Escape to the Movies: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II

[Mister Eff]

I really enjoyed the movie. Very emotional (Snape's scene had a manly tear or two coming out) at times and a good watch. I missed a couple of details from the books, but oh well.

It's a bit of an odd feeling for me. Having spent quite literally two thirds of my life with Harry Potter in it, it's bizarre. It came out just before I turned 7 and ends just before I turn 21. I grew up with it and it's over. But I considered it truly over when the 7th book came out, so I'm not too fussed now. Also the movies, I thought 1-4 were just fucking dreadful. David Yates made it worth watching again.

 

[Lynx]

Wrong post.

 

[BrotherRool]

Everything from the beginning of the battle in hogwarts to the point where Harry confronts Voldemort was amazing if not better than the books. The rest of it wasn't quite as good but still decent. They could have done the Neville thing better, they probably should've explained the hallows thing and the final deaths of the villains could have been more dramatic. (And more self-sacrificing, as it was meant to). I never expected them to do Dumbledore well and they made the right choice to basically skip it.

But the bits they did right were superb and it will make you want to read the books again

 

[Fortesque]

So, they split the movie into 2 parts... and the last still felt rushed.

It could have been WAY more epic. The scene where the Protectors of Hogwarts are summoned (The total badassed Stone Soldiers) was sweet, then all the professors putting up protective charms, all the Death Eaters on the hill. It could have been so fucking amazing! But then they cut to a scene of Harry being dirty and walking down a corridor... Then back to the fight and half of Hogwarts is all destroyed with absolutely no glimps of the fight! Where was Grawp? Why were none of the spiders attacking the Death Eaters? Why were the Stone Soldiers so useless at fighting?

Also, was it just me or did it seem like everyone who wasnt Harry, had about 4 lines in the whole movie. LeStrange, had about 2 lines, then died. And Ron and Hermione just seemed like they were just there...

They tried to make it too funny too, all the attempts at comedy were sad.

I did like the movie, it just could have been much better.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I'm just gonna leave this here. Best part of the HP movies.

Wicked awesome!

OT: I was going to watch this but the spoiler alert is warding me off. Will come back after I've seen this for myself.

 

[Hosker]

Thank god these are over, now people can just shut up about them and go read better fantasy books. Or not, since they all were sheep and need a bandwagon to venture out for any decent entertainment.

Sorry, I'm just relieved that the hype train's over, and people can start being honest that the books were predictable unimaginative tripe and JK Rowling was never a good writer. I even bothered with reading the books off friends from 1-5, but dropped it because of her hack writing. Nothing against the kids that grew up with it, just the adults who took this way too seriously.

What do you mean "Thank God these are over"? Were the films harming you in some way? If not, I don't see why you should give a shit. Also, I like the way you state your opinions as facts.

 

[historybuff]

I gave up on the HP movies after the Fourth one. Because the Fourth one was just so awful.

I love the books. The books are wonderful. The movies were just terrible.

But a friend finally got me to watch Seven: Part One last week (but I still have not seen Five and Six, and really, I have no plan to). I was surprised that it was actually pretty good.

I might give this one a look after the Spaz Attack dies down.

 

[Zabriskie Point]

I'm glad it's over.

After the third film this series started limping like a one-legged walrus. Mainly due to it being the same fucking movie everytime: Harry returns to Hogwarts and discovers an evil plan by Voldemort. No one but Ron and Hermione believe him, but in the end the truth reveals itself and Harry is proven to be correct, only to be disbelieved again in the next movie. Wash, rinse, repeat.

That and the fact that David Yates lacks any form of cinematic vision.

Yes, the movies are just so horrible.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/harry_potter_and_the_sorcerers_stone/ 80%
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/harry_potter_and_the_chamber_of_secrets/ 83%
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/harry_potter_and_the_prisoner_of_azkaban/ 91%
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/harry_potter_and_the_goblet_of_fire/ 87%
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/harry_potter_and_the_order_of_the_phoenix/ 78%
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/harry_potter_and_the_half_blood_prince/ 83%
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/harry_potter_and_the_deathly_hallows_part_1/ 79%
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/harry_potter_and_the_deathly_hallows_part_2/ 97%

 

[Moeez]

Thank god these are over, now people can just shut up about them and go read better fantasy books. Or not, since they all were sheep and need a bandwagon to venture out for any decent entertainment.

