Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 aka THE END OF EVERYONE'S CHILDHOOD
I've seen this 3 times so far. The first time was at the advanced screening for the NYC premiere on the 11th. Then at midnight on the 15th and finally today (the 20th) by myself. First two times was in 3D and the 3rd time was in 2D.
First 2D vs. 3D.
Both are FANTASTIC. I was amazed at the 3D. It's not like "things pop out at you 3D" but it gives the whole word a lot more depth. I think the only things that "pop out" at you are the snake when it's being killed (I didn't really notice that but on Mugglecast they were talking about it) and then when Voldemort dies the…pieces of him float out at you. I think that's about it. There is just so much…depth to the 3D. Like you can see the relationship between the spaces. It's wonderful.
2D is BEAUTIFUL. Like the 3D is almost fuzzy compared to the 2D. I noticed so much more (though maybe that was because it was the 3rd time I'd seen the film). I feel like it was much more sharp. I think the 3D blends some of the colors together.
Experiences watching the film?
Monday at the advanced screening was my FAVORITE. It was a whole theater filled with probably the BIGGEST Harry Potter fans and we were seeing it early and had just come off the high of the premiere. I think all of our emotions were going crazy. I know I wasn't ready to watch it, but of course I still did. There was so much cheering and cheering at the right spots and crying (and sobbing). I seriously started crying from the title screen. It was wonderful, honestly. Some people where really really really SOBBING, but that was okay. I liked all of the emotion in that theater.
Midnight screening. No one really appreciated Neville as much here as they did in NYC. booooo Fairfax, he's amazing. Today was good too. I could hear some tears ^__^
Finally the film.
This film is Fantastic. A truly wonderful way to end the Harry Potter series.
So obviously we can't have everything EXACTLY like the book because they've left things out of the previous films so its not like they can just go back and fix it. I think most of that has to do with the way they found the horcruxes. So I guess since Harry IS a horcrux he can feel them.
I try to be objective with the movies. I try not to focus too much on what they didn't do and what they changed etc. Honestly there is so much detail in the books and the story is so intricate that it's IMPOSSIBLE to put into film (though they really dropped the ball with Half-blood prince that movie, though cute, is a hot mess). I see them as two separate things.
David Yates has done a FANTASTIC job with these films. They look amazing. People apparently hate on him a lot and I don't know WHY. I absolutely love what he has done with Harry Potter. I have never been happy with Steve Kloves the screenwriter. I have no idea why he made some of the choices he did. WHATEVER. You can tell a lot of stuff has been cut out of the film, especially the battle. Praying for 2 hours of extra scenes on the DVD!!! The film is also incredibly fast paced. It doesn't lag and certainly doesn't feel like its 2 hours long. They really get into the action!!
So let's try to go through this film.
So the first big thing is Gringotts I guess. Hermione as Bellatrix is amazing. Helena did an amazing job with that. She really does seem like Hermione trying to be Bellatrix. (as a side note, acting polyjuice potion scenes must be the greatest acting exercise ever). Of course everyone says that the cart in Gringotts is going to become a ride at the theme park. GO AHEAD. I'm not complaining. lol. The gold in he vault didn't become hot when it multiplied, minor detail not going to cry over it.
I think I said at the beginning of this section about Harry feeling the horcruxes. They took out the stuff about Huffelpuff's cup in the 6th one so they had to work around it somehow. What they did made sense. It's not like Harry just arbitrarily decided that the cup was a horcrux.
That poor Dragon though. It looked so sad. I was happy for it when it broke out of its prison and took its first breaths of fresh air for probably the first time. (Also I love that Ron always knows what kind of dragons are which. I imagine Charlie being home from school in the summer showing tiny wide-eyed Ron pictures for dragons from text books).
They jump off the Dragon into the water and Harry sees into Voldemort's mind and Voldemort knows about the horcuxes being destroyed. Meanwhile we are treated a a very nice shot of shirtless Harry and Ron.
Hogsmede. First thing I don't get is why is hogsmede covered in snow when it's supposed to be MAY and there is no snow at Hogwarts? Aberforth saves them from the Death Eaters and they completely gloss over the whole Dumbledore family story. Like that whole thing was started nicely in the first part but they kind of…forgot about it here I think. I think Aberforth summed up the feelings about Arianna and Albus very well.
