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"Fuck you, Rowling!"

 

Ah, shoot. Meant to post in this thread, but accidentally posted in the second 8th movie thread. I'll just copy/paste.

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Saw it last night. Can't believe it's over...

For the most part, I enjoyed it. There were maybe a dozen little things that bugged me, but overall it worked.

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Most overused style for a first kiss with Ron and Hermione. Harry and Ginny's, dare I say it, was much better. More natural.

Snape's tears held the memories? Uh, what? That's the more 'romantic' death? There was no need to change the location from the shrieking shack to the made up boathouse as well. I thought another scene was going to be added that tied the place together with Snape and Lily, but no. The shack had more meaning behind it - the site where James saved Snape's life. At any rate, the kid who played Snape was suitable strange looking.

No mention of Harry using an Unforgivable at Gringotts, and then Ron uses the Imperius too?

The Carrows were eliminated by McGonagall deflecting Snape's spells? Would it have been that much trouble to have the Ravenclaw common room set created? So Harry doesn't truly use the all of the Unforgivables in the movie-verse.

The Harry/Voldemort duel was quite good, something that I was truly glad to see. It was what the end should've been like. Only the part near the end when they went flying around Hogwarts wasn't great (and that line "finish how we started - together"). Though I wondered why Harry lost his focus to the spell after Neville killed Nagini as well as Voldemort. He had no Horcrux left to feel the connection, but I suppose it was more epic that way.

The amount of Death Eaters and werewolves seemed rather excessive... But good to see giants and Acromantulas. Just no centaurs were spotted.

I liked Fiendfyre. But no explanation behind it? Ron could've mentioned it while he was running away from it initially. And a comment from Malfoy berating Crabbe from losing control. I did laugh at the new Goyle actor. He's black now?

No explanation behind the alarms set at Hogsmede. My girlfriend was like 'what?', having not read the books after the fourth.

Still hate Malfoy. Never redeems himself. He was about to kill Harry at the end, but chickened out again. Doesn't redeem him that he was too much of a coward to stand up for himself right until the end.

Grey Lady was good. Shame some of these things weren't foreshadowed well or at all.

Wandlore is still messed up. If it only applied to the Elder Wand, it'd be much easier to deal with...

Volde-baby in Harry's mind reminded me of chicken.

Epilogue was still kind of painful, but not as. Probably because only Albus Serverus was mentioned by name... Malfoy looked ridiculous in his makeup, as did Ron's hair. Hermione, of course, looked the best.

Don't get me wrong. While they bugged me, not all changes were bad. Some worked well. Some were just unnecessary.

Again, sad it's over. Big part of my life while I was growing up - started to read fanfiction while I was sick for three years. But at least the last two movies were good. Better than the book.

 

Just went and saw it, and I agree that it was both the best movie so far and better than the book. I still didn't love it though. There's only so much they could do with that disaster of an ending.

I think I spend so much time with this crowd that I forget about the people that really really love canon. The theater burst into applause when Harry and Ginny kissed, and I was like "wtf" and then "oh my god, I'm surrounded". Actually, I think the most entertaining part of my night might have been the audience. Some chick starting wailing when they showed Fred's body, and wouldn't quiet down. People eventually started telling her to be quiet, but she didn't stop until someone on the other side of the theater shouted at her to "shut the fuck up, didn't you read the book". There were definitely kids in the theater.

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As far as the movie itself, the scene with the Grey Lady was the highpoint for me, randomly enough. The gringotts scene was pretty good. Snape's death was surprisingly violent, tear-memory whatever-that-was none withstanding. Ron speaking parseltougue was still retarded. The Draco/Voldemort hug was awesomely awkward. The Harry/Ginny kiss was just plain awkward. The Ron/Hermoine kiss was cheesy, but at least they looked like they had chemistry, unlike Harry and Ginny. The Hogwarts battle had its moments, but was overall underwhelming. The Carrows were nonentities, which is a shame, since they were better villains that Voldemort who was too much a caricature to be frightening at this point. If you can't give us a good hero, you should at least give us a good villain. That scene where Harry meets the ghosts of his parents and the marauders was horrible, but that was mostly the source materials fault.

