Deathly Hallows Part 1, Review Part I
Now that I’ve seen Deathly Hallows Part 1 twice, here are my thoughts on the first half of that movie, compared to the book… I have so many thoughts I decided to stop at Chapter 13 for this posting:
Best scene:
- I thought “The Dark Lord Ascending” was near-perfect. I loved that it began with Snape swishing his way through the Malfoys’ gate and the magical detail of the gate re-forming. I thought the Charity Burbage scene provided a great opportunity for Alan Rickman and Tom Felton to show the audience what their characters were going through emotionally- Snape having no choice to keep up the façade of being a loyal Death Eater even if it meant being powerless to save a colleague’s life, Draco being completely uncomfortable with what it really means to follow Voldemort and wanting out. Lucius Malfoy pulling his wand out of his pimp cane was a really nice touch, and I liked how rough the Malfoys looked compared to their usual aristocratic gleam (or, as batmanboxers put it, "Lucius' apparent decline into drinking and looking like a hobo") I missed the white peacocks, though, and I wanted Malfoy Manor to be more “sumptuously decorated,” as described in the book.
Things I appreciated:
- As many other people have already pointed out, actually showing Hermione erasing her parents’ memories was even more powerful than hearing about it from her later on.
- I thought Aunt Petunia crying in the passenger seat was an improvement over her awkward goodbye in the book.
- Remus and Kingsley trying to determine if there was an imposter in the group and “Harry is the best hope we have, trust him.”
- “A Place to Hide” was very well-done, I think when the Trio suddenly apparate to a busy Muggle street, if you hadn’t already realized that this wasn’t going to be like other Harry Potter movies, that would be the clincher. The scene in the diner was really true to the book.
- Neville being a BAMF on the train.
- The actors playing Mafalda-Hopkirk-Hermione, Reg-Cattermole-Ron, and Albert-Runcorn-Harry. Although, even though I know it’s in the book, Harry dropping the Decoy Detonators made me vaguely uncomfortable because it made me think of terrorism. And I wish the filmmakers had included Harry running into Arthur Weasley in the ministry.
Nitpicky things I wish the filmmakers had been true to or done differently:
- I think it might have been nice, since the filmmakers clearly weren’t averse to including flashbacks, to include the backstory on the mirror - Sirius giving it to him as a way to contact him. I feel like viewers who haven’t read the books were probably lost as to why Harry kept looking at a shard of mirror.
- Quite a bit of the storytelling in the book is done through newspaper articles like “Albus Dumbledore Remembered” by Elphias Doge and “Dumbledore - The Truth at Last!” A little voice-over might have helped non-reading viewers understand why the article titles flashing onscreen were so significant to Harry- they were threatening his whole view of his mentor- although I guess we did get Auntie Muriel’s “are you sure you knew him at all?” or whatever it is she says.
Changes I did not appreciate:
- The thing that bothered me the most was the amazing scene between Harry and Ginny in “The Will of Albus Dumbledore” being changed to “zip me up, will you?” and awkward-kiss-with-George-watching. My favorite line of dialogue in the whole series is Ginny’s “There’s the silver lining I’ve been looking for,” when he tells her he won’t have time to date while saving the world. Would it really have been so hard to put that in the film? I just can’t stand how Steve Kloves’ writing has taken the kick-ass, tough girl we see in the books (albeit in brief glimpses) and made her a piece of pretty furniture.
- I have mixed feelings about “The Seven Potters” and Hedwig’s death. On the one hand, I like that Hedwig got to be kind of heroic rather than being killed in her cage. On the other hand, though, it was significant to the story that the Death Eaters recognized Harry because he didn’t use a killing curse. It highlights the difference between Harry and the DE’s and how he never wants to bring himself to their level of ruthlessness if he can help it.
- Basically the whole “Kreacher’s Tale” chapter got butchered. Sirius’ room is supposed to have motorcycle posters and Muggle pin-up girls and a photo of the Marauders and A LETTER FROM LILY, not random baby dragon mobiles. The Marauders always get the shaft in the films. And Kreacher’s story about being left on the island with the inferi got changed to “Master Regulus asked Kreacher to destroy the locket and Kreacher could not” (paraphrase)?
WTF? Moments
- The Burrow magically reappearing even though it randomly burned down in the Half-Blood Prince film.
- Kingsley’s Patronus being… a ball of light? Why not the lynx?
- The random dance scene when Harry was trying to cheer Hermione up, although it was cuter when I knew it was coming and I did like that it was to Nick Drake. A little dialogue or laughter would have made it less weird though.
