After having watched most of the previous five movies on ABC Family last weekend, I have to say, it it quite impressive how much the children's acting has improved in the last ten years. Most of them were quite dreadful in the first movie and all of them have turned into great actors. The adults, however, have always been fantastic and Alan Rickman seriously deserves an Academy Award for his portrayal of Professor Severus Snape.
While I did have a few issues with the film, in comparison to the books, they are mostly minor details and did not take anything away from the plot.
If you have not yet seen the movie and do not want any spoilers then STOP READING NOW.
If you have already seen the movie, or just do not care about spoilers, then you may continue.
Do not say I didn't warn you...
The main thing that really bothered me was the lack of information about Dumbledore's past.
Rita Skeeter's book is talked about a lot in Part One, but they do not go into detail about it, which makes me wonder why it is in the movie in the first place. In the book, we learn all about Dumbledore's childhood, his brother Aberforth and sister Ariana. We also learn about his supposed obsession with the Dark Arts as a child and his unlikely friendship with future-dark-wizard Gellert Grindelwald. The only real thing that has been important from Skeeter's book in the movie was that Hermione finds the sign of the Deathly Hallows again. I have said this about previous movies and I will say it again, if the film makers are not going to give us all the details about these things then why mention them in the first place? Harry needs to know about the Deathly Hallows because Voldemort looking for the wand is an important plot point, but if you are not going to use all of Dumbledore's backstory then do not use any of it because it just makes things more confusing. Why have Aberforth even mention his sister before letting the children into the castle? It serves no purpose and could easily have been left out.
The only other little thing was with Lupin and Tonks. In the first movie, when they are all about to take the Polyjuice Potion to leave Privet Drive, Tonks starts to announce something and Lupin cuts her off. We know from the books, that she was pregnant, but at no point do they ever actually say it in the movie. Then, after Lupin dies and Harry sees him with Sirius and his parents, Harry talks about Lupin's son. The son is also left out of the epilogue, so why even bring him up in the first place? Again, this is something that could have been left out and it would not have made a difference.
There were many other things in the final movie that were either slightly different than the book or in a different order, however, it did not irritate me as much with this movie as it has previously. Although, I still maintain that they did not explain the horcruxes well enough, or how Harry knows what each of them is or where to look for them. I thought that in general, this was very good story-telling and there were very few things that I took issue with. It was just overall an entertaining movie and the little things that were off did not distract me enough to not enjoy the movie...if that makes sense at all. Also, I did not see it in 3-D and do not think it is necessary to see it in 3-D.
My favorite characters from this film definitely have to be Professor McGonagall, Mrs. Weasley and Neville Longbottom. They are all totally bad-ass and I loved it! I especially love that they put in my favorite line from the book, which was when Mrs. Weasley is fighting Bellatrix Lestrange and she yells, "Not my daughter, you bitch!" This scene below was also a favorite, although the best part of the scene comes just after this:
I do not think that any of the movies can ever compare the books. There is just way too much information that has to be left out for the sake of storytelling and time. J.K. Rowling created an entire world with so much detail and it would be impossible to get everything exactly right. Minor issues aside, I think the film makers did a great job and made a series of highly entertaining movies.
I am sad that the series is over, but they ended it well. This just means I have to re-read all the books and re-watch all the movies...for the hundredth time....at least :o)
xoxo
c
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Great review, Cath. I agree wholeheartedly with everything you said, aside from liking Order of the Phoenix better. I think this one became my new favorite movie in the series, largely because it is the highest caliber acting in the series, stays rather true to the books, had brilliant cinematography and special effects and was the perfect ending to the series. My second favorite in the series is probably The Prisoner of Azkaban or The Half-Blood Prince.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting bit about Alan Rickman. I read somewhere that right after he was cast as Snape for the first movie, J.K. Rowling took him aside and told him all about Snape's background, his history with Harry's parents, specifically Lily. I think that he's the caliber of actor that was able to use that information to just deepen his performance... you can see his conflict at times throughout the series and even a bit of a fatherly inclination at times towards Harry. I really hope he gets nominated for a few awards, because he definitely deserves them.
Also loved Neville in this one. His character was brilliant and Matthew Lewis did a great job bringing it to life. It's also a little funny - from the previews I thought I'd be disappointed with Dan Radcliffe's acting in this one, but it seems to me they took his worst bits for the previews. Odd choices there, but he was terrific and probably was his best performance in the series. I'm sad to see it end, but glad they finished it off appropriately and kept it true to the series.