MOVIE: Comparisons

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 191117



Geoff wrote:

> May I start in case it seems otherwise, by saying that I am not biased in 
> favour either medium: book or film. 

<big snip> 

> 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?

Annemehr:

I'll just interject that I only watched the movie versions of HBP and DH1 for the first time this summer, along with DH2 in the theater.  I enjoyed all three very much as well.  But in this post I'll be following Geoff's lead and pretty much stick to discussing what bothered both of us.

Geoff:

> 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.
> 

Annemehr:

Actually, I believe the smoke trails represent when Voldemort (and the DEs sometimes too) are flying without brooms.  There seemed to have been some of that as early as the battle in the Ministry in the OoP movie.  But no matter, either one is weird in this scene.  What I recall when watching that part was them clawing at each other's faces, and me wondering "what are they doing to each other?"

But the really disappointing thing is that it was all played for "action."  It reminded me of the First Task in GoF: in the book, it was a lovely snapshot of Harry's character.  In the movie, it was purely a silly chase scene and then the dragon apparently died.

Geoff:

> What a comparison to the book. Here, Harry reveals that he is alive 
> whereupon, the crowd falls silent and forms a circle. My imagination 
> sees something like a Roman gladiatorial contest. 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 and ecstatic moment 
> when the rising sun comes across the window sill, and the spells are fired 
> which end the duel. I think, for me, the link of sunrise and the end of evil 
> reminds me strongly  my Christian faith which may be why that scene moves 
> me so much. It is so much more a fitting closure than the rather 
> hidden-away and downbeat closing crafted by the David Yates.

Annemehr:

I agree with you (except for me not being Christian).  What happened in the Forest and in the Great Hall replayed Godric's Hollow and the two AKs that Voldemort cast there.

DH is the culmination of Voldemort's studies into death and how to cheat it.  In his early days he learned to make Horcruxes.  In this book he learned some wandlore and obtained the Elder Wand.  But his talk with Harry in the Great Hall shows that, not only did he never appreciate the power of love, he never really made the attempt.

It never dawned on Voldemort that when Harry came to him in the Forest, it was to sacrifice himself for the sake of everyone else -- so it never dawned on him that when he fired his AK, that he was repeating history..."this is old magic, [he] should have remembered it, [he] was foolish to overlook it"...*again*.

In the book, I got a real sense of Voldemort coming to the end of things -- to the end of his Horcruxes, to the end of his power, to the limits of his understanding.  It didn't even occur to him it might be unwise to fire that last Avada Kedavra.

In the movie, you get special effects.

Geoff:
 
> Just as an aside, I was puzzled by the spells used by Voldemort, which 
> rebounded on him and that used by Molly Weasley to literally demolish 
> Bellatrix. they did not seem to be the normal sort. 

Annemehr:

I just accept that they're the normal sort of spell for the movies, i.e. whatever they thought would look cool, without reference to what the spells are actually supposed to do.

Geoff:
 
> I wonder how many of you share my thoughts that our canon was poorly 
> served in that particular ending to what, in parallel to the books, has been 
> for me a usually pleasurable experience.
>

Annemehr:

Well, I have some mixed feelings about the movies as a whole (particularly PoA and GoF), but had been enjoying the last three very much.  So I do share your feelings about those crucial scenes.

There is something else I missed as well.  In the books, Harry has a strong connection to his wand, and it really hurts him when it's broken.  And even though it's supposed to be impossible to repair, he never discarded the pieces.  So even though none of this was ever really depicted in the movies, I was still very disappointed when he snapped the Elder wand without using it to repair his Holly and Phoenix-feather wand first.

Why did they skip that?  Was it supposed to be more dramatic or noble if he never used the Elder wand at all?  Did they just forget?

Actually, I don't even like that he snapped it in the movie.  I don't feel that the wand itself was evil, even though much evil was done in pursuit of it.  I much preferred the book version, where he replaced it in Dumbledore's tomb.  *Even* at the risk of Harry not dying a natural death.

Annemehr
who didn't hate the movie-epilogue