SPOILER: I did not love the film. But I want to talk more about it.
slytherincesss thought I hated it. I didn't, I thought it was just okay. But I'm seemingly the flister who least liked it (well, Patricia liked it less than I did but she's not around these parts so much anymore).
I did hate the pacing/momentum/buildup, though, and wanted to expand on that a little further by analyzing a sequence of scenes.
Harry and Co. arrive at Hogwarts and, call me crazy, I feel there's a great deal of urgency at this point in the film. We need to find and destroy the Horcrux stat! They managed to avoid the alarms and Death Eaters (guards?) in Hogsmeade, meet up with Aberforth, and a battered-looking Neville who informs them that the Carrows are nasty pieces of work. (Remember that setup because there will be no payoff.)
Next we have the reunion with the DA in some presumably secret room they've been hiding out in. The pace slows a bit with some talk but Harry's focused on that Horcrux. Eye on the prize, bud, eye on the prize.
Then Ginny rushes in, shares a Meaningful Glance with Harry, and tells everybody that Snape knows Harry's there.
Okay, not quite how I remembered this going on the book but it sounds like a setup for something to happen.
Not really.
Cut to a scene where the school is assembled in front of Snape who speaks very, very slowly-I think Rickman may have been having a laugh with the director to see how slow he could get away with speaking. The answer is very slow. Snape, repeating what Ginny just said, tells us he knows Harry Potter is here. Oh, and the Carrows are standing next to him. (They won't be doing anything else.)
Then Harry steps out of the woodwork with the Order (not sure when they met up but whatever) and says something like "Yeah, well I'm here, Snape!" So he's the third person to tell us the same piece of information.
Now I know exposition is always tricky to handle while keeping the plot moving forward. But having three characters tell us the same piece of information doesn't exactly help things.
It would be like me stopping at this point to tell you the following:
GINNY: Snape knows Harry's here!
SNAPE: I know Harry's here!
HARRY: I'm here!
Anyway, Snape and McGonagall have their little fight. Everyone stands around watching them. Except the Carrows who fall down without having done anything at all, nasty or otherwise.
Now I think the book was significantly better on this point. We have the same setup, what Neville tells us about Carrows being nasty. But then we have a payoff: male Carrow spits on McGonagall. Followed by some character development: Harry uses the Cruciatus Curse on him, something he'd not been able to use successfully in the past, showing us a significant change in his character.
Snape flees and by this point all movement has been sucked out of scene. That sense of urgency? Gone.
Plus things are moving slow enough that the flaws are visible.
How did Ginny know Snape knew Harry was there? (He probably announced that he was holding an assembly where he would announce that Harry was at Hogwarts.)
Why did Snape call the assembly? None of the three major views of Snape's character (Trufax!Badguy, Secret!Goodguy, Playing-both-sides-for-his-own-ends!Guy) have any motivation to call the entire school to play this particular card.
Why, if the DA was in hiding, as those hammocks and sleeping bags in their room suggested, did they all then flock to this assembly?
When exactly did Harry have the time to rendezvous with the Order?
How did Luna get to Hogwarts in the first place?
Why did they even bother making making the Carrows named characters in the movie?
Okay, I'm getting re-bored just analyzing it. It felt like any time people stopped to talk about something this same kind of thing happened.
Harry's five minutes with the Grey Lady.
The intro where Harry speaks to Luna, Harry speaks to Griphook, and, in a new move, Harry speaks to Ollivander.
King's Cross (Patricia said it didn't translate from the page well and ended up looking like a Gap commercial).
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The letdown, and by that I mean Harry and Voldemort's final confrontation. I was honestly a bit surprised when Voldie died (wait, that was it? there's nothing more?).
Molly and Bellatrix's fight fell flat. I think because the movie failed to make Ginny feel in any real danger.
Harry collecting Snape's tears. Not even sure what to say about that.
"Your son" to Remus. Did they ever even mention Remus and Tonks had a kid before they died?
You wouldn't know that it was Fred who died if you hadn't read the books.
Harry/Ginny. Aside from that Meaningful Glance and maybe they kissed somewhere was just no sense that Ginny was the girl for Harry, the one he wanted, that he ever thought about her at all. I can imagine non-readers being surprised that they ended up together in the epilogue.
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The Ron/Hermione kiss. Not an epic kiss but not too bad, at least better than Harry and Ginny got.
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There are some things I liked, lest you think otherwise.
The adult actors generally did fantastic work, even those with limited screentime.
Helen McCrory as Narcissa Malfoy was pretty foxy. I think I want to ship Ron/Narcissa now (Ron/Pansy is old news!). :P
Ralph Fiennes was nicely menacing.
Snape was tragic, even if Rickman's a bit paunchy looking now.
Actually I think the acting was really good across the board. Movie definitely didn't have problems there. The kids have all grown into their roles, too.
My favorite scene by far, was Helena Bonham Carter playing Emma Watson playing Hermione playing Bellatrix. She knocked that one out of the park and was just spot on.
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I'm a little bummed, actually. I know I said I didn't have high hopes but I wish they'd given the series a better send-off. I think I'm probably being too picky but I think there's some element of extra-goodwill given just for being the last Harry Potter movie, regardless of its merits and flaws.
If only they'd made a movie rather than a collection of scenes.