Overall, I think this film was the most true to the book so far, and it certainly lived up to the hype of being the darkest HP film yet. I'll post Part II of my review this weekend.
Best scene:
- I thought “The Dark Lord Ascending” was near-perfect. I loved that it began with Snape swishing his way through the Malfoys’ gate and the magical detail of the gate re-forming. I thought the Charity Burbage scene provided a great opportunity for Alan Rickman and Tom Felton to show the audience what their characters were going through emotionally- Snape having no choice to keep up the façade of being a loyal Death Eater even if it meant being powerless to save a colleague’s life, Draco being completely uncomfortable with what it really means to follow Voldemort and wanting out. Lucius Malfoy pulling his wand out of his pimp cane was a really nice touch, and I liked how rough the Malfoys looked compared to their usual aristocratic gleam (or, as batmanboxers put it, "Lucius' apparent decline into drinking and looking like a hobo") I missed the white peacocks, though, and I wanted Malfoy Manor to be more “sumptuously decorated,” as described in the book.
Things I appreciated:
- As many other people have already pointed out, actually showing Hermione erasing her parents’ memories was even more powerful than hearing about it from her later on.
- I thought Aunt Petunia crying in the passenger seat was an improvement over her awkward goodbye in the book.
- Remus and Kingsley trying to determine if there was an imposter in the group and “Harry is the best hope we have, trust him.”
- “A Place to Hide” was very well-done, I think when the Trio suddenly apparate to a busy Muggle street, if you hadn’t already realized that this wasn’t going to be like other Harry Potter movies, that would be the clincher. The scene in the diner was really true to the book.
- Neville being a BAMF on the train.
- The actors playing Mafalda-Hopkirk-Hermione, Reg-Cattermole-Ron, and Albert-Runcorn-Harry. Although, even though I know it’s in the book, Harry dropping the Decoy Detonators made me vaguely uncomfortable because it made me think of terrorism. And I wish the filmmakers had included Harry running into Arthur Weasley in the ministry.
Nitpicky things I wish the filmmakers had been true to or done differently:
- I think it might have been nice, since the filmmakers clearly weren’t averse to including flashbacks, to include the backstory on the mirror - Sirius giving it to him as a way to contact him. I feel like viewers who haven’t read the books were probably lost as to why Harry kept looking at a shard of mirror.
- Quite a bit of the storytelling in the book is done through newspaper articles like “Albus Dumbledore Remembered” by Elphias Doge and “Dumbledore - The Truth at Last!” A little voice-over might have helped non-reading viewers understand why the article titles flashing onscreen were so significant to Harry- they were threatening his whole view of his mentor- although I guess we did get Auntie Muriel’s “are you sure you knew him at all?” or whatever it is she says.
Changes I did not appreciate:
- The thing that bothered me the most was the amazing scene between Harry and Ginny in “The Will of Albus Dumbledore” being changed to “zip me up, will you?” and awkward-kiss-with-George-watching. My favorite line of dialogue in the whole series is Ginny’s “There’s the silver lining I’ve been looking for,” when he tells her he won’t have time to date while saving the world. Would it really have been so hard to put that in the film? I just can’t stand how Steve Kloves’ writing has taken the kick-ass, tough girl we see in the books (albeit in brief glimpses) and made her a piece of pretty furniture.
- I have mixed feelings about “The Seven Potters” and Hedwig’s death. On the one hand, I like that Hedwig got to be kind of heroic rather than being killed in her cage. On the other hand, though, it was significant to the story that the Death Eaters recognized Harry because he didn’t use a killing curse. It highlights the difference between Harry and the DE’s and how he never wants to bring himself to their level of ruthlessness if he can help it.
- Basically the whole “Kreacher’s Tale” chapter got butchered. Sirius’ room is supposed to have motorcycle posters and Muggle pin-up girls and a photo of the Marauders and A LETTER FROM LILY, not random baby dragon mobiles. The Marauders always get the shaft in the films. And Kreacher’s story about being left on the island with the inferi got changed to “Master Regulus asked Kreacher to destroy the locket and Kreacher could not” (paraphrase)?
WTF? Moments
- The Burrow magically reappearing even though it randomly burned down in the Half-Blood Prince film.
- Kingsley’s Patronus being… a ball of light? Why not the lynx?
- The random dance scene when Harry was trying to cheer Hermione up, although it was cuter when I knew it was coming and I did like that it was to Nick Drake. A little dialogue or laughter would have made it less weird though.
Overall, I think this film was the most true to the book so far, and it certainly lived up to the hype of being the darkest HP film yet. I'll post Part II of my review this weekend.