And then Neville shows up!! When I was listening to Mugglecast talk about him, one of the guys said he didn't like it. Like they didn't give Neville enough of a build up. In the book you hear about him leading the students at Hogwarts through the radio, but the most you get in the movie is Neville on the train saying "Hey losers, he's not here." I think this works well. You understand that Neville has gained some courage and that he is prepared to stand up to the Death Eaters. I think Neville is portrayed wonderfully. Matthew Lewis did such a good job!
And then Neville steps aside and reveals to everyone in the Room of Requirement that Harry is here. And then the MUSIC. You know that Harry Potter theme music, the tune everyone knows, plays and my tears just started FLOWING. I don't know why that scene gets to me but it really does. I think it's the music that helps. You can feel the same feelings that everyone in the RoR feels, "Our hero is here to save us!!"
Then cue some funny lines. "Okay guys don't kill Harry before You-know-who has a chance." Also the whole exchange when Ginny shows up more happy to see Harry than her own brother. "She's got tons of [brothers] but there is only one Harry" and "Shut up Seamus" And Ron saying "oh here we go" when Luna mentions the Diadem. Classic Ron lines here. I just love this whole scene. So many good lines here!!!
Harry being an action hero and lecturing Snape, the order busting through the doors the like BAMFs they are and McGonagall owning Snape. Love all of this.
Protecting Hogwarts. SO MANY TEARS!! This is one of the spots where I cry every single time. All of these people protecting the castle, a 2nd (or even 1st) home to many of them. It's beautiful. McGonagall calling for the statues to protect the castle. "Protect this school!" (or what ever the line is). Then the teachers (and Molly) setting up the protective shield. I think the music really helps here. It's epic and emotional. It also brings in one of the things that I actually like about Steve Kloves' writing. He manages to bring in funny or awkward things even in a serious moment. McGonagall saying "I've always wanted to use that spell" is funny, but not completely out of place. I would tribute her excitement for using the spell to the adrenaline she begins to feel as everyone is prepping for battle. Or something.
Fred and George's scene is HEART BREAKING, but only if you know what's going to happen to them. And Remus and Tonks reaching for each other. AND ALL OF MY TEARS HERE. Those things were specifically put in for the people who KNOW what is going to happen.
I think Harry runs around and eventually talks to the Grey Lady. They took out her tragic story with the Blooddy Baron, which i'm sad about. That story really was tragic and I really wish it was in the movie. Good thing Harry knew about the Room of Requirement because good god that explanation of where the diadem was was confusing.
Neville blows up a bridge at some point with Seamus (and Ginny and Cho??). Neville facing off against the Death Eaters. EPIC. He's such BAMF. Very humorous scene. Obviously when the bridge blows up and Neville falls you know he survived but still my heart filled with joy when he resurfaced. The music attached to Neville is awesome too. It's so….so…I want to say regal. Filled with french horn and powerful, noble instruments like that.
This next part is probably my favorite moment of the film, and something I've been looking forward to FOREVER. So pardon the incoherency and borderline fangirly-ness of this.
The KISS. Oh. My. Wizard. God. So I'm like this GIANT Ron/Hermione fan. Like they are the OTP of ALL OTPs. This kiss was just amazing. They just kind of…go at it and it's wonderful and amazing and I'm resisting the urge to key-smash. So you don't actually see their lips kissing. It's more like a lot of Rupert's head. You can, however, see how intense it is. You can tell they're not just pressing their lips together. THERE IS TOUNGE OKAY. And Hermione puts her hands on Ron's neck and then moves it down to his chest. I love this. I don't even know why. And then Ron! Props to Rupert for his acting, really. He moves his hand to put it on her back and hesitates for a second. Then they relax and he just holds here. And it's like it becomes comfortable. That one moment just shows that he still has doubts about exactly how Hermione feels about him. But then he realizes that she loves him just as much as he loves her and all the doubts go away, so he just holds on to her. BEAUTIFUL. There there is that useless long shot of them kissing in the Chamber of secrets; more close ups please.
