Monday, July 18, 2011

Spoilers: my review of Harry Potter



So as I said last week I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II. I went to the midnight showing, as I wanted to avoid annoying teenagers making obnoxious comments, making me want to throw my can of coke at their head. To avoid having to release the terrible rage that ensues the ruining of my precious cinema experience, I went to the last showing.
I was so excited to see it, and I must say I wasn't dissapointed. It definitely was one of the better films, and they managed to capture the feeling of the book very well. Of course, as a big fan of the books there are a few things that I missed and felt they could have done better or should not have left out. Pretty much every single film out there, except Lord of the Rings of course, is not as good as the book.

The things that were a tad dissapointing:

- Although the battle was really great and very well done, it lacked some of the epic moments that appeared in the books. All the focus was on Harry, and many of the minor characters did not get the moment of glory they had in the book. For example, the part where an army of the Hogwarts house elves appears, lead by the before rude and mean Kreacher, did not appear in the film. That was rather dissapointing as it is such an amazing moment in the book, the sudden turn-around of Kreacher almost makes up for the death of poor Dobby. Also the centaurs did not fight along in the film either, which I guess was to be expected, as they only make a very brief appearance in one of the films.

- There really wasn't an explanation as to why Harry survived the killing curse again. Towards the end they did say that Voldemort was still not the owner of the Elder wand after killing Snape, Harry was, but nobody mentioned the fact that that was the reason why he survived. The killing curse rebounded and destroyed Voldemort, for good this time. But for people who haven't read the books, it might be a bit confusing as to how Harry managed to survive yet again.

- Some emotional scenes, as the part where you see the aftermath of the battle and you see who died, are really rushed. I barely had time to cry! And as Fred was a beloved characted, it rather sucked that you didn't even get to see his last moments.

- The awaited 19 years later scene at the end was rather dissapointing. The ageing was done pretty badly, they looked like twenty-year-olds with make-up on. And if you've seen Benjamin Button, you know they have the means to do it better. I also found it very rushed, and lacked the emotion of the book.

Parts I loved!

- The flashback scene, finally explaining the backstory of Snape. Beautifully done and very emotional, I welled up during that part! It was shorter than the scene in the book, but it still did it justice and truly captured the beauty of Snape's love for Lily. The part where he said "always" was particularly heartbreaking.

- The Gringott's vault scene! Very well executed, loved seeing the dragon escaping, it was very exciting. Great start of the film!

- The long awaited kiss between Ron and Hermione. As in the book, it wasn't very long, and was sort of a spur of the moment, we're about to die so who cares about being shy, kiss. Which was absolutely perfect, and really fit well within the madness of the battle.

- Neville is so supercool in this film, the actor really captures the huge change he went through from an awkward nerdy boy to a brave careless hero of a man. Loved his scenes in the film.

- The part where McGonagall brings the statues to live and excitedly says "I always wanted to do that spell!" Maggie Smith is such an amazing actress, and the perfect McGonagall.

- Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort was absolutely brilliant. He really gets to shine in this film.

So, in conclusion, some parts could have been better, but that was to be expected as nothing beats the books. But all in all a great film well worth seeing!

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