This is the first time I've left the cinema after a Harry Potter movie completely desperate to run back in and watch it all over again. And in fact I did go back the next day, and I'm trying to come up with a justification for seeing it again tonight.
Scrimgeour. Not an incredibly important point, sure, but Scrimgeour was absolutely and completely the image I had in my head of him, so much so that it was almost creepy. Mundungus was different to how I'd imagined him, but he still worked really well as that character, even if it took a little re-imagining for me.
The opening sequence was perfect. I love that we saw Hermione Obliviating her parents - there was so much of Hermione in this film, she was a much stronger presence here than there was in the book - and really, I think that's necessary, because the world that has become her world is telling her she isn't welcome any more and is baying for her blood and hers is a narrative that should be more important than it's ever been made in the series before, books or movies. Emma Watson really outdone herself; in the past I've been a bit doubtful of her acting abilities, but oh my god I eat my words here.
It was so dark! I'm glad I went to later showings of it, because I don't think I could've dealt with idiots bringing in kids and having them screaming throughout. Bellatrix was terrifying, Nagini was terrifying - that whole eerie sequence with Bathilda Bagshot was just epic - but more than all that, all the Holocaust imagery was so chilling. Bellatrix writing Mudblood on Hermione's arm. The propaganda leaflets being made in the Ministry. The wizard being dragged away by men in uniforms. Mary Cattermole. Charity Burbage. They got the allegory down so well in this film.
The humour was still there. There's such a fine line with Harry Potter, I think, because the series gets so dark but at the same time there's still humour and a few of the other films seem to have sacrificed some of the dark for more humour - this one didn't. It had both and it balanced them well.
Bellatrix. Bellatrix was so much better here. I love Helena but so far I didn't really get her characterisation of Bellatrix. That changed here. Before I felt like HBC overplayed the insanity to a degree where she wasn't scary enough and the sexual aspect was overdone. This time I really bought her portrayal - the insanity was toned-down to a place where I could see book!Bella and movie!Bella as the same character. I mentioned this before, but she was truly scary, and there's a weird sexual vibe but she's clearly insane and unpredictable and twisted, and this is the way Bellatrix should be.
I still don't like Narcissa's hair (who *does*?), but that bothered me less here than in HBP. I think Narcissa was played very much as a background character in this one, but if you're watching you can see her keeping her cool so much more than Lucius and Draco at this point. Fierce bitch is fierce. Can't wait to see more of her come July. Seeing Lucius so scared and bedraggled was an awesome contrast to the smug, well-groomed guy we've seen previously, and these films are making me so much more interested in Draco than I was before, because he's so scared and he wants out and he's been raised to be on this side of things but it feels so wrong, and that's clearer for me in the films than in the books. In short, yay Malfoys!
Rupert Grint, you are amazing. That is all.
I liked that there was barely any Ginny - I'm not a Ginny fan anyway, she does nothing interesting ever, but Bonnie Wright annoys the hell out of me. She has one facial expression, one tone of voice and no presence whatsoever. If you want me to care about this character give me a reason to for God's sake. The fact that you're Ron's sister and that Harry thinks you're hot is just not enough to make me give a crap about you, sorry, and the fact that Bonnie Wright is dreadful just makes it worse.
OK, with regards to R/Hr and H/Hr, for me this series is about the Trio as a platonic unit, and not so much about ships. That's the dynamic I care about. Ron/Hermione? Hermione/Harry? Harry/Ron? All shippable but these people are my childhood and my childhood isn't interested in ships. I'm more interested in the friendship here.
However, I loved the sexual tension between Harry and Hermione here, because duh of course it'd be there, they love each other and they're working together to fight a war that's incredibly personal to both of them and all they can rely on is each other, and I've never understood why there are H/Hr shippers more than I do at this point in time. Ron's jealousy was played out so perfectly, Rupert you are amazing. I don't even know what I ship at this point in time because I could get behind both Ron/Hermione and Harry/Hermione but I don't have a huge amount of shippy passion for either the way I do with my ships in other fandoms. I mean Ron/Hermione's always been there and been adorable and for me it's been an obvious endgame from Philosopher's Stone, but Harry/Hermione just hit me as something that could be so wonderful and I'm not sure what the fact that R/Hr is endgame means to me if anything because I don't like the way JKR deals with romance in these books at all. I need to re-read the books, I think, because last time I read them was when Deathly Hallows came out and I'm not the same person that I was then. This bullet-point is such a mess, I apologise.
I do have one criticism of this film, and that is the lack of Hogwarts. When I saw the scene on the train I got excited because it made me think there were going to be a few scenes of Hogwarts under Death Eater reign, but none appeared. Obviously this couldn't happen in the books as they're from Harry's perspective, but film is a freer medium in that way and I think I was expecting to see a little bit of Hogwarts as contrast to Hogwarts in films 1-6 and as contrast to Harry, Hermione and Ron. Also, I would love to see more of Neville being a BAMF, and Ginny when she's not around Harry. I don't know who Ginny is at all, and that bothers me. The books want me to think of her as kind-of a badass but it doesn't back this up with any evidence of this. I want to see Ginny and Neville and their horrific year at Hogwarts. This is my only criticism though, because this film was incredible the end.