And when they break apart, there is that kissing noise. lol. Ron is looking at Hermione with that look that he ALWAYS looks at her with. That really intense look that he ALWAYS looks at Hermione with that says that he's conveying all of his love through his eyes right at her. Then they laugh and it's cute and all of the tension that has built up for seven years is gone and they are just comfortable now. BEAUTIFUL.
The cheers in the theater on monday were deafening when they kissed. A million points to Rupert and Emma for exceeding my expectations for the OTP of OTPs.
Then they go to the Room of Requirement, Draco is his usual pitiful self and really wants to be good but his reputation and family make him HAVE to be bad. Crabbe got REALLY tan and super skinny ( yes I know they replaced Crabbe with Blaise Zabini…). Ron and Hermione show up and Goyle (I think?) attacks Hermione and Ron goes after him with his usual (but greatly intensified) defense of her. "THAT'S MY GIRLFIRIEND YOU NUMBYPIT" And Hermione stands there and SMILES after him as Harry goes and tries to find the Diadem that has been shot into the pile of junk.
And then Ron comes running back with classic "Ron-face" yelling "GOYLE SET THE BLOODY PLACE ON FIRE!!!" Saves his girlfriend and leaves Harry to stare at the fire by himself. Goyle dies in his own fire because apparently Crabbe and Goyle are interchangeable. Diadem gets destroyed. yay!
But then Hermione realizes that Harry is a Horcrux. I didn't realize that She realizes here until I read something online about it. Ron is telling Harry to look into Voldemort's brain to find him. The camera stays on Hermione for what would be normally too long, until you realize that she has just figured out that Harry might actually be a Horcrux himself. Probably because of the pain he felt when the diadem was destroyed.
Next is the boat house aka Snape's death scene. They moved the location from the shrieking shack to this boat house (the boat house is even shown in the first movie which I think is AMAZING. The detail. THE DETAIL). They changed the location in order to give Snape a more "beautiful" place to die. Someone from Mugglecast noticed that there is a Gryffindor scarf behind Snape as he's talking. Interesting observation. Probably goes with whole "bravest man I've ever known" thing.
This scene was very nice and also kind of…horrific. I don't think I can describe my reaction or anyone else's reaction to Snape's death in words. Just hearing the snake continually strike at Snape was, honestly, horrifying. Harry collecting the memories from him was really sad. I wasn't BLOWN AWAY by Alan Rickman's performance but I thought he did well.
ALL OF THE DEATH'S I COULDN'T TAKE IT!!! Seeing Remus and Tonks dead. TEARS EVERYWHERE!!! Fred and the Weasley's grief. JUST KILL ME ALREADY!!! I did wish that they actually SHOWED Fred's death though. You didn't get the thing with Percy (who is just randomly there), but they kind of skimmed over that whole fight anyway. But Fred died laughing and I always thought that was really important to who he was. I also kind of wish they showed the Weasley's crying over his body more. I just feel like a character like that deserved some more screen time. Maybe. Rupert Grint did an excellent job in that scene though. He is very expressive.
The Prince's Tale. This scene was really well done. It was quickly paced and really felt like you were watching someone's memories. Little Snape was really cute actually. Lily didn't even have the same color eyes as Harry. It's not like they skipped over the whole "you have your mothers eyes" thing (they beat it to death like the in the books). They really could have given her contacts or at least fixed them digitally.
The part of this where Snape holds Lily's dead body, don't kill me but I thought that it was kind of…comical. I know right? Just the slow motion…I don't know. I shouldn't laugh but yeah :/
After Harry finds out that he has to die in order to save everyone when he just sits there is heart breaking. He looks so torn. He doesn't WANT to die, but he knows he HAS too. All of that is shown very clearly in Harry's face. Wonderful job DanRad. I applaud you.
Harry going to the forest and meets Ron and Hermione on the stairs. Hermione KNOWS that Harry is a Horcrux by now and that's why she's crying so much. I think that Ron knows too (Even if he didn't get it like Hermione did, I think Hermione would have told him). I love that look that Harry and Ron share. Hermione is pretty much in hysterics hugging Harry. Harry and Ron share a look that shows that they understand each other. I think it's a very boy thing to do and something that is very Ron and Harry; understanding each other and expressing their feelings through a look rather than a physical reaction.
