Millions of peoples childhoods were brutally murdered on July 15th when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was released. Director David Yates is being detained for questioning the the homicides, but a lead suspect has not yet been named. The plot resulted in a $169B opening weekend gross for the parties involved which makes narrowing the suspect list difficult.
That would be a killer (get it) police report, but alas it's not true. Childhoods were brought to a sudden end this last weekend, but it was because it had run its course. After a decade of awaiting Harry Potter film releases the final film has finally arrived. While not exactly the same as the books (except for the first two directed by Chris Columbus), the HP movies have defined a generation, made internationally recognizable stars out of three random British kids, and entertained millions. So before I begin nitpicking on this final film, the way a fan of the book who has minor details memorized is wont to do, I'll say this: the movie is great and serves as a good conclusion for the series.
Since Prisoner of Azkaban I have liked the movies a little less each time. Mind you that "little bit" is about 2 or 3 points on a 1000 point scale, but the point still needs to be made. Anyone whose gotten me started on the Lord of the Rings movies knows that I abhor people who change details. No screenwriter has the right to change details. Deleting scenes and even characters is sometimes necessary to fit within time limits, a fact which I sometimes have difficulty accepting (*cough* Tom Bombadil *cough*); changing things is never okay though. What was the reason they used Neville instead of Dobby to deliver the Gillyweed to Harry in The Goblet of Fire? It couldn't be time because it would have taken maybe 2 minutes more to use Dobby. It couldn't have been cost because they already had Dobby mapped in the computer and they knew the movie would gross the GDP of multiple small countries. It was laziness or a writer who thought they knew better. I don't know but it pisses me off. That fourth film was pretty much the turning point for the series; this was the point where we as fans of the books had to treat the movie series as a completely different entity. Each subsequent movie had more and more inconsistencies or important scenes that were deleted. This resulted in a concluding film that was very different from the final book.
I'm not going to go through all of the major difference, but I'm going to list the ones that bothered me the most. Let's start with the thing from Part 1 that really bothered me: Ginny hiding the potions book. This clearly set up the fact that Harry was going to have to find Ravenclaw's diadem in a very different way from the book. Instead of Harry running frantically to the room of requirement and setting the diadem on a wig on a bust, Ginny hides it after an uncomfortable attempt at being seductive. Therefore in this movie Harry is only able to find the horcruxes (and therefore the diadem) is because they speak to the piece of Voldemort's soul that is in Harry. That is a huge plot change to the original book and one that I found pretty stupid. Another horcrux change that upset me was the fact that they were showing Voldemort become more and more weak as the horcruxes are destroyed, which the book specifically says DOESN'T happen. All of these changes make for interesting cinematography, but when they are not a part of the original story it shouldn't happen.
The other major factors that upset me were the scenes made specifically to take advantage of the graphics. The whole stream of light that happens EVERY time Voldemort and Harry fight in this movie makes the scenes more exciting, but is not how the fights went down in the book. The same is true for most of the magic since the fourth movie. They apparently thought wand waving without light was less believable than a pretty light show with every spell. I personally think this cheapens the look of the films, but the "muggle" clothing also cheapens the look. I just wish that the appearance of the films stuck with the first and second films. Including the Hogwarts school grounds from those movies. Changing the school location was stupid, annoying, and impractical. But what do I know? Finally there is the Doc Oc scene. Voldemort and Harry are fighting (in a way that is not included in the book and drawn out more than it needed to be) and Voldemort's robes come alive and start strangling Harry, much like Doc Oc's robotic claws from Spiderman 2. This was one of the stupidest scenes from the series and was made for the 3D format.
One scene where they didn't use their graphics department was when Voldemort kills Snape. This scene is supposed to take place in the Shrieking Shack, with Nagini in a glowing orb that's floating, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione are supposed to go through the passageway under the Whomping Willow to get there. Instead it takes place in a boathouse (who knew they had one?) and Nagini just crawls along not ensconced in a protective orb. That would have been a sweet scene, but it ended up being anticlimactic.
The book is much, much better than this film. Rowling made the characters and had no length constraints and therefore wrote an amazing series of books that will be read multiple times by many generations. Trying to put epics like that on film is a challenge that is bound to be full of problems, but the final result for this series is acceptable and entertaining. This series was cast brilliantly and the acting more than makes up for writing/directing mishaps. This movie relies less on storytelling and more on epic fights, which cheapens the deaths of loved characters. Instead of giving them the dignity of on-screen deaths (at least the ones from the book) they are merely scene dead in the great hall.
Even with all of these issues that I had with the movie I still liked it and will end up owning the DVD. It's Harry Potter, it's a piece of my childhood, and it's one of my favorite series. I enjoyed being able to see this movie in 3D, but I'd wouldn't encourage others to waste the money. A few scenes really benefit from the 3D, some are a little better, but mostly it's pretty 2D. So go out and enjoy the movie (in whichever format you choose) and witness the end of a decade of a group of people's lives. Stay calm and Expecto Patronum.
4.25 stars out of 5
Random additional info: I didn't use any reference materials for this other than my memory. Voldemort, Hogwarts, and Hermione are recognized words in my web browser. I was rejected from Hogwarts.
No comments:
Post a Comment