Saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2
Non spoilery review: It's better than the book. Quite a lot better, in fact, as it fixes some of the things that made me go WTF when reading the book. Actually, it fixes about as many of the WTFs as it can, while still following the same plot. I suspect the scriptwriter(s?) and I went WTF at a lot of the same points. Also, they ship Neville and Luna, which, while it's a bit pairing the spares, is fine with me, as I like both characters.
Okay, now for the spoilery review.
While the battle for Hogwarts (which took up, I swear, half the movie) was a bit MICHAEL BAY'S HARRY POTTER!!!!, the movie, overall flowed really well, stayed interesting, and did a much (much, much, MUCH) better job of keeping me engaged with and caring about the characters. One of the reasons the movie worked better was because of all of the WTFs it fixed.
In this version, Harry and co do not plan to betray Griphook (though he still betrays them, which has other issues*) and the goblin view of the ownership of goblin-made objects never comes up. This allows the trio to be heroic, not assholic. Their escape with the dragon was somehow cooler in the movie (possibly because they actually seemed disturbed that the goblins had hurt the dragon), too.
At Hogwarts, we do not get Harry Crucioing anyone. Instead Snape calls the students together with the usual sort of villainous "We know Harry Potter is here and anyone helping him will be punished," giving Harry the opportunity to reveal himself. Good guys arrive, bad guys get knocked out or run away, good prepares to fight Voldemort's coming attack (or run about madly looking for the Ravenclaw diadem), and it's all FAR more heroic than in the book. Hell, pretty much everything from this point on is many, many times better than in the book. It's amazing what not having your characters act like assholes will do.
Harry's not-dying is more-or-less explained; as people had guessed, Voldie Avada Kadavraed his soul fragment instead of Harry. Neville still gets to be heroic. More than once, actually - since he gets to blow up a bridge (I'm pretty sure that wasn't in the book). We are spared Harry having a villain speech. And, after the battle is over and done with and Voldemort disintegrated, the trio stands outside Hogwarts and Harry explains about the Elder Wand. And then (while I'm sitting in my seat thinking "Break it, break it, break it!" at the movie), Harry snaps the Elder Wand into pieces! :D I very nearly went Yes! in the theater. Now he really can go on and do whatever he likes. (And movie!Harry is enough of an improvement over book!Harry that I feel good for him.)
Even the epilogue is better. Once again, they left out the asshole parts. And, unless I'm remembering the book wrong, movie!Harry does a far better job of reassuring his son than book!Harry did.
There were WTFs that couldn't be fixed, sadly. The cheerleaders of death are still creepy as all get out, Albus Dumbledore is still a lousy, lousy person (who, sadly, Harry still names a son after), and Harry's motivation for going to his death after learning he's always been a human sacrifice is still a bit hazy. Also, Snape's death still makes no sense, whatsoever. Not only is it bizarre that he doesn't fight back (does he want to die?) and had no back-up plan, but Voldy makes Nagini the master of the elder wand by having her kill Snape. (Well, by his logic he does anyway. Hell, if it's okay to have Nagini kill Snape because she's a horcrux, then Harry being the master of the Elder Wand should make Voldie the master, too. If it works that way. If not, Voldie is an IDIOT. Oh, wait, he walked off and left not-dead-yet Snape. He's an idiot, period.)
Overall, though, the movie was fun and waaaaaaay better than the book. Yay!
Edit: Oh, crap, I was in such a hurry last night to get this posted and go to bed that I forgot the footnote!
* The stories (in both forms) have a real problem with non-wizards. Making the goblins "bad" does not help this, nor does seeing non-wizards fight only on the side of Voldemort (as far as I could tell) in the battle for Hogwarts. I am not comfortable with stories that think that only one kind of sapient being is actually "human" - in the sense that they matter and are capable of good and whatnot. I know the story is about wizards, but that doesn't make everyone else bad or unimportant. On that same note, I'm glad we see that Filch and his cat survived the battle, but, given that he cares enough about Hogwarts that he was trying to clean up the mess, it'd have been nice to see him do something during the battle. And it'd have been nice to get some non-humans fighting on the good guys side.
