Weird Wednesday -- Just Saw DHP2 Edition
SPOILER ALERT...do not read if you plan to see the movie and don't want to know anything ahead of time.
Okay, I just got back from seeing the movie, and decided to post my observations/opinions here to save me having to repeat myself over various lists/communities.
What's weird is that I didn't absolutely hate it; that said, I was mentally kibbitzing to myself thruout the whole thing.
First off, let me comment on the 3D effects; this is the first time I've seen a movie in 3D since I was a kid back in the 1960s. They were nice, but for the most part I think nothing would have been lost seeing the 2D version. What was funny was the fact that the only times I thought, "Gee whiz, that's really something in 3D" were scenes that weren't obviously going for the 3D effect.
There were a few scenes where I thought the 3D was actually distracting, but not many.
Okay, for the most part the first section of the movie is alright; my two big gripes are that they show Luna at Shell Cottage, and then when Harry, Hermione and Ron return to Hogwarts, there's Luna amongst the crowd of students waiting for them. Right. DEs remove her from the Hogwarts train at Christmas and send her to Azkaban (book canon) or to the Malfoy's dungeon (movie version), but then she's allowed back to Hogwarts with no repercussions?
Keeping on the subject of Luna, I like how the movie has her chasing after Harry to tell him he's on the wrong track in seeking Ravenclaw's diadem, Harry refuses to listen to her and she finally yells at him and demands that he stop and listen to what she has to say. Good girl, Luna!!! :-)
My second gripe in the first section of the movie are the human -- one supposes wizards -- guards in Gringotts. Neither book canon nor previous movies have shown human guards; what was even worse is that they went over the top by having the guards wear a uniform that except for color (light blue) differs only slightly from Hitler's Storm Troopers.
But basically I have little to complain about in the movie until Harry et al return to Hogwarts.
We only see the Carrows as figures in the background, and Neville explains to Harry & Co. why he's so bruised because the Carrows that morning demanded that the 7th year students practice cruciatas on the 1st year students, and Neville refused.
IOW, we never actually get a real sense of the Carrows being dangerous; there is no confrontation in the Ravenclaw Common Room, not even the spitting on McGonagal.
Everyone's seen the clip (either legitimate trailer or pirated internet) of Snape in front of the assembled student body demanding that anyone hiding Harry turn him over immediately, and Harry then stepping out.
After Harry demands Snape tell how he "murdered" Dumbledore, Snape for some reason pulls out his wand. Harry pulls out his, but then McGonagal steps in next to Harry. So instead of a battle with most of the professors before escaping, Snape battles McGonagal and Harry. The Carrows become collateral damage in this fight, and I believe are never seen again. So their characters could have easily been eliminated from the movie plot.
When Snape escapes, he does the movie version of apparating, twirling and disappearing.
Except he doesn't disappear before crashing thru the window; no Snape-shaped outline, thank God, but it he's apparating why did he need to crash thru the window? Did he get dizzy when twirling and lose sense of direction? :-o
The Voldemort PA system in the movie is accompanied by something akin to screeching feedback, which cause a lot of people to scream in pain. Voldie must have forgotten to turn off his speaker phone before broadcasting.
Voldie's gathered on a mountainside/outcropping of rock which looks pretty much like the same place in the movie young Snape first approaches Dumbles about keeping Lily safe.
There must be at least 5000 mostly-CGI Death Eaters in this scene gathered behind Voldie -- remind me again just what the total number of wizards and witches in Britain is supposed to be? Even if DEs from other European countries came to join the fight, it seems like the movie has an excessive number, and stinks of trying to copy the battle scenes of LotR...especially since the trolls look very Orc-like.
This is compounded by Neville holding off another horde of seemingly thousands of Voldie supporters at the wooden footbridge over the ravine; it is unclear who these attackers are, they aren't wearing DE costume, just regular clothes (all of which seem dirty and ragged).
So between the obvious DEs gathered with Voldie, and the horde at the bridge, the movie makes it look like there are eight to ten-thousand wizards and witches fighting on Voldie's side.
