REVIEW for the final film

[Geoff]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, Valerie Flowe <valerie.flowe at ...> wrote:
 
> On Jul 16, 2011, at 5:46 PM, brigrove wrote:
> >
> > Maybe, if we're lucky, in fifty years, when I won't be here, they'll
> > remake the series with a British scriptwriter who understands British
> > humour and understatement and doesn't see dramatic action as the  
> > answer to everything.

<snip>

> Val:
> Wow; what scathing criticism! Sounds like you ruined the movie for  
> yourself with being overly judgmental and nit-picky with details.  
> We've always known that the movies will translate a bit differently  
> than the books. In the final 'book' battle Harry & Voldemort talk way  
> too much about redemption and such; it would've slowed down the  
> momentum of the battle. 

<Snip>

Geoff:
I agree with Brigrove about the ending.

May I start in case it seems otherwise, by saying that I am not biased in
favour of either medium: book or film. I have said in previous posts on 
Main that my route to meeting Harry was via a film – COS, which I saw
just after release at the end of 2002. This rapidly led me into the books 
and I shall celebrate eight years on these groups next month. So, I
have no axe to grind.

My general reaction was that I had enjoyed the film and although there
were some tweaks which had been made, it followed the story line well,
except for the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort, which 
I think moved disastrously away from the canon story. But why?

I have maintained on a number of occasions that, to me, chapters 33-36
of DH represent JKR's finest writing. I will often sit and read just those
chapters. In the film, I though the first three were good- especially the
forest scenes and King's Cross; the story then gets slightly altered up
to Voldemort producing Harry's "body". But the crunch comes when
Harry revealed himself to be still alive, there is this chase through the
halls up to on of the higher levels of Hogwarts when they come face to
face and Harry pulls Voldemort off the top with him. There appears to be
some sort of Apparition; I'm not sure who is doing it and the smoke trails
which represent this in the films seem to be going all over the place with
a crash landing in the courtyard. We have this long wand battle,
reminiscent of GOF with Voldemort finally being defeated and his body
disintegrating. It almost seems to be just one more scene in the slam-bang
battle we have watched for the previous hour.

What a comparison to the book. Here, Harry reveals that he is alive
whereupon the crowd falls silent and falls back. My imagination
sees something like a Roman gladiatorial contest in an arena. They circle, 
waiting to pounce, audience holding their collective breath as Harry prods 
Voldemort towards doubt and uncertainty with revelations about the 
Horcruxes and the Elder Wand and then, there is for me that stunning  
moment when the rising sun comes across the window sill, and the spells 
are fired which end the duel. It is so much more a fitting closure than the 
rather hidden-away and downbeat closing crafted by David Yates.

But, I can live with that when I go for a second and possibly third visit to 
the cinema and add the DVD to my collection; it just seems to take the 
shine off the ending.