[HPFGU-Movie] HP&DH Part 2 Movie Review - SPOILERS ABOUND!

[Valerie Flowe]

On Jul 18, 2011, at 11:39 AM, Phyllis wrote:
>
> <snip>Do we have new canon – was Snape at the Potter's house at
> Godric's Hollow the night of Voldemort's attack?!? Does this
> explain how Voldemort got his wand back? Although if Snape was upset  
> by
> Lily's death, perhaps he wouldn't have wanted to retrieve
> Voldemort's wand?
>
Val:  I didn't even think of Voldemort's wand. I guess I assumed he  
grabbed his wand and slithered away, a former shadow of himself and  
that he caught up w/Wormtail somewhere along the way. I see why they  
added the Snape finding Lily at Godric Hollow scene, to drive home the  
fact that Snape loved her so much. But geez, what a selfish B to just  
leave poor little baby Harry crying in the crib!! (the baby was a  
great actor by the way, lol! How'd they get him to cry like that?  
Broke  my heart!) So I guess Sirius showed up next, summoned Hagrid,  
gave him his bike and told him to bring the baby to Dumbledore while  
he ran off to kill Wormtail?

> <snip>My biggest gripe is the way in which the final confrontation  
> between
> Harry and Voldemort was changed. It just went on and on – it was so
> ridiculous at points (when they were both falling through the air,  
> when
> Voldemort had Harry bound but didn't do anything to him, when they
> were fighting like wand-less Muggles rather than wizards) that all of
> the suspense and anticipation were lost for me.
>
Val:  I agree that the diving into the abyss scene with them trying to  
rip each other's faces off and crashing through structures and all was  
a bit over the top. Tho it looked very cool the way they crashed to a  
stop, then scrambled for their wands. The robe 'tentacles' binding  
Harry was a bit random and lead to nothing, I agree that the fight  
scenes went on and on but then again, it was somewhat quick and anti- 
climactic in the book, imo.
>
> <snip>
> They left out most, but not all, of the Dumbledore backstory, which
> resulted in confusion about the significance of Ariana and the root
> cause of Aberforth's anger, and didn't explain how Dumbledore
> became injured by using the resurrection stone to try to bring his
> family back. Also, we lost the whole theme of Harry being the better
> man and being master of death by not wanting to unite the hallows. And
> why leave out Harry using the Elder Wand to repair his own wand?
>

> Val:  I was hoping they'd do a flashback during Aberforth's talk,  
> showing the fight between him, Albus, Grindelwald and Ariana getting  
> killed. Wouldn't have taken too long but yeah, if you didn't read  
> the book you'd be like "so what, so they had a sister, what of it?"  
> No talk of why she needed to be taken care of, getting tortured by  
> the muggle boys, dad killing them, etc. Course DH told D's backstory  
> and HBP told Voldemort's back story which they edited down to almost  
> nothing, in the movies. I know the directors have said that in the  
> interest of time and cohesion they focus the stories on Harry, not  
> on all the backstories (which I personally find fascinating and what  
> makes the books so rich. Ah well...)
>

> I didn't really care that Harry didn't repair his wand w/the elder  
> wand. After all why would he want a wand that chose him merely  
> because of his connection to Voldemort? Voldie's dead, baby!  
> Voldie's dead. I thought him snapping it was visually effective and  
> got the point across. Harry's not looking for 'eternal glory' and  
> power. He just wants to live a calm, normal life now.
>


> <snip>
> They didn't explain that Griphook wanted the sword so badly because
> he thought the sword was the property of the goblins because it was
> goblin-made. And why would Griphook ever be in Voldemort's presence
> – without Voldemort noticing that he's holding the sword of
> Griffindor?
>
Val:  TELL ME, were the dead goblins in Malfoy Manor or Gringotts?  
I've seen the film 2x now and it seems to me that somehow they were  
magicked to Malfoy Manor. Isn't that the same room w/the big fireplace  
where Bellatrix threw the knife that killed Dobby? Why else would  
Draco, Lucius and Narcissa all be there looking petrified? Surely V  
wouldn't have brought them w/him to check out the damage at Gringotts?  
My guess at why he didn't see the sword of Gryffindor is A) does he  
even know what that is? and B) he was probably too freaked out by his  
realization that Harry is killing him slowly horcrux by horcrux, to  
notice what Griphook is holding. I thought it was a pretty cool way of  
showing that the sword's allegiance was with Gryffindors, not goblins.
>
> <snip> Ollivander says that he told Voldemort where to find the  
> Elder Wand, but
> in the first part of the DH movie, Grindlewald tells Voldemort where  
> to
> find the Elder Wand. If the movie makers just stuck to the books, they
> wouldn't confuse themselves.
>
Val: Ollivander DID tell Voldie where to find the wand...with  
Grindelwald. Did anyone besides Grindelwald and Dumbledore even know  
that D had the wand?
>
> <snip>
> Percy shows up without any explanation – huh?
>

> Val: They just threw that in there for us book readers. I saw an  
> alternate scene online today where, when the Order walks into the  
> great hall, there is a pause, then Percy walks in and stands behind  
> Fred & George. They (and Bill) all turn and look at him, and kind of  
> smile, like "hey, you're not such a git after all". I liked that but  
> maybe they thought it was extraneous??
>
>
> <snip>Having Harry say goodbye to Hermione didn't work for me – he
> hugs her but not Ron? And Hermione knew all along that Harry was a
> horcrux and never told him?
>
Val:  REally? I LOVED that scene! Hermione's best acting ever! You can  
feel her angst at losing Harry. Ron's not very demonstrative. Would he  
have hugged Harry? Dunno; I think he was more in shock. They did lock  
eyes and I think that spoke volumes. I think all 3 of them deep down  
realized that H was a horcrux, but didn't want to admit it, even to  
themselves OR each other, because it was too horrible to even think of.
>
> <snip> Loved Professor McGonagall's joy at bringing the statues to  
> life and
> the duel between her and Snape was very well done. But why not include
> Professor Trelawney throwing orbs or Professor Sprout's use of
> vegetation?  Why did we have to suffer through Grawp in the fifth  
> movie if they
> weren't going to bring him back for the battle of the giants in this
> movie?
>

> Val: I missed seeing the house elves rise up en mass, tho of course  
> the movies really minimized them. I did want to see Kreacher become  
> all nice and loyal tho. Saw some interview where the special effects  
> guy was saying that his least successful CG character was Grawp. He  
> was pretty goofy. I didn't really miss him in this one.
>
> <snip> The epilogue actually worked OK – I thought they did a good  
> job of
> aging the characters, although I missed hearing that Neville became
> Hogwarts' herbology professor, and I thought they missed a key point
> by leaving out having everyone gawping at Harry.
>

> Val: I kind of wish they had had Draco and Harry really lock eyes  
> significantly, like in the book. I was hoping he'd have long hair  
> like Lucius, lol! Thought Harry looked the best, aged. Really  
> believable. I really wanted to see turquoise haired Teddy Tonks! Tho  
> I guess Harry's (?) son running up to tell everyone that Victoire &  
> Teddy were snogging was extraneous (albeit cute).
>
> Yates said they reshot that scene because the trio looked too old  
> and it was really noisy in Kings Cross and they didn't get great  
> acting from the kids. So this one must've been shot at Leavesden. I  
> too loved that the last notes of music are the original Hedwig's  
> theme. I was really expecting to be a lot more emotionally  
> devastated by the ending of this series, but I think the Epilogue  
> really helped wrap it up nicely, for me. The story felt satisfyingly  
> complete.
>




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