which came first, the phoenix or the flame?
I don't think i liked it as much as Part 1. I'll be interested to watch them back-to-back as one whole movie (i haven't seen the last one since the theater), because where that one was ALL character moments and introspection, this one was basically all STUFF HAPPENING! EPIC CONCLUSION! It really did feel like the climax of a film stretched out to a whole two hours. Which is not a bad thing, it was very exciting, but there were some moments that didn't quite have the impact i expected and i don't think it was executed as artfully. Still, i'm totally glad they split it into two movies because i can't imagine how they would have fit everything otherwise. It's so much better that we got the time for a more contemplative pace before and a more large-scale conclusion now.
STUFF I LIKED: NEVILLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LUNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY WERE ALL I WANTED OUT OF THIS MOVIE TBH, idk why all of the sudden leading up to it i stopped caring about anything else and just wanted more Neville and Luna, but maybe it's because all of the really great trio stuff is in the first half of DH and then the ensemble takes over, and out of the ensemble Neville and Luna are my favorites. SURE WHY NOT, that sounds like a good explanation. Maybe it's also because Neville and Luna aren't ruined by the epilogue and so their badass selves carry on rather than as middle-aged boring boringers.
BUT BEFORE I GET TO THAT, SERIOUSLY, NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM *_______* When the Nagini moment didn't happen at the point where it was supposed to, and then everyone else was carrying on chasing her, i got super worried they were going to take that moment away from Neville and give it to somebody else, which would have suuuuuuuuucked. BUT THEN HE JUMPED IN WITH THE SWORD LIKE A BADASS AND I WAS LIKE: YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS A MILLION POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And oh my gosh him being the leader and speechifying to the school (THERE MAY COME A DAY WHEN THE COURAGE OF MEN FAILS, WHEN WE FORSAKE OUR FRIENDS AND BREAK ALL BONDS OF FELLOWSHIP, BUT IT IS NOT THIS DAY! NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM IN: NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM AND THE RETURN OF THE KING) I figured we wouldn't get the scene between him and Harry before Harry enters the forest since the movies never included Neville's significance as a part of the prophecy, which i find pretty disappointing because that's one of my favorite details of the books. But at least they didn't take away the rest of his greatness.
Unlike the removal of Luna's best moments. :( Maaaaaaaan, for real, the patronus scene is so wonderful, and the last scene in the Great Hall is what had me holding out hope for Harry/Luna until the last fucking page before the epilogue, no joke. Sigh. But one thing in the movie i did LOVE UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY was Luna yelling at Harry to stop and listen to her as he's rushing off to find the diadem. Because sometimes Harry just needs to be forced to stop and listen to reason and you're goddamn right Luna knows how to help. And even though the final Harry/Luna scene didn't happen, i did love the shot of Luna sitting down next to Neville at the end. AND IN THAT MOMENT I SHIPPED IT
The Prince's Tale was lovely and sad, although it sort of felt like it was half really great and half not so great. A lot of that has to do with the fact that they had to use footage from Sorcerer's Stone which absolutely doesn't fit the visual tone of the current movies. Plus the way they do flashbacks is really inconsistent -- the Tom Riddle stuff in HBP was really good, but Snape's Worst Memory was AWFUL and the Marauder era casting is atrocious (THEY HAVE NEVER CAST A SINGLE APPROPRIATE JAMES. NOT ONCE). While i really liked the young Snape and Lily stuff, young Snape also looked slightly like a caricature. The addition of Snape holding Lily's dead body was sort of overwrought. But i really loved youngified Rickman, and all of his interaction with Dumbledore was pretty much exactly how i pictured it in the book. ;______; PLUS they once again included the only version of the terribly miscast James and Lily that i like: the dancing shot from PoA, wherein they actually look young and delightful!
I'm really glad that we got a suitably epic battle to make up for the non-existent one in HBP. They finally got the scale right! Yay! Seriously though it was rad, especially the protection shield around the castle. I strangely didn't really feel Fred's death, like even though they showed the Weasleys all crying over him it still felt like it was mostly in the background. Maybe if they'd shown more of George's reaction, or more than one brief scene of the twins beforehand. ;____; And i was really weirded out by Lavender dying because i didn't remember that, but i guess it just wasn't confirmed whether she died in the book. Lupin and Tonks had about the exact same attention paid to them, i.e. "oh by the way Lupin and Tonks are dead." I HATE THEIR STORYLINE IN DH, I HATE IT SO MUCH.