The resurrection stone scene. This one gets me EVERY TIME. Holy crap. Tears running down my face every single time. This is also one of my favorite scenes out of ALL the books. It's done wonderfully. The first time I saw it the theater went to PEICES. After every line there was just more and more sobbing. I got tears on my 3D glasses the first time. ON THE GLASSES. That's how much I was crying. Remus has no scares on his face and I just don't even know. I feel like crying thinking about it. Beautifully done.
Then Harry goes to die. The music build up is awesome, it gets really loud and then cuts out right before he's "killed." Excellent way to build tension. Then there is Kings Cross. The contrast between the stark whiteness and the rest of the film is really brilliant. The Voldemort-fetus-Horcrux thing was grotesque. And they stayed on the shot of it for so long. Today I had to force myself to look at it the whole time. I don't have any particular thoughts about the Kings Cross scene. I thought it was done well.
I'm starting to get tired of typing and writing right now. This is over 5 pages and I still have more movie to go through. Please forgive me if it's not as detailed as the first part of this review.
So begins the end of the end. Harry is brought to the castle "dead." Voldemort is creepy and oddly Hilarious (I don't know what it is but every time he opens his mouth I just laugh). Draco joins his parents (or more like his mother) and gets the most awkward hug in the history of hugs. You can see the torture going on inside of Draco. He WANTS to be good. He WANTS to fight against Voldemort, but he wants to be with his parents (or rather his mother more), so he goes against what he KNOWS is right and joins his mother. He essentially gives everyone the wrong idea about him (or fails to show everyone where, I believe, his true feelings lie) in order to be with his family. They run away from everything shortly afterwards. The Malfoys would really rather just have their money and their social power back.
Neville makes a wonderful speech. They took out the thing about Voldemort's spells not working because Harry died to save them all which is kind of a disappointment, and Neville's speech was more epic in the book. Also no Sorting Hat on fire. But he does give a beautiful speech (at least I think so) and tries to charge at Voldemort and is blown backwards. I still think it's excellent and epic and heroic.
Harry comes back and He and Voldemort chase each other…a lot. Voldemort is a classic villain and takes more time torturing and trying to hurt Harry before finally killing him. All villains do this to the Hero. And it ends up killing all the villains. Hermione and Ron try to kill the snake…a lot. But then Bad ass Neville some and destroys the thing in a completely amazing and perfect way. I loved when Neville killed the snake. Ron also falls with Hermione and is protecting Hermione from the snake before Neville shows up. Always have to mention the Ron/Hermione moments.
Lavender is killed. What the hell. Please don't go killing EXTRA people. Enough of them died thank you! I like Lavender too!!
NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH. Was delivered wonderfully, though the scene seemed really quick. I wish we could have gotten a little more build up to it. But overall, Happy they kept the quote of all quotes in there.
Harry and Voldemort's long face off was purely made for cinematic purposes, obviously. It's cool though! No speech about love and protection and not in front of everyone. A disappointment to be honest.
I kind of liked that Voldemort pretty much disintegrated. This way you KNOW that he can't come back. If he just…dropped dead then maybe there would be some doubt that he'd come back. having him die this way made it clear that he will NEVER come back and is finished for good. Movie goers are stupid, you have to hit them in the face with things.
Harry doesn't repair his original wand, which I am slightly sad about. Breaking the Elder wand was also probably for stupid movie goers. This way you know that the wand will never come back.
19 years later.
THE CHILDREN ARE ADORABLE!!! Little Albus!!! So cute!!!! The trio all still look young, but it's not so bad. Ron looks funny with his kind of beer belly. I'd like to think that he stayed thin. No jokes, or Teddy Lupin or mentions of Neville being a teacher. I still felt myself crying at the end, watching their own children going off to have adventures of their own……
So as a kind of summary. I really loved this movie!!! One of the better ones I think. I want to go see it again and again and again. I still cry every single time I see it.
The music in general is FANTASTIC. It compliments the actor and the story beautifully. I think the music is what brings a lot of emotion and life to this film.
Sure it's not PERFECT but I can live with it and it is a wonderful end to the series. I am so sad that there will be no more Harry Potter movies or books. I've been a fan of these books since I was 11 years old. The movies haven't been perfect but they are good and I am genuinely happy about all of them.
