. So awesome I had to literally hold my breath to keep from squeeing aloud in the theater? That too.
I've seen that setup in fanart before, but to see it on the big screen, emoted with the great acting skill that Alan Rickman has, made my night. If you're going to have a tragic, star-crossed, unrequited love story, you might as well go all out and milk it for every drop of angst you can. And they did. And I loved it. So there. Heh. XD
In conclusion, DH part 2 was incredible, I have very few complaints, the Snape stuff was even better than I had hoped, and I'm still giddy from having seen it.
*ahem*
Yeah, it's one of those very rare times where I think I liked the movie more than the book.
Before I get into the HP movie itself, a note about the previews. They ran trailers for numerous upcoming movies, including the next (and thankfully final) Twilight movie. Scattered derisive giggles came from around the theater at the most schmaltzy parts, and near the end when Bella's inspecting her suddenly pregnant belly there were quite a few people making "Oh, puhleeeeeeze" noises and laughing. Glad to know I'm not the only one in town who thinks that series is a complete trainwreck. I guess most HP fans have better taste. ;)
Random thoughts:
The dragon was great! The SFX in general were top-notch. There was just one moment in the burning Room of Requirement that the CG fire looked fake enough to take me out of the scene, but it was over in less than three seconds and the rest of the time it looked very cool. Loved the protective dome shield around Hogwarts, and how it looked as various attacks hit it.
Neville is total unchained awesomeness. Standing up to Voldemort by himself while already bloodied and limping, not flinching when the Dark Lord made fun of his name and unimpressive physique, followed by his snake-slaying moment, just made me love him more than I already did.
Also, Neville/Luna is now movie canon. Wha'? 0_o That's quite a departure by the book, but I love it--and not just because of the fandom ship nickname "The Government Stole My Toad." ;)
They did a really good job at making Remus and Tonks look dead. The mourning Weasleys over Fred's body made me tear up, the only time in the movie that I got that emotional. I cried more over the book, but here I knew more what to expect, so it didn't get to me as much.
One of the hugest gaping plot holes in the book was how Ron and Hermione managed to get into the Chamber of Secrets. Neither can speak Parseltongue, so WTF? The movie hangs a very funny lampshade on this by having Ron speak in Parseltongue to open the chamber and then, in response to Hermione's confused look, comment that Harry talks in his sleep. Bwahaha! There was no way to make that part make sense, so making it into a silly joke was probably the best bet. ;)
Narcissa got her crowning moment of awesome by lying to Voldemort about Harry being dead in exchange for info on her son, which I was glad made it to the screen.
Speaking of Draco, I laughed SO hard at the scene where he goes across to join the Death Eaters and his parents, and Voldemort stops to give him the Most Awkward Hug EVER! XD OMG, that was priceless. Not in the book, but absolutely too funny for words.
Bellatrix was her usual batshit-insane self. I still prefer the somewhat more shrewd and calculating bitch from the books, but the movie version has definitely grown on me. And they kept the scene of her frantically trying to wake up Voldemort after the King's Cross afterlife scene, which I loved in the book.
Through no fault of the actress, Ginny continues to be a non-entity. She should be a more developed character, as the hero's love interest, but she's just sort of...there. They could have done so much with her, especially with lingering effects of the Tom Riddle diary thing from CoS, but, aside from a throwaway mention early in OotP, that was never mentioned again, and she basically did nothing besides play Quidditch (who doesn't?) and snog Harry. Yawn. I want to like her but she's just so blah. Wasted potential for a strong female character.
Aberforth was done well. Of course they didn't have time to get into the whole Arianna and Gellert backstory in detail, but at least it was mentioned/acknowledged.
Hagrid with Harry = worst pieta EVAR. :p
Poor Ron, with the giant spiders in the fray. Hehee...
Maggie Smith continues to be a delight as Minerva. She has some great lines in this, both funny and badass. You go, girl!
Speaking of girl power, Molly vs. Bellatrix was just as fun as it was in the book, "bitch" dialogue and all.
As cloyingly silly as the epilogue was in the book, I felt it worked better on screen. They aged the actors quite well (I found Hermione the least convincing in that regard) and something about it just seemed more appropriate on film.
I didn't get a chance to look at the actress playing Draco's wife, though, so I don't know if it's the same one who played Pansy. To my knowledge, JKR has never identified the younger Mrs. Malfoy, and if it's the same actress that would be a clue.