While the Good Side just has the Hogwarts staff and student body, and members of the OotP...no "outside" wizards and witches come to the aid of the defenders.
Voldie gives the defenders an hour to turn Harry over to him; McGonagal counters by having the adults cast a magikal Dome of Silence over Hogwarts. This easily fails when Voldie gets pissed off when he senses that one of his horcruxes has been destroyed (Ron and Hermione destroying Hufflepuff's Cup).
Voldie directs his Super-Pissed-Off-Spell at the Dome of Silence which disintegrates in flames, and then decides that discretion is the better part of valor at this point and decides to high-tail it with Nagini to the boathouse.
By Harry's direct wireless connection to Voldemort he divines where the Dark Lord has gone, and; he sees Lucius Malfoy there with him. Lucius gets the "Let me bring the boy to you, my Lord," line that Severus keeps repeating in the book, and Lucius also gets the brunt of Voldie's wrath for suggesting it. Lucius only says it once, tho -- he's obviously learned that you don't cross the Dark Lord twice.
Voldie then orders Lucius to bring Severus to him, and Lucky Lucius gratefully runs away.
With DEs to the right of them and DEs to the left of them and DEs overhead, Harry directs Ron and Hermione to join him on the very long walk to the boathouse. The movie doesn't actually show this walk, just shows them leaving the castle and reaching the steps, then we get a long overhead shot, and then we see Severus in the boathouse with Voldie and The Trio sneaking up to the outside wall.
Why didn't The Trio just apparate? Everyone else was by that time.
Okay, karentheunicorn , the next bit if for you! LOL
The scene in the boathouse is longer than what's been shown in trailers and on YouTube; Snape doesn't ask to go find Harry, just counsels Voldie on his little wand problem.
Nagini is never in any sort of container, just slithers on the floor like she always does.
The actual attack comes across much better in the theater than what's been shown online; you actually see Snape's blood on the glass.
Okay Karen, you wondered what Snape was saying when The Trio entered the boathouse; he is moving his lips and making some sort of sound, but to me it was unclear whether he was actually saying anything, or just gasping for breath.
They may have been trying to imply that with his throat punctured, he actually could not speak; indeed, it's only when Harry presses his hand onto the wound that Snape actually articulates words.
I'm really bothered by the fact that they deviated from both book canon and previous movies regarding Snape's memories, but in the movie it was clear that the tears did have a bluish hue to them, so perhaps memories are able to be passed on by any bodily fluid!
(Let the fanfic begin with THAT premise in all its possible permutations! LOL)
Okay, on to The Prince's Tale.
First off, Snape redecorated the Headmaster's office to reflect a rather dark and stark air; and no Headmaster portraits, which conveniently avoids the debate over why Dumbles' portrait wouldn't have counciled Harry, or why Snape's portrait wasn't on the wall when Harry was there.
Okay Karen, again this is for you! ;-)
The Prince's Tale:
1. opens with Petunia and Lily on a hilltop, not a playground; Lily has a daisy bud appear in her hand which then opens. Once. No repeatedly opening and closing like an oyster as described in the book
2. Petunia swats Lily's hand with the flower and runs away, calling her a freak
3. Sev then pops out from the bottom of a tree that looks very much like the Whomping Willow. I was really hoping for better news for you, Karen, after seeing the movie, but basically what you've seen on the internet is what you get in the movie. Sev either lives in a tree, or was visiting the Keebler Elves
4. there is a nice bit where Sev turns willow leaves into flying dragonfly-type things
5. the scene with them in the hallway at Hogwarts and Sev's carrying Lily's books when a couple of boys shove him and he drops the books -- there is a voice-over of adult Snape complaining to Harry that he's just like his father, so it's obvious that the kid shoving Sev and then staring at him and Lily is supposed to be James
6. no train station or train scenes of the first trip to Hogwarts; there is no Eileen Snape
7. that mountaintop scene where young Sev first asks for Dumbles' help...it definitely is NOT better in the theater, especially in 3D! For some reason this scene is the WORST digital airbrushing of the characters, not only Alan Rickman but Michael Gambon also. They both look like CGI characters in a video game, or that somehow they crossed over into Tron...