So PLEASE let me know what you think. Comments on any of my comments? Things I didn't touch on? Please discuss this with me!!!!
First 2D vs. 3D.
Both are FANTASTIC. I was amazed at the 3D. It's not like "things pop out at you 3D" but it gives the whole word a lot more depth. I think the only things that "pop out" at you are the snake when it's being killed (I didn't really notice that but on Mugglecast they were talking about it) and then when Voldemort dies the…pieces of him float out at you. I think that's about it. There is just so much…depth to the 3D. Like you can see the relationship between the spaces. It's wonderful.
2D is BEAUTIFUL. Like the 3D is almost fuzzy compared to the 2D. I noticed so much more (though maybe that was because it was the 3rd time I'd seen the film). I feel like it was much more sharp. I think the 3D blends some of the colors together.
Experiences watching the film?
Monday at the advanced screening was my FAVORITE. It was a whole theater filled with probably the BIGGEST Harry Potter fans and we were seeing it early and had just come off the high of the premiere. I think all of our emotions were going crazy. I know I wasn't ready to watch it, but of course I still did. There was so much cheering and cheering at the right spots and crying (and sobbing). I seriously started crying from the title screen. It was wonderful, honestly. Some people where really really really SOBBING, but that was okay. I liked all of the emotion in that theater.
Midnight screening. No one really appreciated Neville as much here as they did in NYC. booooo Fairfax, he's amazing. Today was good too. I could hear some tears ^__^
Finally the film.
This film is Fantastic. A truly wonderful way to end the Harry Potter series.
So obviously we can't have everything EXACTLY like the book because they've left things out of the previous films so its not like they can just go back and fix it. I think most of that has to do with the way they found the horcruxes. So I guess since Harry IS a horcrux he can feel them.
I try to be objective with the movies. I try not to focus too much on what they didn't do and what they changed etc. Honestly there is so much detail in the books and the story is so intricate that it's IMPOSSIBLE to put into film (though they really dropped the ball with Half-blood prince that movie, though cute, is a hot mess). I see them as two separate things.
David Yates has done a FANTASTIC job with these films. They look amazing. People apparently hate on him a lot and I don't know WHY. I absolutely love what he has done with Harry Potter. I have never been happy with Steve Kloves the screenwriter. I have no idea why he made some of the choices he did. WHATEVER. You can tell a lot of stuff has been cut out of the film, especially the battle. Praying for 2 hours of extra scenes on the DVD!!! The film is also incredibly fast paced. It doesn't lag and certainly doesn't feel like its 2 hours long. They really get into the action!!
So let's try to go through this film.
So the first big thing is Gringotts I guess. Hermione as Bellatrix is amazing. Helena did an amazing job with that. She really does seem like Hermione trying to be Bellatrix. (as a side note, acting polyjuice potion scenes must be the greatest acting exercise ever). Of course everyone says that the cart in Gringotts is going to become a ride at the theme park. GO AHEAD. I'm not complaining. lol. The gold in he vault didn't become hot when it multiplied, minor detail not going to cry over it.
I think I said at the beginning of this section about Harry feeling the horcruxes. They took out the stuff about Huffelpuff's cup in the 6th one so they had to work around it somehow. What they did made sense. It's not like Harry just arbitrarily decided that the cup was a horcrux.
That poor Dragon though. It looked so sad. I was happy for it when it broke out of its prison and took its first breaths of fresh air for probably the first time. (Also I love that Ron always knows what kind of dragons are which. I imagine Charlie being home from school in the summer showing tiny wide-eyed Ron pictures for dragons from text books).
They jump off the Dragon into the water and Harry sees into Voldemort's mind and Voldemort knows about the horcuxes being destroyed. Meanwhile we are treated a a very nice shot of shirtless Harry and Ron.
Hogsmede. First thing I don't get is why is hogsmede covered in snow when it's supposed to be MAY and there is no snow at Hogwarts? Aberforth saves them from the Death Eaters and they completely gloss over the whole Dumbledore family story. Like that whole thing was started nicely in the first part but they kind of…forgot about it here I think. I think Aberforth summed up the feelings about Arianna and Albus very well.
