LO SO. | I liked it so much that I'm not wasting any occasion to go and watch it again. I don't remember such a reaction to HBP, but then again that book/movie was the beginning of my HP letdown. I was resigned to hate movie DH like I hated the book (totally unreasonably, yes, Mom) and instead everything I like about this movie is a bonus. Great storytelling. Storytelling is made up of directing, acting and scriptwriting (more on this later). Director David Yates and the three protagonists really make a leap of quality in this movie. Compare Dan R pretending to cry in POA, and truly crying here. The wealth of details and throwaway scenes makes repeated viewings really rewarding. From the moment the WB logo starts rusting away, it's like stepping inside the HP world, and it's not a pleasant world at all: it's full of locks and metal gates and creepy feelings, where you get only bare glimpses of love that help you go on. Just like it should be. Great storytelling hides gaping plotholes. This comes to mind when one starts reflecting on it; at least, it happened to me this way because I've read DH only once years ago. If the book is fresh in your mind, the plotholes are more evident. This bothers me in all the HP movies, especially since POA. It's like each time a genius wrote the PERFECT SCREENPLAY, with ALL the book material and even MORE scenes added for the joy of EACH fan - and then a deranged monkey slashed at it (which of course is needed) but in a totally RANDOM way, so that it feels like cool but unnecessary scenes are left in and vital details are cut. Examples. In POA (main offender for me) we have the conga line but not the Marauders; in DH we have the dance scene but not Harry's invisibility cloak. Not surprisingly, these two movies seem to be at once the most outstanding and the most lacking. One moment you're raving about the beauty of the Brothers' tale, the next you're tearing your hair out in horrified incredulity at Wormtail's "death". It's a schizoid rollercoaster. I can understand getting something right and something wrong, it's also very much a matter of perspective, but SO right and SO wrong??? More: the "adult" themes. I am ambivalent on this one. I believe that right now the complete series defies literary genres, being both children tale and adult fiction. I can't tell if it's good or bad, it just is; I'm not sure that anything of this kind ever happened in the history of literature. If your eleven-year-old girl buys the seven books NOW, it takes a really good parent to make her read them one each year; otherwise I fear she's in for the shock of her life. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe that's good. One of the shocks of my life - demonic black horses and volcanoes - turned into "The Dragon and the King", so what do I know. In this case, the whole "adult" theme made me slightly uncomfortable. The Bathilda-Nagini scene was pleasantly thrilling (though I did not fully understand it at once), but I saw a mother-and-child team leaving the cinema after it, not sure who was dragging the other. I've heard it happened in other places with the same scene. (Then again the Indian girl beside me on showing no. 2 chattered happily all the time, so I guess reactions and good parenting vary widely.) And the Horcrux vision. The first time I was shocked at the nudity. Then I realized that was EXACTLY meant as Ron's reaction. I felt it was a very fine line between mere shock-value and artistic shock. Also, several scenes in the movie have a distinct rape overtone for me, so they end up creeping me out for the wrong reasons. Or are they the right reasons? Is it right that a threat is perceived on all levels, therefore also as a sexual threat? Am I just disturbed? (I am, anyway.) The Nazi metaphor. Actually it worked for me, more than the heavy-handed current polical commentary in books 6 and 7. I love having to FIND deeper significance in books, not having it intra-venously fed to me. If I wanted Real Life, I would not read fantasy. So, though I didn't like them in HBP, I preferred the blatant Nazi overtones (though heavy-handed) and a truly clueless Minister of Magic. The theme "there are good and bad ways of fighting evil" still comes across. (This deserves more thought, but I pressed POST by mistake.) Finally, the dreaded cut scenes. That everlasting monster of modernity I fear