8. the digital airbrushing of Rickman isn't so bad in the other scenes; and yes, Rickman does a divine job of acting, no complaints there
9. there is more than one scene of Lily, alone with baby Harry (who definitely looks much younger than 15 months in the movie), talking to him; unless Lily had the foresight to store some of her own memories prior to Voldie's visit, it is hard to understand how Snape would have these memories
10. there's a lot more to The Prince's Tale in the movie than what is being shown online, Karen; there's Snape assisting Dumbles with his withered hand, Dumbles telling Snape that Snape himself must kill Dumbles, and basically verbatim from the book their conversation where Dumbles reveals that Harry must die, Snape retorts with the statement about raising Harry like a pig for slaughter, and Dumbles cruelly asking if he's come to care for Harry. It's at that point that Snape casts his doe patronus, Dumbles asks "After all this time?", and Snape answers "Always..." No complaints there, for once they were faithful to book canon
So after seeing the pensieve memories, Harry duly sulks off to The Forbidden Forest. In the meantime Voldie and His Gang are getting antsy. Anyone else who's seen the movie think that Bellatrix was strangely subdued and fearful of Voldie at this point. IDK, she seemed very out of character...
Harry lets Voldie AK him; Harry goes to a stylized, avant-garde Kings Cross that is all in white. No nekkid Harry here, he arrives wearing clean jeans and a striped teeshirt, but sans glasses. I guess one gets perfect eyesight in Heaven.
Dumbles shows up looking like Gandalf The White; a lot of talk about the Elder Wand, but nary a mention of Snape.
Harry returns to The Land of the Living; Voldie also awakes, with Bella trying to assist him. He yells that he doesn't need no stinkin' help, and Bellatrix gives a little scream and scampers off like a whipped puppy.
Voldie doesn't say anything about checking Harry, but Narcissa takes it upon herself to do so; only when she is leaning over Harry does Voldie yell out asking if he's alive.
Narcissa asks Harry if Draco is alive, Harry nods slightly, and Narcissa lies and says he's dead. Meanwhile Lucius is hanging in the background looking very much the worse for wear.
Hagrid is forced to carry Harry back to the castle, Voldie leading the way, the Malfoys immediately behind, and then the rest of the DEs.
No burning Sorting Hat for Neville, he steps up when Voldie announces Harry's dead and it's time for all of them to sign up for Voldie's Gang and gives a very nice Henry V type speech rallying the troops. When Voldie decides to AK Neville for this, Harry decides to show that he is alive, thereby distracting Voldie.
Everyone else commences to fight within the grounds and the castle itself, while Harry and Voldie play a game of Apparition Tag. Harry finally succeeds in catching Voldie, but instead of AK'ing him, for some reason he grabs his nemesis and forces both of them to jump off one of the Hogwarts towers.
This then results in what I guess is supposed to be a side-by-side apparation; they both end up crashing in the one courtyard at Hogwarts that has absolutely NO ONE AROUND.
What happened to those thousands of Voldie supporters we saw earlier? Guess they thought that once Harry was dead it was all over and they all flew their brooms over to the nearest Sonic drive-in for refreshments.
Anyway, The Final Showdown, Harry kills Voldie. The End.
The Epilogue:
1. unfortunately they kept the epilogue, and it's pretty much verbatim from the book; IOW, it stinks
2. I know they refilmed the epilogue after all the ridicule they got over the first one regarding what a bad job they did aging the characters; they got it right with this version, you can believe that the kids are now in their late 30s
3. in the intervening years Ginny Weasley-Potter seems to have become quite the Muggle fashion maven
4. Hermione OTOH looks like a soccer mom
5. the actress playing Harry and Ginny's little girl looks exactly like the actress playing child Lily...but I made sure to stay for the credits, and two different girls played each part, so I don't know if the movie was going for a reincarnated Lily or not