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marinessBut first, a question from the Americans in the audience: does it really take Londoners that long to brew a cup of cappuccino? And if so, how on earth is London, as a city, going to be able to handle the Olympics?
But enough of this. Some spoilery thoughts below:
1. Backtrack a little: when I saw the fourth film, my main thought was (and remains): they should not have tried to cram this book into a single movie. Afterwards, I was bombarded with questions from people who had seen the first three films but not read the books and were unable to follow what was going on. I felt the same, if not quite as strongly, about the fifth movie, but not about the sixth, which I thought worked just fine as a movie (even if, after I went to check, I realized that it barely resembled the book.)
I bring this up now because, if the fourth book really should have been made into two films, the seventh book has the opposite problem: based on at least part one, this book easily could have been made into just one film. (Or, at least, this part one could have been considerably shorter.) We do get lots of long, sweeping shots. We do get some marvelous set pieces - I liked the infiltration of the Ministry, although if my recollection is right this is one place where several changes were made from the book. But much of the film feels like padding, and I'm not certain we've gained all that much from the extra time spent.
In addition, some of the things left in because the film had time for them end up feeling really strange -- in particular, Bill and Fleur's wedding. As a fan of the books, sure, yes, I wanted to see it. But in the movies, I realized: we'd never met Bill before, so it made little sense to suddenly pause for his wedding. More to the point, the wedding immediately follows a massive chase scene, a major injury, and a couple of deaths, and, as Ginny notes, it feels off. Harry's pathetic attempt to say, "Well, maybe people need weddings at a time like this," doesn't work against a background of "SECURITY SECURITY SECURITY WE COULD ALL DIE IMMEDIATELY WE ARE DYING IMMEDIATELY OH, INVITE LOTS OF GUESTS OVER FOR A PARTY."
2. Speaking of Ginny, I saw this problem coming as I read the book, and it's definitely a problem here: the romantic lead for the hero is barely in the film. If you haven't seen the previous films or read the books, you will have no idea who she is, and if you have seen the previous films or read the books, you can be forgiven for forgetting her existence entirely, and assuming that Harry and Hermione, against all previous hints and predictions, will end up together after all. And since we had the time, I would have liked to have kept the bit where Harry assures Ron that he thinks of Hermione as a sister, and tells Ron just how much Hermione missed him.)
2. C pointed out a severe problem with the movie: the heroes have a goal, a real goal: go find Horcruxes and destroy them. Yay goal! And then, suddenly, towards the end, we find out that the heroes actually have a second goal, the Deathly Hallows, creating a second major goal even as the heroes are making little progress with the first. I seem to recall this was an issue in the book, as well, but at least there, the book made it fairly clear that we had already seen at least two of the Deathly Hallows. Here, no one on screen makes that connection: what you have is a confusing bit of heroes rushing off to destroy Horcruxes and also finding out about evil wand. It's too much - which seems odd to say in a film that I'm saying felt padded.
3. Also, it must be said: with the exception of the Green Lantern trailer at the beginning, this is a kinda depressing film. (And even the Green Lantern trailer led to minor depression, since C still wants Ryan Reynolds to play the Flash, not Hal Jordan, so, you know, mixed feelings there.)
4. But even in all of this depressing greyness and questionable pacing, I found a lot to love. The acting, as always, was superb: these kid actors have really grown into their parts, and they were all uniformly excellent. Bill Nighy's little moment was deliciously fun. The multiple Harry Potters - hilarious. Luna cracked me up. The scene where Hermione erases her parents' memories -- sniffle. And - my favorite moment of the film, hands down -- I adored the animated folktale sequence: beautiful.
Still nowhere near the best of the Harry Potter films: Azkaban, the third.
I should also note that although our theater was only half full, we still managed to be severely distracted during the last few minutes by a couple of teenage girls that were GOING THROUGH LIKE THE WORST THING EVER BECAUSE OH MY GOD HE WAS ACTUALLY DUMPING HER NOW BY TEXT EVEN THOUGH SHE TOLD HIM SHE WAS GOING TO THE MOVIES AND THEY HAD TO GET OUT OF HERE EXCEPT THAT NO THEY HAD TO SEE THE END BECAUSE SHE WAS SO TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH THIS AND SHE JUST HAD TO SEE IT and so on. Why this also had to involve hitting our chairs and jumping a lot and squealing I am not sure, but, guys, I have a request: if you are planning on dumping any teenage girls by text in the future, please wait until after they get out of the movie.
