Obligatory HP7 post
I don't even really know what to say except what everyone else has already said which is OMG SO GOOOOOOOOD. Let's see. It helped that I hardly remember the book. I read it once in about 14 hours and I put it down and I have never read it again. I pretty much...hated it. I felt completely and totally betrayed. As if she got to the seventh book and was like "umm....didn't plan this far ahead...I know, deathly hallows! That'll be cool!!!" The book felt random and scattered and plot points were unimportant and disconnected and THEY CAMPED FOR LIKE 300 PAGES. I utterly hated it.
But this movie. Was amazing. And perfect. And wonderful. And here's why: because she wrote a shitty book. In prose, the plot was winding and boring and seemingly pointless. In film, the plot was exquisitely slow and gave us a chance to see the trio just BE for the first time ever and I AM FLIPPING MY SHIT. In the earlier movies, there was too much plot to shove into two and a half hours to ever really SEE Harry and Hermione and Ron. We never really knew their character, just their actions. And that contributed to the children's movie feeling, they were clearly adaptations of books. But this movie was not like that. They had 300 pages of camping to shove in character development. Hermione had time to be calm and have rational conversations, instead of just chest heaving at everyone all the time. Harry had time to be awkward and funny (omg, that dancing scene?! The girl I was with was like "that was weird" and I was like "OMG LOVE". I will come back to this later....). Ron had time to be angry and resolve some serious issues that probably should have been addressed earlier in the series. And all of this character development and interaction meant that the acting was SUPERB. 100000x better than ever before. Emma Watson, who usually makes me grind my teeth in annoyance (CHEST! HEAVING! EMOTION!) was SO GOOD. Dan, who again, usually sucks (IMO), was AMAZING. Rupert, though I was slightly less impressed than the other two, was still great!
Things: that dancing scene. I love that they added it. Because Harry's sexuality has never really gotten addressed in the series: even Cho's kiss was just "wet". And I'm sorry, but a heterosexual teenage boy and girl are not such close friends with no hint of sexual undercurrent. It just doesn't work that way. And I loved that in this scene Harry was kind of like "well, it's just you and me now.....wanna?" And Hermione was like, "No." Because it's realistic. That moment would happen. And it made me love them way more than ever before. It made me buy their friendship, and root for it, and at the same time feel the aching loss of Ron, a big empty space in between them. It was amazing screenwriting/directing.
The one thing that I didn't totally love was the scene with the sword and putter-outer, but that was just too wretched to be salvaged. They did what they could.
I liked how meandering the plot was in this media because it made sense. It's a war. Of course it's going to be random and horrible and hopeless. I didn't get that in the book. Maybe if I went back and re-read now I would, I don't know. But this is the first movie adaptation that I liked better than the book. Infinitely better.
I miss Harry Potter fandom. :(
But this movie. Was amazing. And perfect. And wonderful. And here's why: because she wrote a shitty book. In prose, the plot was winding and boring and seemingly pointless. In film, the plot was exquisitely slow and gave us a chance to see the trio just BE for the first time ever and I AM FLIPPING MY SHIT. In the earlier movies, there was too much plot to shove into two and a half hours to ever really SEE Harry and Hermione and Ron. We never really knew their character, just their actions. And that contributed to the children's movie feeling, they were clearly adaptations of books. But this movie was not like that. They had 300 pages of camping to shove in character development. Hermione had time to be calm and have rational conversations, instead of just chest heaving at everyone all the time. Harry had time to be awkward and funny (omg, that dancing scene?! The girl I was with was like "that was weird" and I was like "OMG LOVE". I will come back to this later....). Ron had time to be angry and resolve some serious issues that probably should have been addressed earlier in the series. And all of this character development and interaction meant that the acting was SUPERB. 100000x better than ever before. Emma Watson, who usually makes me grind my teeth in annoyance (CHEST! HEAVING! EMOTION!) was SO GOOD. Dan, who again, usually sucks (IMO), was AMAZING. Rupert, though I was slightly less impressed than the other two, was still great!
Things: that dancing scene. I love that they added it. Because Harry's sexuality has never really gotten addressed in the series: even Cho's kiss was just "wet". And I'm sorry, but a heterosexual teenage boy and girl are not such close friends with no hint of sexual undercurrent. It just doesn't work that way. And I loved that in this scene Harry was kind of like "well, it's just you and me now.....wanna?" And Hermione was like, "No." Because it's realistic. That moment would happen. And it made me love them way more than ever before. It made me buy their friendship, and root for it, and at the same time feel the aching loss of Ron, a big empty space in between them. It was amazing screenwriting/directing.
The one thing that I didn't totally love was the scene with the sword and putter-outer, but that was just too wretched to be salvaged. They did what they could.
I liked how meandering the plot was in this media because it made sense. It's a war. Of course it's going to be random and horrible and hopeless. I didn't get that in the book. Maybe if I went back and re-read now I would, I don't know. But this is the first movie adaptation that I liked better than the book. Infinitely better.
I miss Harry Potter fandom. :(