Deathly Hallows Pt 2
I didn’t plan on seeing Harry Potter today, but my mother called me at 3pm and told me to get dressed in real people clothes b/c we were going to see the movie starting at 4. I don’t argue with my mother when she gets that tone in her voice. Below are my sort of spacey thoughts on it all. Spoilers, obviously. And yes, I did sob like a baby, but I’m an emotional sap who gets teary-eyed at commercials, so that’s hardly surprising.
SPOILERS
This is just going to be a general gathering of my thoughts, not some deep analysis. I’m not going to do movie-book comparisons b/c it’s been ages since I read the book, and after 8 films, I think we can all agree to let the film canon stand on its own. So, from here on out, we proceed with rambling spoilerific thoughts.
There’s nothing as visually stunning as the Three Brothers sequences from DH: Pt 1, but Pt. 2 is not so much about the visual stunning as the emotional investment. One thing I truly did adore about the film is the use of sound and the soundtrack. There are at times, often at the most emotionally difficult, where there is utter silence. No soundtrack to comfort or warn the audience for what’s next, no distracting scrapping of feet on stone floor, just utter, complete silence. It’s a technique that, sadly, doesn’t get used so often in films today, where the focus is on the big payoff of fires and explosions, or a massive ticking clock soundtrack like in Inception, and I really do applaud the people who worked on the film and the score to know when to leave the soundtrack out and let the film speak for its self. I love it when producers appreciate the value of silence.
Like all the films, there is humor mixed in with all the sadness and death. There is an overall bitter sweetness to the film, but how can they’re not be? You are meant to laugh, you are meant to cry, you are meant to have tense moments, you are meant to reflect, all along with the cast on the screen and your fellow audience members.
The acting was superb. I know Alan Rickman is never going to get a nom b/c it’s a genre film, but the man deserves it for his turn in this one and this whole franchise. Maggie Smith’s first appearance in the film made me start crying. And then she made me laugh my ass off about 10 mins later. The loss of Fred, the death of Lupin and Tonks, the destruction of Hogwarts, the Open at the Close scene? Yeah, all left me sobbing. I actually had to bite the inside of cheek to not break out into heaving sobs when Harry saw Lilly, James, Sirius, and Remus again. In general, when you’ve had a really tough year when you’ve lost a close relative and almost lost your twin sister, if you are an emotional sap like me, you will need at least 10 tissues to get through the film.
Mrs. Weasley gets to say her famous line. The audience at my showing cheered her on in that part, from the line to Bellatrix’s end. The loudest cheers however, came for our dearly beloved Neville. I’ve always loved Neville, and he’s such a BAMF in this one, I don’t know how anyone could leave the film without becoming a Neville fan.
As much loss as there is in the film, as much as the whole story is about death, sacrifice, and ending, the film itself has these tones of resignation, reflection, and resolve about it. The film is not about mourning, not like how, to me, the DH book and first film felt.
We end where we began, Platform 9 ¾. The epilogue didn’t bother me in the film as much as it did when I first came to see it in the book. I do wish we would’ve had the Teddy Lupin line though.
Overall, I felt it was a damn good film. It never felt like it was dragging, it went quickly for me. The pacing was wonderful. I did not feel like I was in my seat for 2 hours and 10 mins. I know people who aren’t fans of the series or the genre will disagree, but it really is such a unique thing, to have a film franchise with the same cast for 8 films (with the exception, of course, of the dearly departed Richard Harris). It is so rare that a book and film series can have such a cultural impact in less than twenty years.
So here’s to Harry Potter, and the kids who will wait for their letters to Hogwarts. To those who look for their Wardrobe and their Lantern Waste and for a hobbit hole under hill, for a ride in a blue police box. For the kids, dreamers, anyone looking for a star gate, a signal that will never stop, a worm hole to a land where crackers don’t matter. Despite how long the road, how hard the way, for all of us, there’s never a reason to stop dreaming, to stop hoping, to use whatever we can to get through all we can face, whether it be a Hellmouth proving that high school is actually hell or simply just trying to navigate through life, some stories, and some themes, stay immortal for a reason.
