The HBP thoughts!
For one: it was obvious that this time, they knew how it ended. You could feel it, they knew what exactly they were setting up instead of meddling. Good.
Bella? THANK YOU for not running around like a total maniac and shrieking, Helena! Good - and still freaky as hell. More so now.
Even the outfit was almost subdued. But the leather jacket, what was that? It looks NICE, but come ON.
And the porno eyes have got to go, seriously! Maybe it's just me that sees post!Azkaban and generally the adult Bella as rather chaste, but WTH. Cut it out. I did like her normal-talking voice though, and generally like the thing she does with her eyes - when it's not porning over her nephew, for eff's sake. But Helena's accent somehow suits Bella, IMO. I don't know why I got stuck at it, but yeah. She has the right, deep darkish voice, somewhat RPish to my ears. And if the Blacks don't speak The Queen's English, who does?
I liked the added scene a lot; it felt very scary and war-like. And I floved the R/T - I could do without the angst cut out there, and it was really nice. Liked the nod to the "condition" - that and the CoS mention (and even extremely brief use of footage!) - and some other things I can't remember tied this one together with the others somewhat, something these films tend to suck at.
Regulus! Woot.
Also, Tom Felton owned. And I guess the fangirls got Armani!Draco in the end, eh? (Suit-wise, that is.)
As did Rupert - no comic!relief!Ron - or, not as much as usually is to be expected of Kloves. Did not really get why he had to hang back in the final scene until the very end when he joined H/Hr, but I guess you could tie it to the DH situation if you squint. Or to Kloves floving Hermione. Whichever. But yes, Ron was great - the Quidditch, still bringing the laugh but not at his expense ("So? Creepy shop, creepy guy" HAH!)
Lavender? Heee!
And the love potion scene, that I love and have read fifty times? Hell yes! Awesome! I just wish we'd got the Levicorpus mishap too, but alas ("Next time I'd prefer it if you set the alarm" is such an awesome scene).
Also, irrelevant, but dude - why were Ron and Harry the only ones in bed when they had their not at all anvil-heavy girl talk? Don't Seamus, Dean and Neville sleep?
Seamus still blows his hair off! Heee.
Neville, the caterer - but not doing the loos. Hee.
Oh, and Blaise? Should appeal to his fangirls, yes? Did to me anyway...
The intro at the café was sort of nice - good way to have Dumbledore show up, etc. But WTH was the picking up baristas and then the not very smooth transition to H/G? Eh. I don't mind H/G at all, in fact I am an inactive shipper, but dude. Not smooth. When Hermione asked Harry what "it feels like", I had expected her to TELL Harry he likes Ginny, not assume he knows. Just seemed a bit sudden.
And while I get that there could hardly be two post-Quidditch snogs, give it to H/G, eh? That was such a great scene. But the "Weasley..!" was cool too, so.
And Cormac! Pretty amusing - and heh, the dragon balls. Ahem.
"And take Weasley with you, he seems to be having too much fun." McGonagall FTW!
There was a more than decent use of dialogue from the books, and - and now I haven't read HBP in what must be well over a year, yikes - but I didn't feel too much was missing. It seemed pretty tight - like perhaps, for once, a non-reader might understand WTF was up ;) (PoA, I am looking at you.)
I never tear up, but when Harry and Dumbledore stood in the middle of the ocean and the music and the water and oh my God, there was something in my eye. And it's not even that scene in the books that does it. I don't know. It was so... big.
Also, the wand light ceremony was so much nicer than any oddly-cut-to funeral. Props for that - the light slowly obscuring the Dark Mark (which is a cloud now, eh?) - was awesome.
Awesome is also how the DEs move. Obviously it's very showy and WTF, but still. The London opening was great - and I didn't get it was the Ollivander coup until later.
Greyback looks fucking disgusting. As he should.
Remus was acting like DH!Remus, as, well. Fine with me. Relationship-wise he was there already, so whatever.
I was shocked - shocked! - that the spider funeral o'doom made it in! I was sure they'd have done something else, but it was really good to have it there. And the "yeah, he did!" was great.
Overall, High-on-Felix-Harry was hilarious. "HI!" was golden, and the herbology encounter. If I had been Slughorn, I'd have tried to drag him to detox, not just safety.
Slughorn was really nice, I thought - bit too thin probably, but otherwise ;)
The flashbacks - especially the Horocrux one were great; was that seriously not the same actor as the kid? Because dude, resemblance. And while the CoS guy might have been best, this one was even... eerier. That Horocrux scene, when he fiddles with the ring - just, yeah. That's Voldemort.
And I liked Cissy - granted, she looked older than the older sister that's spent 16 years in prison, but passing that.... Really liked that they brought her in, and Wormtail for that mini-role. And "Put that down, Bella. We don't touch what don't belong to us" - Lol, Snape.
And yes, Snape. There was Snape. Snape being Christmas messenger was seriously WTF, but otherwise? Yeah. Liked that they had the disucssion/argument with Dumbledore in, and that of course the whole after-party thing. "DON'T CALL ME A COWARD!" should have been there though - that was a very together-kept leaving (well, apart from Bella, that is). But the HBP reveal was very chilly and cool.
My only complaint is really something I have felt in many if not all of these films, and that is that they all seem a bit ....subdued. I don't know; too calm. I do like Dan, and I did like Gambon a lot more in this, but still. Harry trying to convince Slughorn was really well done - but there's something with the Big Serious Things that leave me a bit frowning. Hmm. I don't know if it is that we see them too seldom, with too long breaks, or what it is, but they don't get Poignant with me. There's just something missing, and I really hope DH brings it with the destruction f (that always got to me, and somewhat here too, with Ollivander and the Burrow, be as it may that it was added.)
Still - out of them all, save perhaps PS, I think this felt the most like the books, like it had the whole plot in it, and that is definitely good. And the ending wasn't PoA, GoF and OotP WTF-odd either, but rather decent. And that was Fawkes, yes?
But I keep thinking that HBP is just the wrong title for this book. Always have.
Seeing it tomorrow again, and gladly.