The movie would really have benefited from cutting the epilogue. That scene where Harry snaps the elder wand and the trio stands together in front of the ruins of Hogwarts? That was an excellent ending. There's a reason fairy tales end with "and they all lived happily ever after". It's because "and they all lived happily ever after and still hung out and had three kids who looked like so and were named such and such" is incredibly boring. That shit is for teen dramas, and I hate it for ruining a powerful ending, which is even more important in a movie.

And to the poster who said

that's because she looked exactly the same. The others looked ridiculous, but at least they were noticeably different. I actually think Ginny (gasp, blasphemy) had the most convincing makeover.

So yeah...I don't regret going. Even if I disliked the last couple of books, I've gotten endless hours of entertainment from the fanfiction the series spawned. Harry Potter, while not anywhere near my favorite series of books, has been a huge part of my youth. This feels like the end of an era, and I'm glad I went.

 

Great movie, with a lot of goofy parts. Snape's death was great, though its location change sucked. Voldemort was a joke; no genuinely sinister scenes with him except the one at Gringotts after harry, Ron, Hermione escape. I liked the scenes at Hogwarts before the battle; the part where the suits of armor come out was great.

 

I felt like I was in an audience of people who had definitely not read the book. Hearing snippets of conversation afterward sort of confirmed that belief. I did enjoy myself but I can't help but think it's not that great of a movie--never mind that the other movies are in the back of my mind as I think about Part II. I view it as a series, and with the exception of the first two, there is no flow to the movies, which is to be expected with so many directors, so many different visions and so few moments where someone stepped in and said, "Alright, lets try to build some cohesion here...."

Then again, I have always harped on how they should have waited until the final book was done before starting the movies. There's something to be said about a potential Philosopher's Stone scene where we catch a glimpse of the Deathly Hallows mark on Harry's newly gained invisibility cloak. The constant changing of dialog and the new scenes are poor choices; what this series needed was cohesion.

 

@scaryisntit:
The black dude is actually Blaise Zabini.

 

Know how I know you didn't read that book? :awesome

Seriously, though... I haven't seen the movie yet. On the other hand, my brother, who doesn't give two shits about HP; hasn't read the books; and didn't even see the first half of DH, was invited to see it, so he went.

And got a pair of 3D glasses, shaped like Harry's, that they only gave to the first 300 people.

Now, in the grand scheme of things, it's not that big of a deal... but I have this sneaking suspicion that if I ever totally lose it and finally (and righteously) put him out of my misery, it's going to be a sideways glance at the glasses moldering away on his cigarette-tar-encrusted entertainment center that precipitates the initial stroke of Götterdämmerung.

It would be like the Pac Man watch in Penny Arcade.

 

My friend and I were sitting in between two large groups of girls at the midnight premier. Not a one of them seemed to have read the books. To my horror, they all seemed to know each other and they struck up a rather loud conversation that lasted the entire hour-long wait until the previews began.

The topic of their conversation?

Twilight.

 

You see, this is where (if you have no interest in boning either group of girls) you loudly announce that Twilight sucks balls compared to Harry Potter, and is inferior to it in every single way.

Best part of that? No matter how much they bitch, you win because a.) they're the ones at the premiere of the final HP movie and b.) they can't diss HP, because you're likely surrounded by more HP freaks than Twitards.

On a side note, I still haven't seen the movie yet. The review will be posted when I do.

 

I'm not the type to publicly humiliate and emotionally scar a group of high-school fangirls. I just snickered quietly in my seat.

 

Shame. When I saw your post here, I was hoping to read one of these epic reviews of yours.

About a movie:

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Neville was a boss. NL/LL is a canon in movie verse, which is fine by me. I've never understood why Rowling didn't make it happen in books. It's not like she had a problem with convenient relationships, so why not have all of the Ministry Six be together?

And for some reason I really liked the scene with Malfoys getting away from Hogwarts.

 

Haven't watched an HP film since Prisoner of Azkaban and I don't see myself bothering with this one. Not much of a moviegoer in any event.

 

And yet she still killed Tonks.

 

That part was awesome, not sure why. Just typical Malfoys looking out for them selves above everybody else.

 

Just came back from the cinema, and it was ok. Some scenes were a little...off, but in general it was epic.

