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Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part II
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Dir. David Yates, 2011.
It's the end of an era. I was thirteen when the first book came out in the States in 1998. (Yeah, I have a signed American first edition. On the back it has a great blurb fromsome British newspaper The Guardian about how Harry Potter "might become as famous as Charlie, of chocolate factory fame." BWHAHA OR MAYBE HE'S RIGHT UP THERE WITH JESUS NOW…particularly considering that he was Jesus? Yeah.)
No spoilers: on many levels I loved it and thought it was awesome. Just as I expected, I sobbed like a child in the resurrection stone scene, just like I did the first (and thus far only) time I read the book. It's…well, partly because of my mother, who was one of the biggest Harry Potter fans I knew, that scene has a lot of meaning for me. Other people find it corny, but I find it absolutely, painfully, humanly true. So there was that.
I've been reading everyone's reaction posts that I can find, so I think a lot of things I have to say will be familiar for that reason, but…yeah, where to start?
1. They shouldn't have cut the Dumbledore backstory. Dumbledore has always been one of my favorite characters, and Harry finding out that hey, he was kind of an asshole! was a really important part of the last few books. Mind you, I partly love Dumbledore because he was kind of an asshole, and the text acknowledges that--it's something that gets short shrift in most other fantasy novels, the ruthlessness that Good requires, no less than Evil.
2. ALAN RICKMAN, GENTLEBEINGS.![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
recessional helped me see this first, but cleolinda summed it up really well, so let me just quote:
3. Also, on that note, NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM and MINERVA MCGONAGALL, HELL YES.busaikko and unjapanologist and I (we saw it together) agreed that putting Neville in a sweater vest was a futile attempt to subordinate Neville's hotness to the fact that he's kind of a dork, but it was futile. And MINERVA MCGONAGALL, I LOVE YOU. (To be fair, I always have, though I pictured her as about 35 and repressed until Goblet of Fire or so.) I…was kind of okay with Neville's speech, actually. Like, yes it was corny and obvious, but on the other, it was also really true, at least if you're me and you have my perspective on death and grief. I don't know that I would have felt the same three years ago, for sure, but I do now. Also, Neville/Luna forever!
4. And Luna Lovegood! The movies have consistently done better by her than the books, and I was glad to see her force Harry to take her seriously one last time with no magic at all.
5. The deathroll seemed less "this is serious business, so lots of favorite characters have got to go!" and more "yeah, good people die random senseless deaths in war" in this version, which I liked, partly because in the movie it's easier to perceive that (just like real life) the young tended to die and the old tended to survive. And Remus and Tonks not being able to touch each other in life or in death…that was well done. As much as Remus/Tonks was totally JKR trying to short-circuit the slashers, I do think the last few movies have managed to sell it fairly well.
6. The Malfoys, I love them. I was so convinced Draco was going to stay, and that would have been awesome, but I do love them just hitting the road. It's a powerful statement about what really matters, especially considering how the movies hate Slytherin even more than JKR did, apparently, WOW. Damn, that was cold, Minerva, that was cold. Also, Narcissa, you are a BAMF (way more than in the books, am I sensing a pattern here?), and I want your hair.
7. Rereading my old posts, I do think this is the only movie in which Voldemort's the final boss that Ralph Fiennes didn't steal the show from everyone. So well done, David Yates and Dan Radcliffe and special effects studios! And Ralph Fiennes too, because he totally hit it out of the park, right down to Voldemort's essential pettiness.
8. Speaking of special effects studios, the final confrontation was…quite long, wasn't it? And also derivative of Star Wars in its cinematic (and, asrecessional reminded me, even textual) grammar? *sigh* I've enjoyed the way the movies have shot the wand duels, but you know, there's more than one way to vanquish evil forever, IJS.
9. I really liked Harry just breaking the Elder Wand, I never understood why the hell him putting it in a tree was not a terrible idea, and it's a really deft way to illustrate that hey, maybe being obsessed with it in the first place (I'm looking at you, Gellert, Tom, Albus) was sort of dumb, just maybe. In my head/The Aurors canon in my head, everyone calls Harry The Last Master behind his back from now on.
