Friday, July 22

Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Movie Review

SPOILER HEAVY
I have yet to see Part 1 and Part 2 back to back, but I did see Part 1 a few weeks ago and Part 2 this week. I read the book back in 2007 and the first movie covered more than half of the book. And the second mostly covers the war on Hogwarts, with the beginning the infiltration of Gringotts. The first part has the comical bits and pieces, especially the sneaking into the Ministry, but it is mostly a slow-moving sleepy movie. The part that stands out the most is the part that wasn't from the books.. Harry dancing with a depressed Hermione. Hermione stands out mostly in the first part, with Emma Watson's great acting.

The most inspiring scene is where Hermione has to wipe out her parents' memories, which was mentioned in the book but wasn't a scene. Slight liberties were taken out of the movie like Wormtail's fate (in the book, his hand kills him but he is just disarmed by Doby in the movie) and other little things. Minor details that do get this Potter fan is it is not explained how Hagrid ends up with the Deatheaters and Lupin and Tonks' kid. It is interrupted by Moody like in the book-their announcement but their relationship is barely touched upon in the movies and all of the sudden Harry mentions their son in the second part of the movie. But oh well, they assume major fans would know. But many fans have just seen the movies and not read the books.

The second part is a great Harry Potter movie, it is emotional, full of action and you feel everything come to a big conclusion and not like a weak conclusion to an eight season TV series. Most Sci-Fi TV series that end by the 7th or 9th year, most of the original cast has disappeared and they are barely out of money for big special effects but the battle on Hogwarts feels epic and you get to see a lot of old loved characters, actors all grown up like Seamus Finnigan, Lavender, Cho Chang, Dean Thomas and Parvati Patil. Cormac McLaggen appeared in the first part but not seen with the Dumbledore's Army in the second. Also in the book, Draco has his two minions Crabbe and Goyle. Goyle appears but Crabbe doesn't and it is because the actor Jamie Waylett had Marijuana problems. So they used Blaise Zabini (Louis Cordice), a minor Black character from Half-Blood Prince.

It is not explained where Crabbe is and nor who Blaise is so it looks like a random black guy appears. In the book Crabbe conjures fire and dies, in this Goyle does it and dies and Blaise survives. There is very little room for funny stuff, there is a couple of giggles here and there. One big giggle is Harry carried by Hagrid (thinking he is dead0, he drops on the floor to reveal he is alive. You'd expect he to jump and be gallant but ah, Harry, the boy who lived, a.k.a. the Chosen One, trips, which is real cool, that not even our semi-invulnerable hero is not above being a butt of jokes. A great end to a great Octology (Eight movies?).