The Potterdammerung (movie edition)

[petronia]

Here, for posterity, is the Foursquare badge I got for checking in at the movie theatre:



As everyone said, this was an excellent wrap-up to the adaptation. I saw it in IMAX 3D, taking the opposite tack to Roger Ebert's argument - if it's going to look grim and dark anyway, why not? By this point JKR was inevitably writing at least some battle scenes with movie magic in mind, so the filmmakers probably had an easier time of it, too.

Other thoughts:

* Dumbledore's past is largely skipped over: I got the impression it had been in an earlier draft of the script, but was cut for pacing reasons. Probably the best choice (it was a bit of a detour in the book, too) but does leave some questions permanently hanging.

* Neville Longbottom is a badass.

* The near future appears to feature alarmingly large hair for women.

* Harry asserting his domination over all of Draco's wands will never stop being funny; this is official.

* I have gradually come to conceive a sense of admiration for the Malfoys - when push comes to shove not one of the bunch displays an iota of morality, principle, misplaced guts or basic human self-respect, and all of them survive without a scratch to snob another day. In other words, they're the real McCoy flowering of European political noblesse.

Comments

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

Did you like how the filmmakers' totally got across Snape's childhood pain and love for Lilly, in about five minutes, by casting a little goth boy? XD.

Lots of ads for kids' movies in the previews. You could take a little kid to watch this movie - little onscreen violence, fewer creepy/scary scenes than Part 1 - but I don't know if a young kid would really get the significance of, say, all of Harry's dead relatives coming back or Harry being offered the choice to stay in whitelightland with Dumbledore.

This was a good movie for Dan Radcliff, because he underacts, but Harry doesn't have to show a lot of emotion in this movie, because the movie is about him being Stoic and stuff.

[ngc7023.livejournal.com]

Didn't like it. The last installment of the saga was supposed to go with the bang, but instead just confirmed that David Yates is far worst of all directors who worked on the series, and exactly why producers chose him to direct last 4 films is beyond me.

The film was lukewarm, with such unconvincing and obtuse acting. The only ones who pulled their part of the deal were (of course) Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, and - for the first time strangely compelling as Lord Voldemort - Ralph Fiennes. Others were completely lost in an incoherent scenario, and the action left a lot to be desired - what's with extras just frantically waving wands left and right, while the main actors stood their ground and watched (background of Molly Weasley-Belatrix showdown, anyone?) It was supposed to be a battle! And that 'Oedipus complex' scene, casually dumped in?

I expected that it would completely bypass any attempt to explain the subtle background of events in the book and skip most of the emotional outcome, but to do it like that? It sometimes felt like the film was made out of separate entities, clumsily linked into one large... I am disappointed, but I recon it was still worth a watch - the end of an era and all...

[summertea.livejournal.com]

WAIT HOW DID YOU GET THAT how come i didn't get that ;_;

[petronia.livejournal.com]

You probably had to put "Harry Potter" in the public message somewhere. XD;

[paleaswater.livejournal.com]

Wah, I'm totally with you on the Malfoys. I like them better and better. Goes a little bit toward making up for the fact that this movie spells the death of Harry/Draco fandom for me.