10. The epilogue. It was cheesy as all get out of course, but less so than the book, and Grint and Radcliffe managed to sell me on the age makeup--particularly Radcliffe, Harry is clearly an excellent father. Mind you, I'm happy that they went for subtle rather than too much, and I love Emma Watson wearing business suits, but she and Ginny's actress just did not pull it off. (OTOH, Helena Bonham-Carter nailed the Hermione mannerisms at the beginning, and Hermione and Ron looked awesome in those Death Eater costumes.) It also really struck me anew how heteronormative it is! Everyone's got an opposite-sex partner and the obligatory 2.3 kids. *sigh*
But, on the other hand…it all started at King's Cross, didn't it? Not just in the books, but for JKR writing the books, and then again, when Harry meets Dumbledore there in the not!afterlife, and for all of us as we read the books. And I do like, in the end, that the story ends, not with the trio leaving Hogwarts (in ruins), but with children going (back) to Hogwarts, because Hogwarts endures, and so does its magic, just like how in composition order The Magician's Nephew came last, and the way to Narnia is always (recursively) open. (How many more parantheses could I put in that sentence?) So, in that sense, the train leaving the station in the final shot seems to me to be an absolutely fitting, well-nigh perfect, ending.
11. P.S. Aberforth was totally awesome too, again, way more than in the books.
12. No really, this is the last one: the movies were much less convincing on the Harry/Ginny front than the books, huh? In the books it is epic true love, or as close as JKR gets, and in the movies it's pretty clearly teenage lust on both sides, compounded with Ginny's childhood crush and Harry's desire to be part of the Weasley clan. Which I have no problem with, but I don't find convincing in terms of staying power.
So, yeah. Harry Potter! It's not that there's not a ton of things to be said and criticisms to be made, because there totally are, but there was so much awesome and so much to love here, and I do. ♥ Between JKR and fandom, it's been an amazing journey.
And here, have two vids that are awesome and brilliantly summations of that.
It's the end of an era. I was thirteen when the first book came out in the States in 1998. (Yeah, I have a signed American first edition. On the back it has a great blurb from
No spoilers: on many levels I loved it and thought it was awesome. Just as I expected, I sobbed like a child in the resurrection stone scene, just like I did the first (and thus far only) time I read the book. It's…well, partly because of my mother, who was one of the biggest Harry Potter fans I knew, that scene has a lot of meaning for me. Other people find it corny, but I find it absolutely, painfully, humanly true. So there was that.
I've been reading everyone's reaction posts that I can find, so I think a lot of things I have to say will be familiar for that reason, but…yeah, where to start?
1. They shouldn't have cut the Dumbledore backstory. Dumbledore has always been one of my favorite characters, and Harry finding out that hey, he was kind of an asshole! was a really important part of the last few books. Mind you, I partly love Dumbledore because he was kind of an asshole, and the text acknowledges that--it's something that gets short shrift in most other fantasy novels, the ruthlessness that Good requires, no less than Evil.
2. ALAN RICKMAN, GENTLEBEINGS.
recessional helped me see this first, but cleolinda summed it up really well, so let me just quote: So both versions have a nice complexity: One is a childish, spiteful man, mentally stuck in grade school, who still manages to spend his life doing incredibly patient, heroic things, even if it's for selfish reasons. The other seems to have some genuine maturity and goodness that is just completely poisoned by his hatred of Harry's father and bitterness at what could have been. The key to both is the idea that a bitter jerk can still do great things, while still also continuing to be a bitter jerk, and that's what makes Snape such a great character.
3. Also, on that note, NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM and MINERVA MCGONAGALL, HELL YES.
busaikko and unjapanologist and I (we saw it together) agreed that putting Neville in a sweater vest was a futile attempt to subordinate Neville's hotness to the fact that he's kind of a dork, but it was futile. And MINERVA MCGONAGALL, I LOVE YOU. (To be fair, I always have, though I pictured her as about 35 and repressed until Goblet of Fire or so.) I…was kind of okay with Neville's speech, actually. Like, yes it was corny and obvious, but on the other, it was also really true, at least if you're me and you have my perspective on death and grief. I don't know that I would have felt the same three years ago, for sure, but I do now. Also, Neville/Luna forever!4. And Luna Lovegood! The movies have consistently done better by her than the books, and I was glad to see her force Harry to take her seriously one last time with no magic at all.
