So, yes, I’ll admit it; I totally jumped on the Harry Potter bandwagon. Regrettably, I completely judged the books/movies as youthful nonsense and didn’t think much of the series until I saw The Deathly Hallows Part 1. I became intrigued and then somehow read all 6.5 of the books in three week’s time. I can’t imagine what kind of ride it’s been like for the true fans who’ve waited this series out from the beginning. My theoretical hat is off to you. That being said, I was more than excited for this last movie to come out and felt legitimate pain that I had to wait two whole weeks before I could see it in the theater.
No need to read any further (not like many of you do anyways); it was an epic of epic epicness!
The beginning of the movie had a really killer score which was different from all of the other movies and had this perfect eerie vocal accompaniment which, correct me if I’m wrong, none of the other films had. Eventually, the score turned into the same we've come to expect. The first few minutes of the movie felt as if I was watching an episode of Game of Thrones. I have no idea why I’m referencing that show because I’ve never even seen an episode. But it just had this feeling as though the story was epic, legendary, even and just driping with the gravity of the story. The way all of the movies, or at least these last few, should’ve felt. All this from a new score, blue filter, and long panning shots of the characters looking into the distance amidst timeless backdrops. As the movie continues, it starts to feel like the Harry Potter movies we know, and love. But it does still carry some of gravity of the movie with it in some of the scenes.
There was no expense spared in any of the CGI in the movie. Looking closely, you can tell some of the water scenes were shot in a tank and some of the flying scenes weren’t real – but on the whole, the effects surpassed all of the previous movies.
The script was pretty spot-on with the book. There were several slight changes to make things more dramatic – which I’m all for. There was one scene which irked me and I’ll explain later. I read the last half of the book after I saw the movie and liked pretty much all of the changes. I felt this movie did a good job of explaining everything – which some of the previous ones were notorious for not doing. The movie did have about seven endings, but I actually prefer to have movies like that so I don’t feel short-changed – unless it’s a movie I’m ready to get out of.
Now, I will say that the actors. . . how do I put this? They had more time to shine in Part 1. This movie was all about the action. There wasn’t very much time spent for feelings, relationships, talking, etc. Who needs it when there’s a battle to win right? I would’ve liked to see a bit more of this in the film. I guess when you look at both of these movies as a whole, we got the character development in the first half. There still is one scene that was begging for some character development, and I’ll explain later. The movie did take the time to incorporate all of the characters that it needed, which was great – no skimming over the smaller characters like in the previous movies. Was it worth losing the character development of the main characters? The movie was pretty fast paced so I could see where it would’ve been hard to throw some dramatic monologues in there.
So, overall this was the way it needed to be done. Better than I imagined it was going to be. No Sopranos ending here. Again, I’m referencing a show I’ve never seen! You’re asking yourself was it that good? Yes ,to the two of you reading this, it was! It holds the record for biggest midnight opener, biggest single day opening, and biggest weekend opening both domestic and foreign – so yeah, it’s good. “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living”
Yes, there were a couple of things that could’ve used some reworking . . .
**spoiler alert**
This revelation is really the only thing that irked me in the movie; the scene where Harry is going into the forest and finds Ron and Hermione on the stairs. “I’m going to the forest to meet my death”. “No”. “I have to”. “ok”. “I’ll come with you”. “No”. “Give me a three second hug then”. “Ron, you want a hug, mate?” “No I’m ok. I’ll just look at you with a serious expression on my face and stand here while you leave to face your death”. . . c’mon. There is no way those two would have ever let Harry go do that and there’s especially no way they wouldn’t have followed him there. Go back and watch all the movies or read the books and count the number of times they’ve literally thrown themselves in front of him saying they’ll have to go through them to get to him. It ruined the seriousness of Harry’s decision. It was like, oh, of course it’ll work out, they’re not even that upset about it. Ok, let’s say somehow Harry talks them into letting him go , it wouldn’t have been that easy. It was much better in the book and should’ve stayed that way. So there it is, the one little thing that I did not like in this movie. I just don’t see what the reasoning behind this decision was when they wrote it this way?
The only other thing I might’ve changed; I would’ve spent a little bit more money to make them look older at the end. That’s it. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t very serious either – the scene, that is, not the movie. But I will say that the last shot of those three standing in a row together looking off-screen really tugged at your (dragon) heartstrings. It was very bittersweet. Then they play The Harry Potter theme over it and it’s just dripping with bittersweetness. The last time we’ll see those three characters together – then it fades to black.
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