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marinessHarry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, part two
It only took eight films.
I've enjoyed most of the Harry Potter film outings, even the really not very good films four and five where I found myself having to explain what had just happened to people who had not read the books but had seen the previous films, a sign of a bad movie adaptation. And film six, which I liked but other people really didn't, and which took some major liberties with the book (I forgot how many until I went back and checked the book.) And even most of film seven even though that was a kinda dreary and depressing film, leaving me wondering just why the producers had bothered to separate Deathly Hallows into two films at all.
Well, now I know. It certainly wasn't to create a good first half: it was to make sure they could do the ending properly, and they did, to the point where even my father, who has not read the books and was expecting Harry and Hermione to hook up, and was annoyed at all the "pointless" bad guys in the previous films, was reconciled to Harry and Hermione not getting together and thought the film was excellent.
And for the first time, the movie franchise has managed to create something better than the book.
I didn't hate the last book, mind you. I liked it, but I thought it fell flat, particularly in comparison to the earlier books in the series, which had consistently managed to surprise me. The main surprise in the last book was how a writer who had done such a remarkable job with the awkwardness of a first crush and general high school misunderstandings between Harry and Cho could let her larger romance between Harry and Ginny fall so flat in its final moments, and how such an ongoing death toll could somehow still manage to feel so unimportant, and so on. I felt then, and still feel, that the rush to get that book out, and the pressure of its worldwide anticipation, had killed something essential, some inner love and drive that had made it through the first six books and just couldn't squeeze through the last.
The movie, surprisingly, turns this around. Perhaps because the images of dead students has a stronger impact on screen than it did in the books (I saw this film right after reading a more detailed account of those horrible Norway attacks, perhaps because in the film it somehow makes more sense for Harry to steal a quiet moment to try to understand what is going on and just why everyone about him is dying with a few moments in the Pensieve and Snape's memories. Perhaps because Alan Rickman manages to clarify, in one line, just how atrocious and terrible Dumbledore has been in so many ways, with raising Harry like a pig about to be slaughtered, not to mention forcing him to live with the horrible Dursleys and nearly get killed in the seven proceeding films. Since Harry – and the film – still believe in Dumbledore, this gives a better sense of what's at stake here.
And, too, thanks to the framing and certain shots, this film actually feels epic, in the way the final book really didn't. Even some of the smaller roles – Professor MacGonagall standing up against Snape and later leading the battle, and of course, Neville's great moments: first standing up to Voldemort and giving his speech, and then killing the snake. It has fun callbacks to the earlier films – the bit where Professor MacGonagall explains that Seamus Finnigan has a gift for blowing things up; the various cameos from most of the good guys from previous films; the return of the Cornish pixies, and so on. It has some lovely character moments; it actually remembers that yes, Harry and Ginny are supposed to have feelings for each other while not changing what happens in the book, even if these feelings mostly compromise blank stares.
Sure, I recognized the dire hand of Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in more than a couple of scenes. And yes, if you haven't at least seen the previous films, you will be lost, and even if you have seen the previous films, you may, like some of our audience members, be saying, ok, what was the deal with the gold ball and the little stone? It just summons ghosts? (That this was the third Deathly Hollow was lost on everyone who hadn't read the books, but I'm not sure it's that important. You could easily think that the Deathly Hollows were the bits of Voldemort's soul that everyone was chasing around and follow the film just fine).
But otherwise, decent flick. And I suppose that two decent films out of eight isn't terrible.
And, well, Alan Rickman rocks.
It only took eight films.
I've enjoyed most of the Harry Potter film outings, even the really not very good films four and five where I found myself having to explain what had just happened to people who had not read the books but had seen the previous films, a sign of a bad movie adaptation. And film six, which I liked but other people really didn't, and which took some major liberties with the book (I forgot how many until I went back and checked the book.) And even most of film seven even though that was a kinda dreary and depressing film, leaving me wondering just why the producers had bothered to separate Deathly Hallows into two films at all.
Well, now I know. It certainly wasn't to create a good first half: it was to make sure they could do the ending properly, and they did, to the point where even my father, who has not read the books and was expecting Harry and Hermione to hook up, and was annoyed at all the "pointless" bad guys in the previous films, was reconciled to Harry and Hermione not getting together and thought the film was excellent.
And for the first time, the movie franchise has managed to create something better than the book.
I didn't hate the last book, mind you. I liked it, but I thought it fell flat, particularly in comparison to the earlier books in the series, which had consistently managed to surprise me. The main surprise in the last book was how a writer who had done such a remarkable job with the awkwardness of a first crush and general high school misunderstandings between Harry and Cho could let her larger romance between Harry and Ginny fall so flat in its final moments, and how such an ongoing death toll could somehow still manage to feel so unimportant, and so on. I felt then, and still feel, that the rush to get that book out, and the pressure of its worldwide anticipation, had killed something essential, some inner love and drive that had made it through the first six books and just couldn't squeeze through the last.
The movie, surprisingly, turns this around. Perhaps because the images of dead students has a stronger impact on screen than it did in the books (I saw this film right after reading a more detailed account of those horrible Norway attacks, perhaps because in the film it somehow makes more sense for Harry to steal a quiet moment to try to understand what is going on and just why everyone about him is dying with a few moments in the Pensieve and Snape's memories. Perhaps because Alan Rickman manages to clarify, in one line, just how atrocious and terrible Dumbledore has been in so many ways, with raising Harry like a pig about to be slaughtered, not to mention forcing him to live with the horrible Dursleys and nearly get killed in the seven proceeding films. Since Harry – and the film – still believe in Dumbledore, this gives a better sense of what's at stake here.
And, too, thanks to the framing and certain shots, this film actually feels epic, in the way the final book really didn't. Even some of the smaller roles – Professor MacGonagall standing up against Snape and later leading the battle, and of course, Neville's great moments: first standing up to Voldemort and giving his speech, and then killing the snake. It has fun callbacks to the earlier films – the bit where Professor MacGonagall explains that Seamus Finnigan has a gift for blowing things up; the various cameos from most of the good guys from previous films; the return of the Cornish pixies, and so on. It has some lovely character moments; it actually remembers that yes, Harry and Ginny are supposed to have feelings for each other while not changing what happens in the book, even if these feelings mostly compromise blank stares.
Sure, I recognized the dire hand of Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in more than a couple of scenes. And yes, if you haven't at least seen the previous films, you will be lost, and even if you have seen the previous films, you may, like some of our audience members, be saying, ok, what was the deal with the gold ball and the little stone? It just summons ghosts? (That this was the third Deathly Hollow was lost on everyone who hadn't read the books, but I'm not sure it's that important. You could easily think that the Deathly Hollows were the bits of Voldemort's soul that everyone was chasing around and follow the film just fine).
But otherwise, decent flick. And I suppose that two decent films out of eight isn't terrible.
And, well, Alan Rickman rocks.