The Ron/Hermione kiss didn't quite live up to my expectations (AND I WAS REALLY EXCITED FOR THAT) idk, maybe because i was expecting basilisk fangs to be dropped and Harry to be there yelling at them. I don't knooooowwwww, it was still adorable though. KISSING!!!!
I super duper loved Hermione saying "I'll go with you" in such a sad, pleading voice before Harry headed off to the forest, UGH THAT BROKE MY HEART. But i felt bad that there were still a few good Harry/Hermione things and nothing with Harry and Ron. WHY NO MORE BFF HUGS, WHYYYYY??? :(((((((((( After so much trio amazingness in the last movie i expected better.
HERMIONE GRANGER, THOUGH. JUMPING ONTO A DRAGON!!!!!!! (aaaahhhh the dragon was so beautiful) THROWING ROCKS AT NAGINI. DISPATCHING FENRIR GREYBACK. NOT WANTING TO LET HARRY GO TO HIS DEATH ALONE. Thinking about it now, that hug she gave him sort of reminds me of their hug in the first book right before Harry faces Quirrell. And speaking of being reminded of the very beginning: watching the trio run around the giant in the courtyard was a major flashback to the first movie's troll scene and it gave me some feelings. ;______;
The shot of the Malfoys fleeing the castle with Narcissa holding Draco's hand was really great. And i absolutely LOVED Narcissa's big moment in the forest. Perfect perfect perfect. And VOLDEMORT HUGGING DRACO lolololol what the fuck was that. JUST ADD "HUGS" TO THE LONG LIST OF THINGS VOLDEMORT IS TERRIBLE AT
MCGONAGAAAAAAALLLLLLLL, fuck yessssss. I was all prepared to be emotionally wrecked by her screaming at the sight of Harry's body, and then Ginny got that moment instead! Oh well, at least it gave Ginny something to do. :|
I am still deeply, deeply offended by the epilogue, possibly even more in movie form than in the book because THERE IS NO REASON FOR IT TO EXIST except to introduce some grossly overbearing sentimentality. Originally i felt like it had some slightly worthwhile thematic elements to it, but as time has gone on all i can really think of it as is "here are the once unique characters you loved now leading excruciatingly predictable lives in the blandest of all bland happy endings. here is your reward for coming of age and persevering through years of traumatic hardship: BEING AVERAGE. congratulations! you did it!" I guess there's something to be said for Harry deserving an average, happy life after all he's been through and all he's lost, but at the same time the particular type of averageness JKR infused that ending with (HETERONORMATIVE 2.5 CHILDREN WHITE PICKET FENCE EVERYBODY MARRIES THEIR HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEART) seems entirely incongruous with all the work it took to get there. It's like ending a beautiful orchestral arrangement with a wet fart.
I was really impressed with how they aged Harry though -- that was thankfully really subtle and convincing. The rest of them were not as good, and it was a lot like kids playing dress up (which there's no way around)... but at least they didn't look like they were aged to 70 years old like those original set photos showed. Draco still looked pretty rough though. And i didn't like that there wasn't any jokey banter, like in the book Ron is still Ron and Hermione is still Hermione but this was just all silence and watery smiles BLUGH
ALBUS SEVERUS
OKAY ENOUGH EPILOGUE COMPLAINING, i knew i was gonna wish i could turn it off at "19 Years Later" :/ :/ :/ FOREVER BITTER THAT IT DIDN'T END WITH HARRY WANTING A NAP AND A SANDWICH
Oh man Hermione as Bellatrix was so great, Helena Bonham Carter played that DELIGHTFULLY.
KELLY MACDONALD AS THE GREY LADY AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH *________* I've still only read DH the one time so there's a lot of detail i'd forgotten (e.g. the Grey Lady!), and that first brief flash of her face and then the Ravenclaw flag made me think "WAS THAT KELLY MACDONALD???!??!?!? AS ROWENA RAVENCLAW?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!? WHAT THE SHIT" and with all the Hogwarts founders dreamcasting on tumblr all of the sudden i was thinking we'd get to see all of them EVEN THOUGH THAT HAS NO BEARING ON THE STORY hahahaha what.