SPOILERS
This is just going to be a general gathering of my thoughts, not some deep analysis. I’m not going to do movie-book comparisons b/c it’s been ages since I read the book, and after 8 films, I think we can all agree to let the film canon stand on its own. So, from here on out, we proceed with rambling spoilerific thoughts.
There’s nothing as visually stunning as the Three Brothers sequences from DH: Pt 1, but Pt. 2 is not so much about the visual stunning as the emotional investment. One thing I truly did adore about the film is the use of sound and the soundtrack. There are at times, often at the most emotionally difficult, where there is utter silence. No soundtrack to comfort or warn the audience for what’s next, no distracting scrapping of feet on stone floor, just utter, complete silence. It’s a technique that, sadly, doesn’t get used so often in films today, where the focus is on the big payoff of fires and explosions, or a massive ticking clock soundtrack like in Inception, and I really do applaud the people who worked on the film and the score to know when to leave the soundtrack out and let the film speak for its self. I love it when producers appreciate the value of silence.
Like all the films, there is humor mixed in with all the sadness and death. There is an overall bitter sweetness to the film, but how can they’re not be? You are meant to laugh, you are meant to cry, you are meant to have tense moments, you are meant to reflect, all along with the cast on the screen and your fellow audience members.
The acting was superb. I know Alan Rickman is never going to get a nom b/c it’s a genre film, but the man deserves it for his turn in this one and this whole franchise. Maggie Smith’s first appearance in the film made me start crying. And then she made me laugh my ass off about 10 mins later. The loss of Fred, the death of Lupin and Tonks, the destruction of Hogwarts, the Open at the Close scene? Yeah, all left me sobbing. I actually had to bite the inside of cheek to not break out into heaving sobs when Harry saw Lilly, James, Sirius, and Remus again. In general, when you’ve had a really tough year when you’ve lost a close relative and almost lost your twin sister, if you are an emotional sap like me, you will need at least 10 tissues to get through the film.
Mrs. Weasley gets to say her famous line. The audience at my showing cheered her on in that part, from the line to Bellatrix’s end. The loudest cheers however, came for our dearly beloved Neville. I’ve always loved Neville, and he’s such a BAMF in this one, I don’t know how anyone could leave the film without becoming a Neville fan.
As much loss as there is in the film, as much as the whole story is about death, sacrifice, and ending, the film itself has these tones of resignation, reflection, and resolve about it. The film is not about mourning, not like how, to me, the DH book and first film felt.
We end where we began, Platform 9 ¾. The epilogue didn’t bother me in the film as much as it did when I first came to see it in the book. I do wish we would’ve had the Teddy Lupin line though.
Overall, I felt it was a damn good film. It never felt like it was dragging, it went quickly for me. The pacing was wonderful. I did not feel like I was in my seat for 2 hours and 10 mins. I know people who aren’t fans of the series or the genre will disagree, but it really is such a unique thing, to have a film franchise with the same cast for 8 films (with the exception, of course, of the dearly departed Richard Harris). It is so rare that a book and film series can have such a cultural impact in less than twenty years.
So here’s to Harry Potter, and the kids who will wait for their letters to Hogwarts. To those who look for their Wardrobe and their Lantern Waste and for a hobbit hole under hill, for a ride in a blue police box. For the kids, dreamers, anyone looking for a star gate, a signal that will never stop, a worm hole to a land where crackers don’t matter. Despite how long the road, how hard the way, for all of us, there’s never a reason to stop dreaming, to stop hoping, to use whatever we can to get through all we can face, whether it be a Hellmouth proving that high school is actually hell or simply just trying to navigate through life, some stories, and some themes, stay immortal for a reason.