As the last movie of the Harry Potter series ever, I knew I had to be there at midnight to see it. I remember seeing the first movie way back in 2001. I was eleven years old, the same age as the kids playing the golden trio. After reading the first book in 1999, I didn't actually pick up the second one until after I saw the first movie. From then on, I was hooked.
I don't really want to get too sappy because anyone who reads this will probably think I am absolutely barmy (yeah, I pulled out barmy). But I was excited and very sad that it had to end. When the seventh book came out, I told myself that I still had movies to see. It wasn't really over. Well, now it really is. And the question on a lot of people's minds is, what do I do now?
It's a little sad to think that we have to ask that question. I mean, we will move on with our lives and be done with it. But I still thought it. Harry Potter was my childhood. I looked forward to every single one of those books and every movie. The books were what started me on reading. If you think about it, maybe I would have never been an English major if it weren't for those books. If I didn't enjoy reading and writing so much, I would have never picked this major, and HP was was kick started by drive for reading.
Okay, enough of that. On to the movie. If you don't want to be spoiled as to any of the actual details, I would stop reading now. Maybe come back later to see what I thought about it.
I waited in line with my friend Liz who is an avid Potter junkie which means she is very critical of the movies. If you are anything like that, you may not enjoy parts of it. They do deviate from the book in quite a few places. The overall meaning is basically the same, they just go about it in a different way. I'm not quite as critical; I don't mind the movies going slightly of course because it makes for a good movie.
Where I do get annoyed is when they leave information out that probably would have been very useful to explain to people that hadn't read the books. Liz told me last night that she thinks they dumb it down too much. And to a certain extent I would agree, particularly when Ollivander says, "Voldemort is after you Harry." Well no kidding. But, there are other times, they don't dumb it down enough and just skim over parts that were kind of needed.
This movie is the shortest of all of them which ticked me off a little. First of all, it's the last one! Go big or go home! I would have gladly sat through a three hour movie of awesomeness, but apparently the director wasn't having that. Secondly, with all of the action, the short movie just flies by. I wish they had slowed it down at the beginning, laid the scene, given the trio a concrete plan like in the book.
But, having said that. There really were some fantastic parts to the movie. SPOILERS!
The scene in which the battle begins, and the teachers protect the school was fantastic. You really could feel the finality in it all. When Voldemort kills Snape, I seriously felt bad for the guy. Now that's acting! Alan Rickman, you are the man! The scene literally was perfect. And just following his death, Snape's memories of the past with Lily and James Potter...wow. This sequence was nothing short of fantastic. The way the director integrated the kids within the sequence and intertwining it with more recent memories was a great way to connect the characters.
The other big scene that brought the whole thing home was when Harry went to face Voldemort, knowing that he had to die. It didn't happen quite the same way in the book, but it looked amazing. The castle in ruins, families crying over the deaths of loved ones, and all the while Harry is walking into the Forbidden Forest. Along with this scene is the one in which Harry opens the snitch that Dumbledore gave him in the first part. Inside is the resurrection stone that brings back people from the dead momentarily. I was crying, sniffling, and making a fool of myself. I always admired the way Rowling has Harry willingly die at the end. There is not a word to describe the bravery in that act, but Danielle Radcliffe did a great job as he was facing the end.
The ending battle scene between Voldemort and Harry is way longer in the movie, but we don't get that nice scene in which Harry calls out Tom Riddle.
“You don’t learn from your mistakes, Riddle, do you?”
“You dare -”
“Yes, I dare,” said Harry. “I know things you don’t know, Tom Riddle. I know lots of important things that you don’t. Want to hear some, before you make another big mistake?”That was a little sad. In the book, the scene worked well, but it may have been too cheesy for the movie. What they did replace it with was ten minutes of Harry and Voldy going after it.
All in all, the end is the same. The wizarding world is saved, and I am left without any more movies or books. I'm giving it four out of five stars (maybe 4 1/2 after I see it again). You have to go into the movie understanding things will be different, and I think you will enjoy it more.
All is well.
