Differences between book and film as a medium is one thing, but...
I saw the last Harry Potter movie over a week ago, but I still feel compelled to write about it. Apparently, it annoys me that much.
As I mentioned when discussing the first part of Deathly Hallows, I was not entirely surprised that some parts of the story were left out of the adaptation. That's what the movies are, after all: adaptations, with the intention of translating the books' "experience" to film as much as it is possible - which often necessitates departures from the original story in the book. I found it, if I may be blunt, rather hilarious when people complained that all events and dialogue should have followed the book in earlier films; they do not know, but if that would have been the case, those films would have probably been unwatchable. Heck, to an extent, I don't even mind if a director goes a bit further and adds his own touch to the tale as long it fits the overall picture, as it happened with the Harry/Hermione angle in part one. (It went really well here too; Yates did a fine job showing the deep bond between the three main characters.)
What I find very difficult to tolerate is when, for one reason or another, an adaptation distorts the message of the original work, or replaces it with something else, and I fear this is exactly what occurred here in the second part of Deathly Hallows.
Deathly Hallows as a book is an odd one. It certainly serves as a culmination of the increasingly darker tone of the previous books, no question about it. But at the same time, as it needs to tie all the loose ends of the storylines dating back all the way to the first book, some things get featured which feel oddly fairy tale-ish now, compared to the later books' more mature themes. There may be several, but the most prominent motif, which plays a crucial part in the outcome, is very simple.
The power of love.
I actually had the temptation to write that in huge bold and/or pink letters, as it seems so banal to look at just like that. XD Yes, the very same power of love we see a quadrillion times in cheesy Hollywood films, children stories and so on and so forth. Although, that does not make it any less relevant here. Rowling is not joking around, she planned the main conflict to hinge upon the power of love, and she used all her literary talent not to let us giggle when she used it. In my opinion, she mostly succeeded.
Mr. Yates, apparently, did not dare to pull the same move. And because of this, what was a thrilling, somewhat philosophical final exchange of both words and spells between Harry and Voldemort and their allies, instead becomes a CGI-fest with none of the original message present. Why was this necessary, damn it? I liked some of the changes, for instance the way Harry confronted Snape in Hogwarts, they made sense in the context of the story, but this? You can complain that the power of love is cliche, but for an adaptation, this is degrading. I would have liked it more even if Yates went overboard and started showing Harry's protection spell on the defenders of Hogwarts as a pink force-field with giant floating hearts and colorful unicorns dancing around... it would have been painful to look at, but he could at least blame Rowling for it. This way, he seems to be the only one to blame.
I was also somewhat disappointed that Dumbledore's backstory really got the axe completely. I was half-expecting this, but got my hopes up once Aberforth started talking about the darker side of the headmaster. With a bit of a stretch, I could even say that the scene there, combined with what we saw in Snape's memories (done very well in my opinion) would have sufficed to lead us to the final "confrontation" between Harry and Dumbledore at King's Cross - but there NOTHING REALLY HAPPENED. O_o All the really relevant parts of the dialogue was cut, and I found myself wondering why the heck did they include that scene then in the first place. It became almost meaningless padding.
Too bad it turned out this way, because I had high hopes for this movie after part one, and most of this film was also quite enjoyable actually - but when it really mattered, I can't help but feel that the adaptation dropped the ball and went for the big explosions. It's a shame.
As I mentioned when discussing the first part of Deathly Hallows, I was not entirely surprised that some parts of the story were left out of the adaptation. That's what the movies are, after all: adaptations, with the intention of translating the books' "experience" to film as much as it is possible - which often necessitates departures from the original story in the book. I found it, if I may be blunt, rather hilarious when people complained that all events and dialogue should have followed the book in earlier films; they do not know, but if that would have been the case, those films would have probably been unwatchable. Heck, to an extent, I don't even mind if a director goes a bit further and adds his own touch to the tale as long it fits the overall picture, as it happened with the Harry/Hermione angle in part one. (It went really well here too; Yates did a fine job showing the deep bond between the three main characters.)
What I find very difficult to tolerate is when, for one reason or another, an adaptation distorts the message of the original work, or replaces it with something else, and I fear this is exactly what occurred here in the second part of Deathly Hallows.
Deathly Hallows as a book is an odd one. It certainly serves as a culmination of the increasingly darker tone of the previous books, no question about it. But at the same time, as it needs to tie all the loose ends of the storylines dating back all the way to the first book, some things get featured which feel oddly fairy tale-ish now, compared to the later books' more mature themes. There may be several, but the most prominent motif, which plays a crucial part in the outcome, is very simple.
The power of love.
I actually had the temptation to write that in huge bold and/or pink letters, as it seems so banal to look at just like that. XD Yes, the very same power of love we see a quadrillion times in cheesy Hollywood films, children stories and so on and so forth. Although, that does not make it any less relevant here. Rowling is not joking around, she planned the main conflict to hinge upon the power of love, and she used all her literary talent not to let us giggle when she used it. In my opinion, she mostly succeeded.
Mr. Yates, apparently, did not dare to pull the same move. And because of this, what was a thrilling, somewhat philosophical final exchange of both words and spells between Harry and Voldemort and their allies, instead becomes a CGI-fest with none of the original message present. Why was this necessary, damn it? I liked some of the changes, for instance the way Harry confronted Snape in Hogwarts, they made sense in the context of the story, but this? You can complain that the power of love is cliche, but for an adaptation, this is degrading. I would have liked it more even if Yates went overboard and started showing Harry's protection spell on the defenders of Hogwarts as a pink force-field with giant floating hearts and colorful unicorns dancing around... it would have been painful to look at, but he could at least blame Rowling for it. This way, he seems to be the only one to blame.
I was also somewhat disappointed that Dumbledore's backstory really got the axe completely. I was half-expecting this, but got my hopes up once Aberforth started talking about the darker side of the headmaster. With a bit of a stretch, I could even say that the scene there, combined with what we saw in Snape's memories (done very well in my opinion) would have sufficed to lead us to the final "confrontation" between Harry and Dumbledore at King's Cross - but there NOTHING REALLY HAPPENED. O_o All the really relevant parts of the dialogue was cut, and I found myself wondering why the heck did they include that scene then in the first place. It became almost meaningless padding.
Too bad it turned out this way, because I had high hopes for this movie after part one, and most of this film was also quite enjoyable actually - but when it really mattered, I can't help but feel that the adaptation dropped the ball and went for the big explosions. It's a shame.