This entry was originally posted at http://smurasaki.dreamwidth.org/98959.html.
Okay, now for the spoilery review.
While the battle for Hogwarts (which took up, I swear, half the movie) was a bit MICHAEL BAY'S HARRY POTTER!!!!, the movie, overall flowed really well, stayed interesting, and did a much (much, much, MUCH) better job of keeping me engaged with and caring about the characters. One of the reasons the movie worked better was because of all of the WTFs it fixed.
In this version, Harry and co do not plan to betray Griphook (though he still betrays them, which has other issues*) and the goblin view of the ownership of goblin-made objects never comes up. This allows the trio to be heroic, not assholic. Their escape with the dragon was somehow cooler in the movie (possibly because they actually seemed disturbed that the goblins had hurt the dragon), too.
At Hogwarts, we do not get Harry Crucioing anyone. Instead Snape calls the students together with the usual sort of villainous "We know Harry Potter is here and anyone helping him will be punished," giving Harry the opportunity to reveal himself. Good guys arrive, bad guys get knocked out or run away, good prepares to fight Voldemort's coming attack (or run about madly looking for the Ravenclaw diadem), and it's all FAR more heroic than in the book. Hell, pretty much everything from this point on is many, many times better than in the book. It's amazing what not having your characters act like assholes will do.
Harry's not-dying is more-or-less explained; as people had guessed, Voldie Avada Kadavraed his soul fragment instead of Harry. Neville still gets to be heroic. More than once, actually - since he gets to blow up a bridge (I'm pretty sure that wasn't in the book). We are spared Harry having a villain speech. And, after the battle is over and done with and Voldemort disintegrated, the trio stands outside Hogwarts and Harry explains about the Elder Wand. And then (while I'm sitting in my seat thinking "Break it, break it, break it!" at the movie), Harry snaps the Elder Wand into pieces! :D I very nearly went Yes! in the theater. Now he really can go on and do whatever he likes. (And movie!Harry is enough of an improvement over book!Harry that I feel good for him.)
Even the epilogue is better. Once again, they left out the asshole parts. And, unless I'm remembering the book wrong, movie!Harry does a far better job of reassuring his son than book!Harry did.
There were WTFs that couldn't be fixed, sadly. The cheerleaders of death are still creepy as all get out, Albus Dumbledore is still a lousy, lousy person (who, sadly, Harry still names a son after), and Harry's motivation for going to his death after learning he's always been a human sacrifice is still a bit hazy. Also, Snape's death still makes no sense, whatsoever. Not only is it bizarre that he doesn't fight back (does he want to die?) and had no back-up plan, but Voldy makes Nagini the master of the elder wand by having her kill Snape. (Well, by his logic he does anyway. Hell, if it's okay to have Nagini kill Snape because she's a horcrux, then Harry being the master of the Elder Wand should make Voldie the master, too. If it works that way. If not, Voldie is an IDIOT. Oh, wait, he walked off and left not-dead-yet Snape. He's an idiot, period.)
Overall, though, the movie was fun and waaaaaaay better than the book. Yay!
Edit: Oh, crap, I was in such a hurry last night to get this posted and go to bed that I forgot the footnote!
* The stories (in both forms) have a real problem with non-wizards. Making the goblins "bad" does not help this, nor does seeing non-wizards fight only on the side of Voldemort (as far as I could tell) in the battle for Hogwarts. I am not comfortable with stories that think that only one kind of sapient being is actually "human" - in the sense that they matter and are capable of good and whatnot. I know the story is about wizards, but that doesn't make everyone else bad or unimportant. On that same note, I'm glad we see that Filch and his cat survived the battle, but, given that he cares enough about Hogwarts that he was trying to clean up the mess, it'd have been nice to see him do something during the battle. And it'd have been nice to get some non-humans fighting on the good guys side.
This entry was originally posted at http://smurasaki.dreamwidth.org/98959.html.