My theatre was shit though. All the lowest slapstick got big laughs and the funniest line in the movie ("Lets finish this like we started it...together.") got zero laughs, I felt like a tool when I couldn't hold in a cackle. Also, right behind me were two idiot girls, one who was dumb and one who was loud. Apparently they thought they were an Abbott and Costello style double act, since they provided an artful, detailed commentary loud enough for the whole theatre to hear, explaining all of the obvious plot points and examining the attractiveness of every male character, often right in the middle of dialogue. Thanks for being bogan, Wollongong.

The movie itself...yeah. Took itself too seriously at times, and the attempts to lighten the mood (eg. Mcgonagall's "I've always wanted to use that spell") seemed weirdly out of place in the grand finale. Some really underused drama could have heightened the tension of the final scenes, stuff like the deaths of Harry's friends was almost glossed over, they die really quickly in the battle and apart from a 15 second death recap scene, there is no reflection on this. A missed opportunity to inject some emotion into the end, but thats what the previous films were for I guess.

I think the movie on its own is good, but it relies far too much on the nostalgia of the series to succeed. Counting that factor, I really liked it, and it provided an appropriate resolution to a decade of movies that were in themselves emotional, but I didn't watch most of them, and its been sometime since I've read the books. Without that emotional base, it seems like this movie doesn't quite reach the standard it should have.

Standout performances by Alan Rickman and Emma Watson (because I'd like to put my penis in her, if you know what I mean) were fun and Ralph Fiennes makes the best of a terrible script. Some scenes were painfully obvious, like when the gang falls through the Thieves Downfall, we get a shot of Hermione's cleavage right in the camera, and a rather long changing scene that focuses on Dan's torso, but the battles are well executed and obviously the cg is top notch.

Eh, its a 3.5/5 and thats all.

 

The movie was... better than I expected. Some of it was laughably cheesy, but it was overall an ok movie. Neville was a BOSS! He's arguably my favorite character because of this movie, but I do have a suspicous question about luna. Wasn't the werewolf (who I think was greyback) eating her, and she looked dead when they sent her flying. And how did she get to hogwarts anyway?

Am I the only one that noticed that Dumbledore didn't tell Harry he was sorry for you know, making him pretty much die for all wizarding kind.

 

It does seem like the HBP and DH movies they tried to fix some of the problems their respective books had, which I suppose is a credit to them.

Then again, it might be a case of the film series just continuing the split from the books that started with the PoA movie, except that since HBP and DH were weaker books, the changes wound up being mostly positive ones.

 

Felt too rushed at times, but was okay on the whole. Random impressions follow.

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I liked Griphook. He was one cynical motherfucker. Too bad he got killed. Or maybe not.

They did well to have the treasure in the vault multiply without heating, because that part was just unrealistic (getting away with only a few burns, wtf). Being buried alive under a mountain of treasure is terrifying enough.

The Ron/Hermione kiss was good because they did it right after destroying a horcrux and facing some scary shit, not because of something Ron said about the stupid house elves (who, thankfully, aren't even in the movie). Also, I LOLed when the very next scene was of Voldemort freaking out. Guess he was a H/Hr shipper.

The diadem of Ravenclaw looked badass. I'd wear that shit.

Didn't like Snape talking to Voldemort in the same condescending tone he uses with students. Wasn't he supposed to be afraid of the guy? It was nice to see him showing some real emotion in the memory sequence, though.

Goyle’s death scene = win.

Don’t know why Dumbledore’s sister was even mentioned, since her story was never properly explained. Waste of time. Dumbledore comes off as enough of a dick in the dream sequence, anyway.

Could have given the Deathly Hallows a little more attention. It is the title of the movie, after all.

Voldemort was good, that is to say, creepy and revolting, just as a proper villain should be.

Harry’s fight with Voldemort, as has been pointed out, was what it should have been like in the book.

Lack of Slughorn’s duel with Voldemort = unforgivable.

The epilogue was not annoying and even kind of touching, spoiled only by the mention of the name "Albus Severus Potter"

 

Just came back from the cinema and after movie bull session- CGI was cool, DH bullshit was still crappy, cohesion was lacking in many scenes. 3/5