So glad Harry catching the Elder Wand happened the same, aww yiss
Bill and Fleur: the most attractive couple IN THE WORRRRRLD
I cried a little, but not even remotely close to how much i expected to. Once Harry died i was pretty much done being emotional. And when the credits started there was a girl sitting behind me who was seriously like HEAVING SOBS and i felt like an emotionless robot. I did all my ugly crying over the book! It made it really hard to read! ANYWAY i am planning on seeing it again, and since part 1 played for me better on a repeat viewing i feel like this one will as well. I THINK THIS POST DEVOLVED INTO MORE COMPLAINING THAN I INTENDED. :/ But really though, overall i enjoyed it a lot! ~THE END~
STUFF I LIKED: NEVILLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LUNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY WERE ALL I WANTED OUT OF THIS MOVIE TBH, idk why all of the sudden leading up to it i stopped caring about anything else and just wanted more Neville and Luna, but maybe it's because all of the really great trio stuff is in the first half of DH and then the ensemble takes over, and out of the ensemble Neville and Luna are my favorites. SURE WHY NOT, that sounds like a good explanation. Maybe it's also because Neville and Luna aren't ruined by the epilogue and so their badass selves carry on rather than as middle-aged boring boringers.
BUT BEFORE I GET TO THAT, SERIOUSLY, NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM *_______* When the Nagini moment didn't happen at the point where it was supposed to, and then everyone else was carrying on chasing her, i got super worried they were going to take that moment away from Neville and give it to somebody else, which would have suuuuuuuuucked. BUT THEN HE JUMPED IN WITH THE SWORD LIKE A BADASS AND I WAS LIKE: YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS A MILLION POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And oh my gosh him being the leader and speechifying to the school (THERE MAY COME A DAY WHEN THE COURAGE OF MEN FAILS, WHEN WE FORSAKE OUR FRIENDS AND BREAK ALL BONDS OF FELLOWSHIP, BUT IT IS NOT THIS DAY! NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM IN: NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM AND THE RETURN OF THE KING) I figured we wouldn't get the scene between him and Harry before Harry enters the forest since the movies never included Neville's significance as a part of the prophecy, which i find pretty disappointing because that's one of my favorite details of the books. But at least they didn't take away the rest of his greatness.
Unlike the removal of Luna's best moments. :( Maaaaaaaan, for real, the patronus scene is so wonderful, and the last scene in the Great Hall is what had me holding out hope for Harry/Luna until the last fucking page before the epilogue, no joke. Sigh. But one thing in the movie i did LOVE UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY was Luna yelling at Harry to stop and listen to her as he's rushing off to find the diadem. Because sometimes Harry just needs to be forced to stop and listen to reason and you're goddamn right Luna knows how to help. And even though the final Harry/Luna scene didn't happen, i did love the shot of Luna sitting down next to Neville at the end. AND IN THAT MOMENT I SHIPPED IT
The Prince's Tale was lovely and sad, although it sort of felt like it was half really great and half not so great. A lot of that has to do with the fact that they had to use footage from Sorcerer's Stone which absolutely doesn't fit the visual tone of the current movies. Plus the way they do flashbacks is really inconsistent -- the Tom Riddle stuff in HBP was really good, but Snape's Worst Memory was AWFUL and the Marauder era casting is atrocious (THEY HAVE NEVER CAST A SINGLE APPROPRIATE JAMES. NOT ONCE). While i really liked the young Snape and Lily stuff, young Snape also looked slightly like a caricature. The addition of Snape holding Lily's dead body was sort of overwrought. But i really loved youngified Rickman, and all of his interaction with Dumbledore was pretty much exactly how i pictured it in the book. ;______; PLUS they once again included the only version of the terribly miscast James and Lily that i like: the dancing shot from PoA, wherein they actually look young and delightful!
I'm really glad that we got a suitably epic battle to make up for the non-existent one in HBP. They finally got the scale right! Yay! Seriously though it was rad, especially the protection shield around the castle. I strangely didn't really feel Fred's death, like even though they showed the Weasleys all crying over him it still felt like it was mostly in the background. Maybe if they'd shown more of George's reaction, or more than one brief scene of the twins beforehand. ;____; And i was really weirded out by Lavender dying because i didn't remember that, but i guess it just wasn't confirmed whether she died in the book. Lupin and Tonks had about the exact same attention paid to them, i.e. "oh by the way Lupin and Tonks are dead." I HATE THEIR STORYLINE IN DH, I HATE IT SO MUCH.
The Ron/Hermione kiss didn't quite live up to my expectations (AND I WAS REALLY EXCITED FOR THAT) idk, maybe because i was expecting basilisk fangs to be dropped and Harry to be there yelling at them. I don't knooooowwwww, it was still adorable though. KISSING!!!!