And then Neville shows up!! When I was listening to Mugglecast talk about him, one of the guys said he didn't like it. Like they didn't give Neville enough of a build up. In the book you hear about him leading the students at Hogwarts through the radio, but the most you get in the movie is Neville on the train saying "Hey losers, he's not here." I think this works well. You understand that Neville has gained some courage and that he is prepared to stand up to the Death Eaters. I think Neville is portrayed wonderfully. Matthew Lewis did such a good job!
And then Neville steps aside and reveals to everyone in the Room of Requirement that Harry is here. And then the MUSIC. You know that Harry Potter theme music, the tune everyone knows, plays and my tears just started FLOWING. I don't know why that scene gets to me but it really does. I think it's the music that helps. You can feel the same feelings that everyone in the RoR feels, "Our hero is here to save us!!"
Then cue some funny lines. "Okay guys don't kill Harry before You-know-who has a chance." Also the whole exchange when Ginny shows up more happy to see Harry than her own brother. "She's got tons of [brothers] but there is only one Harry" and "Shut up Seamus" And Ron saying "oh here we go" when Luna mentions the Diadem. Classic Ron lines here. I just love this whole scene. So many good lines here!!!
Harry being an action hero and lecturing Snape, the order busting through the doors the like BAMFs they are and McGonagall owning Snape. Love all of this.
Protecting Hogwarts. SO MANY TEARS!! This is one of the spots where I cry every single time. All of these people protecting the castle, a 2nd (or even 1st) home to many of them. It's beautiful. McGonagall calling for the statues to protect the castle. "Protect this school!" (or what ever the line is). Then the teachers (and Molly) setting up the protective shield. I think the music really helps here. It's epic and emotional. It also brings in one of the things that I actually like about Steve Kloves' writing. He manages to bring in funny or awkward things even in a serious moment. McGonagall saying "I've always wanted to use that spell" is funny, but not completely out of place. I would tribute her excitement for using the spell to the adrenaline she begins to feel as everyone is prepping for battle. Or something.
Fred and George's scene is HEART BREAKING, but only if you know what's going to happen to them. And Remus and Tonks reaching for each other. AND ALL OF MY TEARS HERE. Those things were specifically put in for the people who KNOW what is going to happen.
I think Harry runs around and eventually talks to the Grey Lady. They took out her tragic story with the Blooddy Baron, which i'm sad about. That story really was tragic and I really wish it was in the movie. Good thing Harry knew about the Room of Requirement because good god that explanation of where the diadem was was confusing.
Neville blows up a bridge at some point with Seamus (and Ginny and Cho??). Neville facing off against the Death Eaters. EPIC. He's such BAMF. Very humorous scene. Obviously when the bridge blows up and Neville falls you know he survived but still my heart filled with joy when he resurfaced. The music attached to Neville is awesome too. It's so….so…I want to say regal. Filled with french horn and powerful, noble instruments like that.
This next part is probably my favorite moment of the film, and something I've been looking forward to FOREVER. So pardon the incoherency and borderline fangirly-ness of this.
The KISS. Oh. My. Wizard. God. So I'm like this GIANT Ron/Hermione fan. Like they are the OTP of ALL OTPs. This kiss was just amazing. They just kind of…go at it and it's wonderful and amazing and I'm resisting the urge to key-smash. So you don't actually see their lips kissing. It's more like a lot of Rupert's head. You can, however, see how intense it is. You can tell they're not just pressing their lips together. THERE IS TOUNGE OKAY. And Hermione puts her hands on Ron's neck and then moves it down to his chest. I love this. I don't even know why. And then Ron! Props to Rupert for his acting, really. He moves his hand to put it on her back and hesitates for a second. Then they relax and he just holds here. And it's like it becomes comfortable. That one moment just shows that he still has doubts about exactly how Hermione feels about him. But then he realizes that she loves him just as much as he loves her and all the doubts go away, so he just holds on to her. BEAUTIFUL. There there is that useless long shot of them kissing in the Chamber of secrets; more close ups please.
And when they break apart, there is that kissing noise. lol. Ron is looking at Hermione with that look that he ALWAYS looks at her with. That really intense look that he ALWAYS looks at Hermione with that says that he's conveying all of his love through his eyes right at her. Then they laugh and it's cute and all of the tension that has built up for seven years is gone and they are just comfortable now. BEAUTIFUL.