Sorry, I'm just relieved that the hype train's over, and people can start being honest that the books were predictable unimaginative tripe and JK Rowling was never a good writer. I even bothered with reading the books off friends from 1-5, but dropped it because of her hack writing. Nothing against the kids that grew up with it, just the adults who took this way too seriously.

What do you mean "Thank God these are over"? Were the films harming you in some way? If not, I don't see why you should give a shit. Also, I like the way you state your opinions as facts.

Now the property won't be on my mindshare anymore, my friends can shut up about it and move on. I'm not going to read the books again to give you specific examples of the weak writing, but the world didn't feel new to me compared to other fantasy writers' works. Wizard schools were already done, there were entire British TV shows around it. The only parts of the world I liked were the kids competing for the best broom stick like Nimbus or how the school worked, which was dropped in emphasis after Book 3 to become more about an impending war. It just wasn't intellectually stimulating for me, with its standard themes of friendship and good vs evil.

JK Rowling writes a LOT of filler to pad out her books, especially Order of the Phoenix. The plot points were predictable, and the only way Rowling created drama was by killing off characters (hack writing). I can see it working for the younger audience who aren't as familiar with anything else.

 

[munkymp3]

YOU DIDN'T READ THE BOOKS!? D: Hopefully, the books are better than the movie for you because, around the time the movies starting going into production, the fifth book and on weren't as epic as the first four. Usually, if I watch something before reading it, I enjoy the watching more so I read first (unless it's anime and it's way too long like Naruto or Bleach) but that's just me.

Also...
MINERVA MCGONAGALL = HBIC; I love that she was given a bigger role as well as Neville.

 

[Korten12]

YOU DIDN'T READ THE BOOKS!? D: Hopefully, the books are better than the movie for you because, around the time the movies starting going into production, the fifth book and on weren't as epic as the first four. Usually, if I watch something before reading it, I enjoy the watching more so I read first (unless it's anime and it's way too long like Naruto or Bleach) but that's just me.

Also...
MINERVA MCGONAGALL = HBIC; I love that she was given a bigger role as well as Neville.

Yes! Neville was awesome! I loved how he wasn't that great in the start of the series but got better.

Also I loved the part in the movie with Mcgonagall.

Spoiler

Where she used the spell to summon the stone knights and she says: "I always wanted to use that!" I LOL so loud.

 

[nath_78]

I think I just commented in the wrong bit... When did we all start being forced to watch 30 second ads just to watch the video??? Or is it only happening to me...?

 

[Avistew]

I haven't watched the last few movies, as I disliked the first few ones. Good to know it's a good wrap-up of the series, although I can't get over the fact that they decided to make two movies out of the book that explicitly is about how boring it is that nothing is going on (until everything happens at once). Not a criticism of the book, it made its points well.

Dumbledore's family being suddenly important isn't unique to the movies, it was that was in the books too. Snape's backstory however had been predicted by a few people as there were many more hints of that.

In the end, I keep thinking what I thought from the start: the books are more adapted to a TV series in which each books would be a season (or "series" in British), rather than a movie per book (or two when they were running out of them). The story is complex enough that it needs time to be set up properly, and each book could be given the number of episode that was judged best for it.

Ultimately, I know why that didn't happen: TV shows cost more to make and make less money than movies do. Still, thinking of what an HBO Harry Potter show would be, for instance...

I'm not sure if I'll ever see this one. I only went to see Order of the Phoenix because I had read book 7 recently, felt terrible about what happened to my favourite character of the series, and wanted to see him a little bit.

I think my favourite movie of the 5 I've seen was the third one. Not too surprising as it's also my favourite book of the series. It came out before Harry Potter was such a craze and you can tell she was less pressured to make it long and awesome, and so it still had some simplicity to it, while being epic and introducing many of the big, important stuff in the series. Might not be as "big" as Goblet (both literally and figuratively), which is really the turning point in the series, but...

Anyways, not talking about the books here. My point was that if people I know who go see the movie tell me a lot of good about them, I might someday see the 3 I haven't yet.

Going back to the books for a second, they're finally being released as ebooks, in case anyone is interested.

 

[bob-2000]

Having just seen the film, I can say this: The movie was pretty good, and, without giving spoilers, the epilogue sucked.

 

[GartarkMusik]

Good thing I've read the book, so I don't need to worry about spoilers...

Although, I haven't read the final book in a long time, so I'm still a little confused about the whole "Elder Wand being Harry's" business...