5. The deathroll seemed less "this is serious business, so lots of favorite characters have got to go!" and more "yeah, good people die random senseless deaths in war" in this version, which I liked, partly because in the movie it's easier to perceive that (just like real life) the young tended to die and the old tended to survive. And Remus and Tonks not being able to touch each other in life or in death…that was well done. As much as Remus/Tonks was totally JKR trying to short-circuit the slashers, I do think the last few movies have managed to sell it fairly well.
6. The Malfoys, I love them. I was so convinced Draco was going to stay, and that would have been awesome, but I do love them just hitting the road. It's a powerful statement about what really matters, especially considering how the movies hate Slytherin even more than JKR did, apparently, WOW. Damn, that was cold, Minerva, that was cold. Also, Narcissa, you are a BAMF (way more than in the books, am I sensing a pattern here?), and I want your hair.
7. Rereading my old posts, I do think this is the only movie in which Voldemort's the final boss that Ralph Fiennes didn't steal the show from everyone. So well done, David Yates and Dan Radcliffe and special effects studios! And Ralph Fiennes too, because he totally hit it out of the park, right down to Voldemort's essential pettiness.
8. Speaking of special effects studios, the final confrontation was…quite long, wasn't it? And also derivative of Star Wars in its cinematic (and, as
recessional reminded me, even textual) grammar? *sigh* I've enjoyed the way the movies have shot the wand duels, but you know, there's more than one way to vanquish evil forever, IJS. 9. I really liked Harry just breaking the Elder Wand, I never understood why the hell him putting it in a tree was not a terrible idea, and it's a really deft way to illustrate that hey, maybe being obsessed with it in the first place (I'm looking at you, Gellert, Tom, Albus) was sort of dumb, just maybe. In my head/The Aurors canon in my head, everyone calls Harry The Last Master behind his back from now on.
10. The epilogue. It was cheesy as all get out of course, but less so than the book, and Grint and Radcliffe managed to sell me on the age makeup--particularly Radcliffe, Harry is clearly an excellent father. Mind you, I'm happy that they went for subtle rather than too much, and I love Emma Watson wearing business suits, but she and Ginny's actress just did not pull it off. (OTOH, Helena Bonham-Carter nailed the Hermione mannerisms at the beginning, and Hermione and Ron looked awesome in those Death Eater costumes.) It also really struck me anew how heteronormative it is! Everyone's got an opposite-sex partner and the obligatory 2.3 kids. *sigh*
But, on the other hand…it all started at King's Cross, didn't it? Not just in the books, but for JKR writing the books, and then again, when Harry meets Dumbledore there in the not!afterlife, and for all of us as we read the books. And I do like, in the end, that the story ends, not with the trio leaving Hogwarts (in ruins), but with children going (back) to Hogwarts, because Hogwarts endures, and so does its magic, just like how in composition order The Magician's Nephew came last, and the way to Narnia is always (recursively) open. (How many more parantheses could I put in that sentence?) So, in that sense, the train leaving the station in the final shot seems to me to be an absolutely fitting, well-nigh perfect, ending.
11. P.S. Aberforth was totally awesome too, again, way more than in the books.
12. No really, this is the last one: the movies were much less convincing on the Harry/Ginny front than the books, huh? In the books it is epic true love, or as close as JKR gets, and in the movies it's pretty clearly teenage lust on both sides, compounded with Ginny's childhood crush and Harry's desire to be part of the Weasley clan. Which I have no problem with, but I don't find convincing in terms of staying power.
So, yeah. Harry Potter! It's not that there's not a ton of things to be said and criticisms to be made, because there totally are, but there was so much awesome and so much to love here, and I do. ♥ Between JKR and fandom, it's been an amazing journey.
And here, have two vids that are awesome and brilliantly summations of that.