I did it.
I saw it.
On Tuesday, I went with some friends to go see Harry 7.1.
My hesitation in seeing it due to the crowds was not unwarranted - a woman had brought her three year old to the cinemas to see it. Why anyone would take a 3 year old to see this movie is beyond me, but apparently people do this sort of thing. Anyway, we were sitting at the back, because one of my friends is in a wheelchair. So we were kind of cut off from the rest of the crowd, which was great. BUT, this mother and her demon child kept running up the aisle. The mother just stood at the back while her child ran around our seats, screaming and jumping on furniture. The mother did NOTHING to try and discipline her child.
Talk about frustrating.
Anyway, onto the actual movie -
I have learnt that I will always, to some degree, be disappointed with the HP film franchise.
Although overall the film did a pretty good job of bringing the book to life, with excellent cut scenes, and a steady pace that didn't make the film feel like 2 and a half hours, there were parts I was unhappy about. Since I am cynical and this is a critique, I will be pointing out the parts I didn't like, rather than raving about how amazing it was. (even though overall, it was quite amazing).
BTW, if you haven't seen it, or read the books, maybe stop reading because I will probably inadvertently give something away.
(ETA) The first part I thought was peculiar was when the characters are all at the Dursley's house and Mad-Eye pulls out the polyjuice potion. In the book, when they add Harry's hair to the concotion it turns gold, which obviously is meant to show how important / good / special he is or whatever, but I did notice this was cut from the movie. Harry did come across as a bit of a self-righteous brat in this movie, so maybe the director cut that part intentionally to fit in with that?
Okay, the first part I was unhappy about was just after they leave the Dursley's, and in mid-air, the death eaters come chasing after Harry. Of course, they're not meant to know who the 'real' Harry is. When they get back to The Burrow, Mrs Weasley asks Harry and Hagrid what gave him away. In the book, it's because Harry shouts out 'expelliarmus', and the death eaters see this as his "trademark" spell. The screenwriters changed this though and added "Oh, Hedwig flew at me, was trying to protect me and that's how they knew". (not actually quoting dialogue here)
I HATE that they did this!
Firstly, there was meant to be discussion about how they were dealing with really dark forces, and spells like 'expelliarmus' just wouldn't cut it anymore. This scene was really important, it was indicative of the fact that the trio had grown up, that they weren't in Hogwarts anymore and that shit was getting serious.
Secondly, I feel that blaming Hedwig for giving Harry away kind of felt like they were saying she deserved to die. Which is horrible!
I don't think this was intentional, obviously, but this was how it came across to me.
(ETA): also! Mad-Eye's death was so overlooked! A quick "oh btw Mad-Eye's dead" from one of the Weasley twins and "oh that's unfortunate, let's carry on with no reflection or sadness" My boyfriend, who I saw the movie with the second time completely missed this whole death from happening, which I think was really unfortunate as Mad-Eye was an important character and such an amazing wizard.
I think that there should have been more emphasis on Xenophilius Lovegood wearing the deathly hollows symbol at the wedding. Of course, in the books Krum shows up and gets all crazy saying how it's the mark of Grindelwald. The argument that ensued was completely cut from the scene and the movie, which was a little disappointing.
Speaking of the Lovegood's, I also think that the scene at their place could have been done better. The whole crumple horn snorack debacle was cut out, which I think emphasised their oddness. And I was looking forward to seeing Luna's room with the "friends" written over and over in gold writing, but that never happened.
(ETA): There were so many parts that were just so briefly done and so rushed. Ron got so angry and left Harry and Hermione and it just appeared that he had snapped out of nowhere - it wasn't really made that clear that the locket was making them act all crazy.
I did like that they tried to remind us that characters which were once really important were still around - Malfoy, Neville, Ginny... The scene on the Hogwarts Express didn't really seem to add much to the plotline though.
The use of the radio was stupid as well. There was no explanation as to what it was, and no mention that it was run by students from Hogwarts still in "Dumbledore's Army". It added nothing to the plot line, if anything they should have just gotten rid of it.
And Dan and Emma's dancing scene! wtf was the point of that!?
I liken that to the "I am Woman, Hear me Roar" scene in SATC 2...unnecessary and ridiculous.
I'm going to comment briefly on Daniel Radcliffe's acting...or lack thereof.
I was disappointed with his lack of emotion, especially over Hedwig and Dobby's death.
As one of my close friends pointed out, people deal with loss and grief differently, and fair enough.
Hedwig was just brushed aside, and although there was that sweet memorial for Dobby, it didn't appear that Daniel actually felt anything.
But I get this feeling everytime he's meant to show anger or despair.
Anyway, these are only minor criticisms, and I was really looking forward to seeing them, which is maybe why I noticed that they were missing.
Like I said, I didn't go in expecting that the movie would do the book the greatest amount of justice, they never have. And there's only a certain amount you can add in the timeframe that they had. That being said however, I did think that there would be closer attention to detail in this one considering they split it across two movies.
Oh and a note on that - the ending of part one was brilliantly done.
Let me know what you thought of the movie?