The cheers in the theater on monday were deafening when they kissed. A million points to Rupert and Emma for exceeding my expectations for the OTP of OTPs.
Then they go to the Room of Requirement, Draco is his usual pitiful self and really wants to be good but his reputation and family make him HAVE to be bad. Crabbe got REALLY tan and super skinny ( yes I know they replaced Crabbe with Blaise Zabini…). Ron and Hermione show up and Goyle (I think?) attacks Hermione and Ron goes after him with his usual (but greatly intensified) defense of her. "THAT'S MY GIRLFIRIEND YOU NUMBYPIT" And Hermione stands there and SMILES after him as Harry goes and tries to find the Diadem that has been shot into the pile of junk.
And then Ron comes running back with classic "Ron-face" yelling "GOYLE SET THE BLOODY PLACE ON FIRE!!!" Saves his girlfriend and leaves Harry to stare at the fire by himself. Goyle dies in his own fire because apparently Crabbe and Goyle are interchangeable. Diadem gets destroyed. yay!
But then Hermione realizes that Harry is a Horcrux. I didn't realize that She realizes here until I read something online about it. Ron is telling Harry to look into Voldemort's brain to find him. The camera stays on Hermione for what would be normally too long, until you realize that she has just figured out that Harry might actually be a Horcrux himself. Probably because of the pain he felt when the diadem was destroyed.
Next is the boat house aka Snape's death scene. They moved the location from the shrieking shack to this boat house (the boat house is even shown in the first movie which I think is AMAZING. The detail. THE DETAIL). They changed the location in order to give Snape a more "beautiful" place to die. Someone from Mugglecast noticed that there is a Gryffindor scarf behind Snape as he's talking. Interesting observation. Probably goes with whole "bravest man I've ever known" thing.
This scene was very nice and also kind of…horrific. I don't think I can describe my reaction or anyone else's reaction to Snape's death in words. Just hearing the snake continually strike at Snape was, honestly, horrifying. Harry collecting the memories from him was really sad. I wasn't BLOWN AWAY by Alan Rickman's performance but I thought he did well.
ALL OF THE DEATH'S I COULDN'T TAKE IT!!! Seeing Remus and Tonks dead. TEARS EVERYWHERE!!! Fred and the Weasley's grief. JUST KILL ME ALREADY!!! I did wish that they actually SHOWED Fred's death though. You didn't get the thing with Percy (who is just randomly there), but they kind of skimmed over that whole fight anyway. But Fred died laughing and I always thought that was really important to who he was. I also kind of wish they showed the Weasley's crying over his body more. I just feel like a character like that deserved some more screen time. Maybe. Rupert Grint did an excellent job in that scene though. He is very expressive.
The Prince's Tale. This scene was really well done. It was quickly paced and really felt like you were watching someone's memories. Little Snape was really cute actually. Lily didn't even have the same color eyes as Harry. It's not like they skipped over the whole "you have your mothers eyes" thing (they beat it to death like the in the books). They really could have given her contacts or at least fixed them digitally.
The part of this where Snape holds Lily's dead body, don't kill me but I thought that it was kind of…comical. I know right? Just the slow motion…I don't know. I shouldn't laugh but yeah :/
After Harry finds out that he has to die in order to save everyone when he just sits there is heart breaking. He looks so torn. He doesn't WANT to die, but he knows he HAS too. All of that is shown very clearly in Harry's face. Wonderful job DanRad. I applaud you.
Harry going to the forest and meets Ron and Hermione on the stairs. Hermione KNOWS that Harry is a Horcrux by now and that's why she's crying so much. I think that Ron knows too (Even if he didn't get it like Hermione did, I think Hermione would have told him). I love that look that Harry and Ron share. Hermione is pretty much in hysterics hugging Harry. Harry and Ron share a look that shows that they understand each other. I think it's a very boy thing to do and something that is very Ron and Harry; understanding each other and expressing their feelings through a look rather than a physical reaction.