Dumbledore intended to die undefeated, the Wand's last true master, and its power would have disappeared with it, however, Draco Malfoy disarmed him before he died in the 6th book, so the wand recognized him as the new owner, but then Harry defeats Draco in a duel at Malfoy Manor and takes his wand, which then leaves Harry as the true master. Hope that helped!

Thank you sir! I read through the last book so fast that it was a blur, and by the time it got to that big reveal it blew my mind and was very confusing. That was a nice piece to the puzzle I was forgetting.

No problem. Glad I could help a few people get their brains untangled. lol

 

[Astoria]

I really like the Deathly Hallows movies. I felt the movies were starting to miss out on too much after the 3rd one but these last two have been really good and putting in information and haven't had a dull moment. I also like how they changed the ending a bit because I thought it was a bit boring and sudden in the book. I was dissapointed that they left out a few things but it was much better than the last few movies. I really think people should see it.

 

[brunothepig]

It amuses me that the complaints Bob made aren't in the book. Foolish movie.

Spoiler: Dumbledore

His childhood should have been explored throughout the first part of the movie. His relationship with Aberforth (not good), his sister, his friendship with who would later become a dark wizard, Grindelwald, how he came to possess the elder wand etc. The scene in "kings cross" should have lasted a lot longer, with Dumbledore explaining why he was such an idiot in his childhood, even why he was foolish enough to curse his hand. And of course, his plan.

Spoiler: Snape

Foreshadowed a bit, but his love for Lily wasn't revealed until that moment in the movie. In fact, they were pretty close in the movie, I think every memory was there. Of course, that scene can last a bit longer in the movie, but mostly it was a bit of a reveal, before then we only really knew that James used to bully Snape, and Lily stood up for him for a while, until Snape started hanging out with douche bags (later Death Eaters).

Spoiler: The Malfoy's

That scene just doesn't happen in the movie. Draco is mentioned in the epilogue, and remember Narcissa Malfoy lied about Harry still being alive. I don't think Lucius is mentioned.

Anyway, while I'll admit the seventh movies were a million times better than 4, 5 and 6, they still missed some important scenes, and a lot of less important ones. The weirdest thing about part one is how they changed the order of scenes around, for no reason.

 

[brinvixen]

I just hope its good. I haven't really enjoyed any of them since the third one to be honest. Having read the books, I found the fourth one to be insulting when they changed important aspects of it.

Because the third one totally didn't lack an important conversation that explains who four mysterious characters actually are and why they are important towards the end. The fourth film cut some secondary plotlines, but they didn't take out anything that was important for the overall plot of the series, as far as I remember.

Well, I'm probably going to watch this next week with my friends, hopefully I won't be disappointed. I found the previous film to be one of the most faithful to the book.

Oh, and I did that thing Bob said with the Dark Knight Rises poster and... Wow... Just Wow... The revelations...

I just thought the third one was better directed. To be honest, all the movies always leave out important things. It's like their favorite thing to do. Also, I was a lot younger then (when the fourth one came out), and much more of a fangirl, and all I could think was "HOW DARE THEY! CUT THINGS FROM MY BELOVED HARRY POTTER! CURSES!" and the likes.

Anyway, I just came back from watching the final one, and it was actually very good. So kudos to everyone involved. It was a good way to end a very enjoyable series.

 

[Redd the Sock]

Love it or hate it, one does have to marvel at the fact they pulled it off. hence, yeah, in lieu of a review no one would affected by, a mini retrospecitve was the better course of action ths week.

While the books suffered from cliches, padding, and limitations of being told almost exclusivily from Harry's perspective (though not POV) they had a lot of heart, and were easier to like than some other mainstays. The films translated well, taking the flaws with them, though while the 3rd movie mustered a pass, the forth forward got hurt too much by things on the cutting room floor, actually producing a jaring reversal in the 7th as Mundungus and Bill have to be introducted at the last minute and Dobby as to be brought back suddenly and hastialy. Still, they've done alright, and while if you don't care at this point, you still won't, those of us into the books have waited with baited breath for the battle of Hogwarts to be fleshed out beyond what Harry could see.

Of course its legacy isn't flawless. How many teen book to film adaptations have we had in the last 10 years that haven't taken off?

 

[Eggbert]

What's the movie that poster is for that he talks about in one of the ending slides?

That would be Dark Knight Rising.

OT, Neville got even better, so did Mcgonagall. Loved Neville's "come at me bro" style scene. But I felt like the action in this movie didn't have any impact. I mean, sure, flashing lights, dead people, explosions, but I didn't really feel like it had any impact. Was that just me, or did anyone else get that?