Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows II
Jul. 16th, 2011 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which the film version of the saga comes to an end. In bullet points:
- I do have a soft spot for negotiating!Harry, with Slughornon drugs in HBP and here with the goblin at the start; it does a nice job of suggesting his inner Slytherin side
- Helena Bonham Carter was adorable as Hermione-as-Bellatrix
- that whole breaking in and out of Gringotts sequence was a whole more suspenseful to me watching than it had been reading it; also, DRAGON!
- they do a neat job of making it clear Aberforth is massively resentful and has reason to be, and the Ariana portrait is a great touch, but overall Dumbledore's backstory is missing (or rather, it's made clear there is a backstory, but movie-only people will never know what it was), and I do regret that because Dumbledore was never as compelling as in the last volume when the complete messed-upness of his life and the extent of his flaws were revealed; also, with the backstory only hinted at Dumbledore's remorse in the Kings' Cross scene near the end was missing as well
- Neville was fantastic throughout from the moment he showed up behind portrait!Ariana, and Luna was wonderful as well. Unexpected!Neville/Luna was sweet and adorable
- poor Alan Rickman wore more make-up than many a Kabuki actor but still delivered a great performance in Snape's death scene where he's conveying such a lot to Harry in a short time with voice and expression
- as opposed to the Dumbledore backstory, Snape's backstory (at last, after the severe cuts from Prisoner of Azkaban onwards) made it into the film, and I thought they managed to convey that chapter (The Prince's Tale) cinematically very well; I do wish they'd included the crucial point of Snape calling Lily a mudblood but because film!Lily had not been present back when they filmed the very brief Order of the Phoenix flashback, and so there was no build up to it; otoh juxtaposing the sound of Snape's later dialogue with Dumbledore to the images of dead Lily, baby Harry and a younger Snape finding them and breaking down was a brilliant shorthand of conveying his emotional state for the rest of his life
- something kept from the book to the film which I think is important to Harry's characterisation is that he shows compassion to dying Snape before being told all of this and still assuming Snape worked for Voldemort
- one way to make a scene from the book that felt wrong feel even wronger: now McGonnegal doesn't just send the Slytherins away after Pansy's remark, she's locking them in the dungeons. What the hell, Steve Kloves?
- I do regret the Ron and Hermione kiss doesn't come after Ron's commitment to Houseelves dignity and liberation because the fact it does in the book is important in terms of Hermione and Ron getting each other; this being said, the entire Houseelves subplot and Hermione's commitment to the cause had been excised so much from the films to the point of non-existence that they couldn't have suddenly brought it in now, and the film kiss worked as well
- who was the actress playing Helena Ravenclaw, aka The Grey Lady? She did really well with a small role and left quite an impression on me
- After having most of her lines cut in the last two films, this time Narcissa Malfoy got her star scene, and I loved, loved, loved the exit of the Malfoys during the final battle; Narcissa just walking away from the fight, head held high, Draco in two, and Lucius scrambling after them, looking back because he's not competely sure to run before Voldemort is defeated, yet in the end following them. Jason Isaac did a great job with Lucius' growing desparation through the films, too. As in the books, I ended up liking the Malfoys for being so very unlike their fanon selves.
- Voldemort, Tom Riddle interlude in CoS and "Kill the spare" scene in GoF (the one time I found him truly chilling) scenes aside, ever was an interesting villain in the books for me, but Ralph Fiennes really did wonders for him on screen in all the films, including this one. Movie!Voldemort is repellent and compelling at the same time and really disturbing.
- as someone who never understood the epilogue hate, I was fine with the film using it, even though I didn't regard the older age make-up as especially convincing; to me it conveys in the film, too, life continuing, a new story beginning as another has ended, and I loved they kept Harry's statement to Albus Severus about whom he was named after and being Slytherin.
- I do have a soft spot for negotiating!Harry, with Slughorn
- Helena Bonham Carter was adorable as Hermione-as-Bellatrix
- that whole breaking in and out of Gringotts sequence was a whole more suspenseful to me watching than it had been reading it; also, DRAGON!
- they do a neat job of making it clear Aberforth is massively resentful and has reason to be, and the Ariana portrait is a great touch, but overall Dumbledore's backstory is missing (or rather, it's made clear there is a backstory, but movie-only people will never know what it was), and I do regret that because Dumbledore was never as compelling as in the last volume when the complete messed-upness of his life and the extent of his flaws were revealed; also, with the backstory only hinted at Dumbledore's remorse in the Kings' Cross scene near the end was missing as well
- Neville was fantastic throughout from the moment he showed up behind portrait!Ariana, and Luna was wonderful as well. Unexpected!Neville/Luna was sweet and adorable
- poor Alan Rickman wore more make-up than many a Kabuki actor but still delivered a great performance in Snape's death scene where he's conveying such a lot to Harry in a short time with voice and expression
- as opposed to the Dumbledore backstory, Snape's backstory (at last, after the severe cuts from Prisoner of Azkaban onwards) made it into the film, and I thought they managed to convey that chapter (The Prince's Tale) cinematically very well; I do wish they'd included the crucial point of Snape calling Lily a mudblood but because film!Lily had not been present back when they filmed the very brief Order of the Phoenix flashback, and so there was no build up to it; otoh juxtaposing the sound of Snape's later dialogue with Dumbledore to the images of dead Lily, baby Harry and a younger Snape finding them and breaking down was a brilliant shorthand of conveying his emotional state for the rest of his life
- something kept from the book to the film which I think is important to Harry's characterisation is that he shows compassion to dying Snape before being told all of this and still assuming Snape worked for Voldemort
- one way to make a scene from the book that felt wrong feel even wronger: now McGonnegal doesn't just send the Slytherins away after Pansy's remark, she's locking them in the dungeons. What the hell, Steve Kloves?
- I do regret the Ron and Hermione kiss doesn't come after Ron's commitment to Houseelves dignity and liberation because the fact it does in the book is important in terms of Hermione and Ron getting each other; this being said, the entire Houseelves subplot and Hermione's commitment to the cause had been excised so much from the films to the point of non-existence that they couldn't have suddenly brought it in now, and the film kiss worked as well
- who was the actress playing Helena Ravenclaw, aka The Grey Lady? She did really well with a small role and left quite an impression on me
- After having most of her lines cut in the last two films, this time Narcissa Malfoy got her star scene, and I loved, loved, loved the exit of the Malfoys during the final battle; Narcissa just walking away from the fight, head held high, Draco in two, and Lucius scrambling after them, looking back because he's not competely sure to run before Voldemort is defeated, yet in the end following them. Jason Isaac did a great job with Lucius' growing desparation through the films, too. As in the books, I ended up liking the Malfoys for being so very unlike their fanon selves.
- Voldemort, Tom Riddle interlude in CoS and "Kill the spare" scene in GoF (the one time I found him truly chilling) scenes aside, ever was an interesting villain in the books for me, but Ralph Fiennes really did wonders for him on screen in all the films, including this one. Movie!Voldemort is repellent and compelling at the same time and really disturbing.
- as someone who never understood the epilogue hate, I was fine with the film using it, even though I didn't regard the older age make-up as especially convincing; to me it conveys in the film, too, life continuing, a new story beginning as another has ended, and I loved they kept Harry's statement to Albus Severus about whom he was named after and being Slytherin.
