my opinion: HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS - PART 2
It’s over. It’s really all over. Which is why I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 three times this weekend. I don’t want it to be over. I want to experience it as many times as possible. So I helped it gross over $168 million this weekend. And it deserved every penny I gave to it.
The first time I watched it, I really just wanted to absorb it and experience it, since it was the last time I was ever going to watch a midnight release of a Harry Potter movie. And I LOVED it. The second time I watched it, I wanted to be more critical of it. But that didn’t happen. Even this third time, I was finding it hard to be really critical of it. My reasoning is that I’m way too emotionally invested.
That being said, I noticed a lot of things that bothered me about the movie, but I really only want to talk about 5. The first one, and biggest offense to me personally, was that they didn’t do Fred’s death justice. In the book, Fred, Percy, Harry, Hermione and Ron are battling some Death Eaters, and Percy makes a joke and makes Fred laugh. It was the first time Percy had been with them in 2 years and he was actually fighting on their side. And then a wall explodes and Fred dies with the “ghost of his last laugh” still on his face. In the movie, all we see is the Weasley family gathered around Fred’s dead body. That was not ok. I still cried like a baby though.
The second one was the exclusion of Dumbledore’s past and what happened with him, Aberforth, Grindlewald, and Ariana. That was one of the big conflicts that Harry had throughout the book…whether he should have trusted Dumbledore or not. It also just expanded on Dumbledore’s character and explained why he was the way he was. At the same time, though, I don’t know if Michael Gambon would have done it justice.
Third on my list was the final battle scene. Instead of Neville giving his “inspiring” speech, everyone was supposed to start fighting and Harry would quietly slip away into the castle. And the whole Voldemort and Harry flying all over the castle and having their faces blend into one thing was stupid. Harry didn’t have the Horcrux in him anymore and therefore no longer had a connection with Voldemort anymore. Then the final, final fight between Harry and Voldemort was supposed to happen in front of other people, and that was how he explained to everyone who the real master of the elder wand was. Also, all of the spells fired by the Death Eaters were supposed to not hit anyone because Harry had died to protect them, just as his mother had done. Definitely not included.
Speaking of the final battle, I absolutely hated how they killed Voldemort. They got it right that Voldemort cast Avada Kedavra and Harry cast Expelliarmus, but it didn’t do the weird connection thing like it did in Goblet of Fire. If they had been consistent, when Harry’s spell pushed Voldemort’s back into his wand, it would have done the Priori Incantatum thing again and showed ghost images of the last spells Voldemort had used. Instead, they made it seem like the spells went into Voldemort and spread like a poison. False. The curse was just supposed to rebound and kill Voldemort dead on the spot. In the book, Voldemort just falling down dead showed how vulnerable he was…that even though he was powerful, he wasn’t some super magical, mystical being. He was just a psychotic killer. The movie made it seem like there was something special about him that made him die by disintegrating into a million pieces. Avada Kedavra doesn’t do that to anyone ever. It just kills you stone dead. AND OH MY GOD. I almost forgot. They didn’t include the part where Harry gives Voldemort the chance to feel remorse and regret for the things he had done. It spoke so much of Harry and also showed how evil Voldemort really was. In the book, Harry was The Doctor! Yay awesome things paralleling!
The last thing that really bothered me was the fact that Harry didn’t use the Elder Wand to repair his wand that had gotten snapped back in Godric’s Hollow. What wand is he going to use now? Draco’s for the rest of his life? That’s just not right. And he should have put the Elder Wand back in Dumbledore’s tomb like he does in the book. As my good friend pointed out, him throwing the Elder Wand off the bridge was very reminiscent of the end of Jumanji where they throw the game off the bridge. Maybe the Elder Wand will end up in an Asian country and two kids will find it.
Now that I’ve gotten the book/movie comparisons that bothered me out of the way, I have to say that this was the best Potter film of the 8. Eduardo Serra made these last two movies BEAUTIFUL. The lighting was gorgeous. There was one shot that particularly stuck out for me…right after they jump in the lake and Harry resurfaces. The water looked so real and crisp and beautiful. And I loved Alexandre Desplat for creating a beautiful score while at the same time putting John Williams’ “Hedwig’s Theme” in the score as much as possible. I thought it was great. Even though the movie was one of the shortest of the series, it didn’t feel like it really rushed through anything.
The actors were actually pretty fantastic in this movie. I was really afraid about Alan Rickman not doing Snape’s memories the way they should be done in the Pensieve scene. In the last couple of movies, he’s been kind of weird as Snape. But he was phenomenal in this movie. My heart absolutely broke for him and I bawled for about 30 minutes straight because of him. The Pensieve scene was everything I wanted it to be…and that’s saying something because The Prince’s Tale is my favorite chapter in all 7 books. It wasn’t exactly as it was written, but it included the important parts. And that’s what counted. Emma Watson was more Hermione in this movie (and the last one) than she has been in any of the movies. And she made me cry when she offered to go with Harry into the woods. Rupert Grint was as wonderful as he always is and provided some great comic relief. Thank Merlin they finally gave him something to work with in the script. Daniel Radcliffe I think really stepped up his game in this one, and there was one shot of him that made him look like the Harry I always pictured in the book. One reason I loved this movie so much was that the minor characters got to have some pretty big moments. I was so happy Matthew Lewis got some spotlight on him. He really did Neville justice. I especially loved that he had a Superman-ish theme song when he was about to go kill Nagini. Maggie Smith was awesome as McGonagall. I loved when she got so excited about using a certain spell…and when she battled Snape. It was epic. But the one I loved the most was Evanna Lynch. When she yelled at Harry to pay attention to her….so awesome. Luna is such a great character and Evanna was perfectly cast.
No, the movie wasn’t perfect. But it was pretty damn close. It’s hard as a Potterhead to not compare the movie to the book. I think I did a pretty good job of separating them this time. I didn’t want to find anything wrong with the movie because there’s never going to be another one. And cinematically, it was pretty damn good.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2, you get an A. Only because there were some movie/book comparisons I couldn’t let go of.
Thank you, David Yates for steering the series home so brilliantly.