I super duper loved Hermione saying "I'll go with you" in such a sad, pleading voice before Harry headed off to the forest, UGH THAT BROKE MY HEART. But i felt bad that there were still a few good Harry/Hermione things and nothing with Harry and Ron. WHY NO MORE BFF HUGS, WHYYYYY??? :(((((((((( After so much trio amazingness in the last movie i expected better.
HERMIONE GRANGER, THOUGH. JUMPING ONTO A DRAGON!!!!!!! (aaaahhhh the dragon was so beautiful) THROWING ROCKS AT NAGINI. DISPATCHING FENRIR GREYBACK. NOT WANTING TO LET HARRY GO TO HIS DEATH ALONE. Thinking about it now, that hug she gave him sort of reminds me of their hug in the first book right before Harry faces Quirrell. And speaking of being reminded of the very beginning: watching the trio run around the giant in the courtyard was a major flashback to the first movie's troll scene and it gave me some feelings. ;______;
The shot of the Malfoys fleeing the castle with Narcissa holding Draco's hand was really great. And i absolutely LOVED Narcissa's big moment in the forest. Perfect perfect perfect. And VOLDEMORT HUGGING DRACO lolololol what the fuck was that. JUST ADD "HUGS" TO THE LONG LIST OF THINGS VOLDEMORT IS TERRIBLE AT
MCGONAGAAAAAAALLLLLLLL, fuck yessssss. I was all prepared to be emotionally wrecked by her screaming at the sight of Harry's body, and then Ginny got that moment instead! Oh well, at least it gave Ginny something to do. :|
I am still deeply, deeply offended by the epilogue, possibly even more in movie form than in the book because THERE IS NO REASON FOR IT TO EXIST except to introduce some grossly overbearing sentimentality. Originally i felt like it had some slightly worthwhile thematic elements to it, but as time has gone on all i can really think of it as is "here are the once unique characters you loved now leading excruciatingly predictable lives in the blandest of all bland happy endings. here is your reward for coming of age and persevering through years of traumatic hardship: BEING AVERAGE. congratulations! you did it!" I guess there's something to be said for Harry deserving an average, happy life after all he's been through and all he's lost, but at the same time the particular type of averageness JKR infused that ending with (HETERONORMATIVE 2.5 CHILDREN WHITE PICKET FENCE EVERYBODY MARRIES THEIR HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEART) seems entirely incongruous with all the work it took to get there. It's like ending a beautiful orchestral arrangement with a wet fart.
I was really impressed with how they aged Harry though -- that was thankfully really subtle and convincing. The rest of them were not as good, and it was a lot like kids playing dress up (which there's no way around)... but at least they didn't look like they were aged to 70 years old like those original set photos showed. Draco still looked pretty rough though. And i didn't like that there wasn't any jokey banter, like in the book Ron is still Ron and Hermione is still Hermione but this was just all silence and watery smiles BLUGH
ALBUS SEVERUS
OKAY ENOUGH EPILOGUE COMPLAINING, i knew i was gonna wish i could turn it off at "19 Years Later" :/ :/ :/ FOREVER BITTER THAT IT DIDN'T END WITH HARRY WANTING A NAP AND A SANDWICH
Oh man Hermione as Bellatrix was so great, Helena Bonham Carter played that DELIGHTFULLY.
KELLY MACDONALD AS THE GREY LADY AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH *________* I've still only read DH the one time so there's a lot of detail i'd forgotten (e.g. the Grey Lady!), and that first brief flash of her face and then the Ravenclaw flag made me think "WAS THAT KELLY MACDONALD???!??!?!? AS ROWENA RAVENCLAW?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!? WHAT THE SHIT" and with all the Hogwarts founders dreamcasting on tumblr all of the sudden i was thinking we'd get to see all of them EVEN THOUGH THAT HAS NO BEARING ON THE STORY hahahaha what.
So glad Harry catching the Elder Wand happened the same, aww yiss
Bill and Fleur: the most attractive couple IN THE WORRRRRLD
I cried a little, but not even remotely close to how much i expected to. Once Harry died i was pretty much done being emotional. And when the credits started there was a girl sitting behind me who was seriously like HEAVING SOBS and i felt like an emotionless robot. I did all my ugly crying over the book! It made it really hard to read! ANYWAY i am planning on seeing it again, and since part 1 played for me better on a repeat viewing i feel like this one will as well. I THINK THIS POST DEVOLVED INTO MORE COMPLAINING THAN I INTENDED. :/ But really though, overall i enjoyed it a lot! ~THE END~