Le film review: Deathly Hallows Part 2

[flowrs4ophelia]

— I'd forgotten a whole lot about the whole Gringotts scene in the book, which probably made it that much better for me. Helena Bonham-Carter was great at acting like Hermione with her facial expressions and everything. There's something really kind of creepy about the goblins to me, which I guess says something about how realistic and non-silly-looking the make-up is, and the dazed grin on that one they were dragging around with them wasn't helping. Haha.

— One of my biggest complaints that comes to mind is how McGonagall not only didn't even give any of the Slytherins a chance to volunteer to defend the school, but sent them all off to the dungeons like she practically meant "Get them out of my sight and make sure they stay there instead of trying anything." LOL, great, that was about as necessary as relocating Japanese people during WWII.

— My main disappointment, of course, is the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort. They essentially took out everything that made it surprising in the book and turned it into a very typical Hollywoodized kind of showdown like so many you've seen before. In fact, just about everything that unfolds following the revelation that Harry's alive was a lot more effective in the book and didn't benefit from the changes, though I'm sure the intention was to make it all more climactic.

I know a lot of people were especially looking forward to Neville's big moment of heroism in taking out Nagini. Having him save Ron and Hermione from the snake at the last moment was cool, and I got a big laugh out of that sequence with him slowly regaining consciousness on the ground like the dopey unlikely badass he is, with this Duuuude what happened last night? look on his face, LOL. But it mostly lost a lot in the changes. The reaction from everyone when Hagrid brings out Harry's supposedly dead body is ridiculously mild compared to in the book, which has everyone seeming to lose hope in their devastation in that moment up until Neville's unthinkably ballsy act of defiance when he cuts off Nagini's head right the fuck in front of Voldemort gets everyone's spirit back.

There are also a lot of the biggest themes of the book lost through attempts to make the defeat of Voldemort more dramatic, rather than having Harry barely even have to lift a finger and ultimately beating him with a disarming spell. The explanation for how Harry ends up being the true owner of the Elder Wand does seem a bit deus ex machina, but I always found it acceptable in its irony because Harry earns the right to it by deciding he doesn't need it; he's tempted earlier to go claim the wand for himself before Voldemort can get to it, but it turns out that would have meant he'd never ended up getting Draco's wand and it would have messed everything up. But the entire idea that Harry is the master of death in the end because he accepts death, and basically the main point of the Hallows in the story, was only off-handedly conveyed. One of Dumbledore's last lines about how Harry shouldn't pity the dead but those who live without love was inserted in totally out of context and seemed pretty random. So bottom line, there was no emphasis at all on the fact that Harry didn't actually kill Voldemort because he was better than that and his differences from him made him able to win.

Also, they completely left out Voldemort being unable to harm anyone because Harry had died to protect them all the same way Lily died to protect him. COME ON, THAT WAS THE BEST.

— I couldn't have asked for more with how the Battle of Hogwarts is realized up to that point, though. When all the build-up to the battle got started about a half-hour into the movie I was very happy, and now that I've seen the whole thing I can't imagine the climax not being given that much time. More happens during that battle than immediately comes to mind when I remember the end of the book.

The Prince's Tale sequence, as much as it neglects to show more of the ultimate complexity of Snape's character (in other words the undeniable nastiness along with the tragic/sympathetic sides of him), probably would have been considerably less effective if it tried to cover too much information. If you look at how much the first six movies have failed to set up well with Snape's character development, I think this one actually brings it all together better than I might have expected. Alan Rickman's performance was wonderful, and though I'm usually kind of annoyed with flashback sequences in films and shows that rely too much on re-used footage because that's not how memory works, I thought all the use of shots from the previous movies worked really well because it was clearly only to show us more about those moments in time than we understood before, adding to the "Oh shit" factor of some of the revelations. (This was one of several points in the movie where it was pretty fun hearing the shocked reactions of other people in the audience who obviously only followed the movies. I don't remember any of the other films having moments of surprising revelations that seemed to have that big of an effect on people.)

In particular I also loved Kelly Macdonald as Helena Ravenclaw, the little moments with Remus and Kingsley, and of course pretty much everything involving McGonagall.

— The prologue worked pretty well, especially because in so many ways it visually reminds you of the first movie and even finishes with one of John Williams' cues from it for extra nostalgia. Daniel was actually very convincing as an adult father in his interaction with little Albus, and it was also made pretty funny seeing all the characters grown-up as it should have been.


The parts that were disappointing are so important you'd think they'd make more of a difference, but I was generally more than satisfied with it and it may even be my favorite of the movies. Of course you're always missing out on a lot if you haven't read the books, but just as a film this blows most of the others in the series out of the water and makes a very very respectable conclusion to the franchise.

I haven't been getting emotionally invested in the release of this movie as being the very final chapter of our generation's Harry Potter experience like a lot of fans were. This is a story that will always have a place in my life and I already went through all that when the last book came out. But still, returning to this material is always a kind of emotional thing for me because I have so many great memories attached to HP and it's been one of the greatest inspirations to me, and you know, I really am going to miss having these movies to look forward to.

Comments

[lunylucy.livejournal.com]

le agree with everything in this post

[mutantjules.livejournal.com]

If you look at how much the first six movies have failed to set up well with Snape's character development, I think this one actually brings it all together better than I might have expected.
I agree with everything in this post but this most of all.

(and McGonagall kicking INSANE amounts of ass. And Helena Ravenclaw! When she suddenly whirled on Harry and started screaming at him I legit got chills. Wonderful, wonderful moment)

yeah, the movies are never gonna live up to the books really but what they did right completely outweighs what they fail at or leave out, imo.