The post-pensieve scene also worked better on screen than it did in the book, in my opinion. In the book, Harry didn't bat an eyelash at the whole "Eew, Snape loved my mom!" thing, or the "WTF, Dumbledore, you sneaky manipulative bastard!" thing, and was just like, "Well, okay, guess I have to die then. Darn." On film, we're left to imagine what is going through his mind, but the devastated, stunned look on Harry's face gets the emotion across very well. Kudos to Radcliffe's acting in that scene.
I loved the final confrontation between Snape and the faculty before he flees the castle. Again, it seemed a bit silly in the book (a "Snape-shaped hole" in the window...really, Jo? Really?) but with the stellar acting at work, the screen version worked much better. Have I mentioned how much Minerva rocks? Because she totally does. Knowing what I already knew about Snape's true allegiances, it was cool to see how skillfully he defended against all her spells but never attacked back. In fact, he deftly manages to deflects two of her spells around to the side so they knock out the Carrows before he flees.
Earlier in that same scene, I loveloveloved the bit where Harry comes strolling out from the rows of students to confront Snape. His lines about "How dare you stand where Dumbledore stood? Tell everyone about how you looked him in the eye, a man who trusted you, and killed him!" must have absolutely been like a knife in the gut for Severus, and you can just imagine his brain racing, torn between defending himself and not blowing his cover. I wish it had been longer, and I wish Snape had said something cryptic in reply, but it was still really satisfying to have a scene where Harry and Snape are face-to-face in the Deathly Hallows time frame (when neither is dying, of course.) :P I won't repeat my familiar rant about the lack of emotional resolution between those two in the book, but I was very glad to see an attempt made to rectify that in the movie version.
As for the big snake attack scene, that, too was incredible. The way it was shot, with only the blurry shadow of Nagini and Severus visible through the frosted glass, made it even more visceral and effective. We had the sound, the movement, and the reaction of Harry and Co., but not a direct view of the attack. Definitely a case of less is more, and what we're imagining being worse than anything they could show.
(Although I'm sorry, a massive snake bite to the neck produces a hell of a lot more blood than what they showed. Unless that's evidence for the "Snape used dittany and other herbs/potions to save himself, faked his own death, and escaped after Harry left" theory. In which case, carry on. Heh.)
My only real complaint about that scene was the fact that Alan Rickman is too old and overweight to be Snape, and his jowls were really noticeable from that angle. Otherwise, the scene was spot-on perfect and I loved it. Good acting on both sides, not too over the top and hammy, just right. And I liked the addition of "You have your mother's eyes" as dialogue, since we can't have the text clue about the two eye colors meeting. Tears instead of wispy memories was a bit odd, but it worked.
As for the pensieve flashbacks themselves...OMG SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Better than I hoped. Just...gah! SO GOOD! I was afraid they'd cut out a lot of the Prince's Tale for time, since they cut out the Worst Memory scene from the OotP movie, but they included pretty much everything else, minus the argument about Severus hanging out with Death Eaters. If anything, they smoothed out some of the darker hints and made Snape even more sympathetic than in the book. (He asked Dumbledore to save/hide all three Potters from the beginning, instead of just Lily, etc.) The confrontations with Dumbledore were excellent, and the whole flip-flop "OMG it's actually Dumbledore who is a scheming dickface and Snape's been devoted to protecting Harry all along" mindfuck was presented really well. The horror on Snape's face and the coldness on Dumbledore's as they discussed how Harry would have to die was great.
And, the Godric's Hollow snippets. OMG. Wow. Holy crap. Yesssss! THANK YOU! SQUEE OMG SO SAD AND AWESOME AND MELODRAMATIC BUT AWESOME AND TRAGIC AND DID I MENTION FREAKING AWESOME? Seriously. For years I speculated about whether or not Snape came to Godric's Hollow that fateful Halloween night to try to save Lily, but JKR flat-out denied that anyone else was there that night, and the books gave no hint of it. In the movie-verse, however, Snape arrived just minutes too late to save the Potters, and after passing James' body with barely a glance he found Lily on the floor in front of Harry's crib. He fell to his knees and hugged her body to his chest, sobbing (while a confused baby Harry just sat there drooling and wondering why his forehead suddenly hurt). OH EM GEE THE TRAGEDEEEEEE!
Over-the-top and melodramatic? Oh hell yeah. So awesome I had to literally hold my breath to keep from squeeing aloud in the theater? That too.
I've seen that setup in fanart before, but to see it on the big screen, emoted with the great acting skill that Alan Rickman has, made my night. If you're going to have a tragic, star-crossed, unrequited love story, you might as well go all out and milk it for every drop of angst you can. And they did. And I loved it. So there. Heh. XD
In conclusion, DH part 2 was incredible, I have very few complaints, the Snape stuff was even better than I had hoped, and I'm still giddy from having seen it.