The resurrection stone scene. This one gets me EVERY TIME. Holy crap. Tears running down my face every single time. This is also one of my favorite scenes out of ALL the books. It's done wonderfully. The first time I saw it the theater went to PEICES. After every line there was just more and more sobbing. I got tears on my 3D glasses the first time. ON THE GLASSES. That's how much I was crying. Remus has no scares on his face and I just don't even know. I feel like crying thinking about it. Beautifully done.
Then Harry goes to die. The music build up is awesome, it gets really loud and then cuts out right before he's "killed." Excellent way to build tension. Then there is Kings Cross. The contrast between the stark whiteness and the rest of the film is really brilliant. The Voldemort-fetus-Horcrux thing was grotesque. And they stayed on the shot of it for so long. Today I had to force myself to look at it the whole time. I don't have any particular thoughts about the Kings Cross scene. I thought it was done well.
I'm starting to get tired of typing and writing right now. This is over 5 pages and I still have more movie to go through. Please forgive me if it's not as detailed as the first part of this review.
So begins the end of the end. Harry is brought to the castle "dead." Voldemort is creepy and oddly Hilarious (I don't know what it is but every time he opens his mouth I just laugh). Draco joins his parents (or more like his mother) and gets the most awkward hug in the history of hugs. You can see the torture going on inside of Draco. He WANTS to be good. He WANTS to fight against Voldemort, but he wants to be with his parents (or rather his mother more), so he goes against what he KNOWS is right and joins his mother. He essentially gives everyone the wrong idea about him (or fails to show everyone where, I believe, his true feelings lie) in order to be with his family. They run away from everything shortly afterwards. The Malfoys would really rather just have their money and their social power back.
Neville makes a wonderful speech. They took out the thing about Voldemort's spells not working because Harry died to save them all which is kind of a disappointment, and Neville's speech was more epic in the book. Also no Sorting Hat on fire. But he does give a beautiful speech (at least I think so) and tries to charge at Voldemort and is blown backwards. I still think it's excellent and epic and heroic.
Harry comes back and He and Voldemort chase each other…a lot. Voldemort is a classic villain and takes more time torturing and trying to hurt Harry before finally killing him. All villains do this to the Hero. And it ends up killing all the villains. Hermione and Ron try to kill the snake…a lot. But then Bad ass Neville some and destroys the thing in a completely amazing and perfect way. I loved when Neville killed the snake. Ron also falls with Hermione and is protecting Hermione from the snake before Neville shows up. Always have to mention the Ron/Hermione moments.
Lavender is killed. What the hell. Please don't go killing EXTRA people. Enough of them died thank you! I like Lavender too!!
NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH. Was delivered wonderfully, though the scene seemed really quick. I wish we could have gotten a little more build up to it. But overall, Happy they kept the quote of all quotes in there.
Harry and Voldemort's long face off was purely made for cinematic purposes, obviously. It's cool though! No speech about love and protection and not in front of everyone. A disappointment to be honest.
I kind of liked that Voldemort pretty much disintegrated. This way you KNOW that he can't come back. If he just…dropped dead then maybe there would be some doubt that he'd come back. having him die this way made it clear that he will NEVER come back and is finished for good. Movie goers are stupid, you have to hit them in the face with things.
Harry doesn't repair his original wand, which I am slightly sad about. Breaking the Elder wand was also probably for stupid movie goers. This way you know that the wand will never come back.
19 years later.
THE CHILDREN ARE ADORABLE!!! Little Albus!!! So cute!!!! The trio all still look young, but it's not so bad. Ron looks funny with his kind of beer belly. I'd like to think that he stayed thin. No jokes, or Teddy Lupin or mentions of Neville being a teacher. I still felt myself crying at the end, watching their own children going off to have adventures of their own……
So as a kind of summary. I really loved this movie!!! One of the better ones I think. I want to go see it again and again and again. I still cry every single time I see it.
The music in general is FANTASTIC. It compliments the actor and the story beautifully. I think the music is what brings a lot of emotion and life to this film.
Sure it's not PERFECT but I can live with it and it is a wonderful end to the series. I am so sad that there will be no more Harry Potter movies or books. I've been a fan of these books since I was 11 years old. The movies haven't been perfect but they are good and I am genuinely happy about all of them.
So PLEASE let me know what you think. Comments on any of my comments? Things I didn't touch on? Please discuss this with me!!!!