every time a blockbuster comes out: the Extended Edition. The laziness of directors who put out an incomplete movie with the mental reserve "I'll fix it for the DVD." The incapacity of MAKING A CHOICE AND STICKING TO IT, whatever the reasons - time, money, producers etc. Example: the Dursleys. I've already heard voices about a cut Harry-Dudley scene "that will make it into the Extended Version". I truly hope they meant "into the DVD cut scenes". Because if they put back Dudley's repentance, they RUIN the great initial montage and the feeling of utter loneliness it conveys. You just can't win this way. Details to look out for: - THE WHOLE FREAKIN' LUPIN-TONKS SCENE AT THE WEDDING. While Harry is talking to Elphias Doge, if you focus on the background, you see a proud Lupin and Tonks talking to an overjoyed Mrs. Weasley. Of course they told her about the baby. Later, during Harry's closeups, you can still see the couple behind him, talking animatedly. - Dumbledore's dossier in Umbridge's office mentions his sister Arianna and lots more that I didn't catch. - One of the titles in the papers is "Scrimgeour talks with Muggle Prime Minister" or the like, which harks back to the delightful first chapter of HBP. (I wonder whether for new readers it still works with different Muggle Prime Ministers.) - Every time they show a page from Dumbledore's biography, you can ALMOST read what it says. Screenshots anyone? Brilliant: - Hedwig went down fighting. - ALAN RICKMAN. - George Weasley doing surveillance on his sister and Harry TOTALLY UNOBTRUSIVELY LMAO. - Umbridge's Patronus! I want it, she does not deserve its awesome and deadly cuteness. (Do JKR or someone in the production hate cats?) - The silver doe. Loved it in the book too, when I realized what it meant. - Was the voice on the radio Lupin's? Either way, I loved the radio leitmotif. - The Three Brothers cartoon. - Xenophylus, especially when he danced with his daughter Luna. - The Malfoy boys. (Damian Lewis' wife too, lucky woman.) - Ron and Hermione playing the piano. BLAM BLAM BLAM. Plink plink plink. BLAM BLAM BLAM. Story of their life. - Runcorn walking like Harry. Looking at it felt weird, then you see Harry walking all hunched and self-conscious, and yes, the Runcorn actor nailed it. - Lupin and Tonks always cuddling, always in the background *resigned* Meh: - "Why do we have a picture of an empty room on the mantelpiece, dear?" - Pulling a "Nikki and Paulo" with Bill and Mundungus. "Hello, we're pivotal characters, we've been here all along and WE COMMAND YOU TO LOVE US." (Not too hard with Domhnall Gleeson.) - Mafioso Mundungus. - Dobby-ex-machina. - Watch the Trio run from Death Eaters! Watch them run from Dementors! Watch them run from Ministry goons! Watch them run from Snatchers! - Can't tell Grindelwald and Gregorovitch apart. Lots of night-time scenes with old guys whose name begins with G. Couldn't they just collate Gregorovitch the wand-maker with Ollivander the wand-seller? - Everybody dressing like Muggles, especially the Weasleys. Possibly to differentiate the Muggle-friends from the Death Eaters, but at one point I could not remember which of the kids came from what family. - "Wow! Great shocking scene! Harry speaking Parseltongue and Hermione seeing flies and blood and Bathilda disappearing and Nagini eating the audience - wait, what happened?" I had to have it explained to me, and I had to explain it to a friend on viewing no. 2. - Harry crosses the frozen pond LENGTHWISE to get the sword. Also, why doesn't "Accio" work underwater? - Huge gamble on Voldemort's part, showing naked Harry and Hermione making out; with all that smoke, it was obvious to me that Ron would have struck at the vision, therefore at the Horcrux, and not at Harry. - The deluminator (?) leading Ron to Hermione. It's so cheesy and contrived it might actually be in the book. - "And Voldemort stole the Elder Wand and destroyed the universe. The end." Awful: - "Oh, the third Horc... I mean, Hallow is an invisibility cloak! This rings a bell. Where have I already encountered an invisibility cloak... let's see..." - SIRIUS' MIRROR SHARD WHAT HOW WHO. - Blink and you'll miss Wormtail's death. Supposing he's dead. But then again the movies short-changed him since POA, when the director was too busy with political satire to worry about changing a tragic character into a joke. |