(Why, yes, I'm being unfair.)
I'd say more, but this is rambling enough and gelato is calling me.
But enough of this. Some spoilery thoughts below:
1. Backtrack a little: when I saw the fourth film, my main thought was (and remains): they should not have tried to cram this book into a single movie. Afterwards, I was bombarded with questions from people who had seen the first three films but not read the books and were unable to follow what was going on. I felt the same, if not quite as strongly, about the fifth movie, but not about the sixth, which I thought worked just fine as a movie (even if, after I went to check, I realized that it barely resembled the book.)
I bring this up now because, if the fourth book really should have been made into two films, the seventh book has the opposite problem: based on at least part one, this book easily could have been made into just one film. (Or, at least, this part one could have been considerably shorter.) We do get lots of long, sweeping shots. We do get some marvelous set pieces - I liked the infiltration of the Ministry, although if my recollection is right this is one place where several changes were made from the book. But much of the film feels like padding, and I'm not certain we've gained all that much from the extra time spent.
In addition, some of the things left in because the film had time for them end up feeling really strange -- in particular, Bill and Fleur's wedding. As a fan of the books, sure, yes, I wanted to see it. But in the movies, I realized: we'd never met Bill before, so it made little sense to suddenly pause for his wedding. More to the point, the wedding immediately follows a massive chase scene, a major injury, and a couple of deaths, and, as Ginny notes, it feels off. Harry's pathetic attempt to say, "Well, maybe people need weddings at a time like this," doesn't work against a background of "SECURITY SECURITY SECURITY WE COULD ALL DIE IMMEDIATELY WE ARE DYING IMMEDIATELY OH, INVITE LOTS OF GUESTS OVER FOR A PARTY."
2. Speaking of Ginny, I saw this problem coming as I read the book, and it's definitely a problem here: the romantic lead for the hero is barely in the film. If you haven't seen the previous films or read the books, you will have no idea who she is, and if you have seen the previous films or read the books, you can be forgiven for forgetting her existence entirely, and assuming that Harry and Hermione, against all previous hints and predictions, will end up together after all. And since we had the time, I would have liked to have kept the bit where Harry assures Ron that he thinks of Hermione as a sister, and tells Ron just how much Hermione missed him.)
2. C pointed out a severe problem with the movie: the heroes have a goal, a real goal: go find Horcruxes and destroy them. Yay goal! And then, suddenly, towards the end, we find out that the heroes actually have a second goal, the Deathly Hallows, creating a second major goal even as the heroes are making little progress with the first. I seem to recall this was an issue in the book, as well, but at least there, the book made it fairly clear that we had already seen at least two of the Deathly Hallows. Here, no one on screen makes that connection: what you have is a confusing bit of heroes rushing off to destroy Horcruxes and also finding out about evil wand. It's too much - which seems odd to say in a film that I'm saying felt padded.
3. Also, it must be said: with the exception of the Green Lantern trailer at the beginning, this is a kinda depressing film. (And even the Green Lantern trailer led to minor depression, since C still wants Ryan Reynolds to play the Flash, not Hal Jordan, so, you know, mixed feelings there.)
4. But even in all of this depressing greyness and questionable pacing, I found a lot to love. The acting, as always, was superb: these kid actors have really grown into their parts, and they were all uniformly excellent. Bill Nighy's little moment was deliciously fun. The multiple Harry Potters - hilarious. Luna cracked me up. The scene where Hermione erases her parents' memories -- sniffle. And - my favorite moment of the film, hands down -- I adored the animated folktale sequence: beautiful.
Still nowhere near the best of the Harry Potter films: Azkaban, the third.
I should also note that although our theater was only half full, we still managed to be severely distracted during the last few minutes by a couple of teenage girls that were GOING THROUGH LIKE THE WORST THING EVER BECAUSE OH MY GOD HE WAS ACTUALLY DUMPING HER NOW BY TEXT EVEN THOUGH SHE TOLD HIM SHE WAS GOING TO THE MOVIES AND THEY HAD TO GET OUT OF HERE EXCEPT THAT NO THEY HAD TO SEE THE END BECAUSE SHE WAS SO TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH THIS AND SHE JUST HAD TO SEE IT and so on. Why this also had to involve hitting our chairs and jumping a lot and squealing I am not sure, but, guys, I have a request: if you are planning on dumping any teenage girls by text in the future, please wait until after they get out of the movie.
(Why, yes, I'm being unfair.)
I'd say more, but this is rambling enough and gelato is calling me.