Hogwarts has changed a bit since
the last time we were here. anyway, the movie starts right about where it should. it's a long book, and of course they took several liberties with it. some work well, some not so much. there are going to be spoilers, but everyone has read the books so nothing should be much of a surprise here.
nice to see Shell Cottage. the movie starts quickly, with the raid on Gringotts Bank, and doesn't really let up. there's not that much humor in the book, but there is more in the book than in the movie. I've always felt that the human parts of the book should be the emphasis, rather than the effects setpieces.
it's a decent looking dragon. in the last four movies it seems as though the director tried to make it more about the people rather than just the effects. it's hard to do these days, as most of the genre movies seem to think more is better.
everyone hated Snape for 6 books and some of the movies (since the 7th book was out before the fifth movie we all knew what was going to happen) but now he's everyone's favorite. bleah, he was still a disagreeable and self centered person.
here's a flashback from the first movie... look at how young they were. hard to believe this all started ten years ago.
this scene was handled really well, though very truncated (again, no surprise). the battle of Hogwarts is changed a lot, and some make more sense, and some were not so good. thankfully they let Neville be the hero with Nagini- I was a bit afraid of that being changed, but it all worked out pretty well.
and of course, the line everyone was waiting to see and hear did not fail to impress. the duel itself was good, and when Molly killed Bellatrix it was pretty awesome. and looked really painful, I wonder what curse she used.
now Harry's final battle was not as well done. Voldy's curse doesn't rebound on himself, he just seems to fall apart when all the Horcruxes are destroyed, which is completely against what was in the book.
so overall, the movies are good, but, as is so often the case, the books are better.
The movie was not bad, but I felt it failed to invoke the same emotions as the book. I loudly excalimed "F-ing right Mrs. Weasley!" when she took on Bellatrix in the book. It almost seemed to be a throw away in the film. Fred's death was poignant in the book and you only see his body in passing in the film. Not having the family members, centaurs, and house elves join at the end also stunk. No Grawp, Buckbeak, or Threstrals. Still, it was not a bad film but not as good as it could have and should have been.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely Chad. I know they had to change things, but she wrote the book with the movies in mind, making an adaption easy, even if they have to streamline it somewhat. still, it's not bad at all.
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