Early this morning, thousands gathered to celebrate and watch the end of an era and celebrate the last decade worth of excitement and fantasy. The end of the Harry Potter saga with the movie "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II" reached theatres last night. Applause began as the lights dimmed and it continued throughout the movie. But at the end of the movie, I got up and left without joining the hoots and hollers. I was severely disappointed in the film, and thought it was a lie and horrible representation of the finale. And if you haven't seen it already, I wanted to warn you about a few things to look for, and some things that made the film look silly. You should be warned: There will be spoilers!
While the overall plot was the same, I would say that only 40% of the film was truthful to the book. While I probably will always be known as the book critic that looks for any little detail that has changed, this film changed so many things that I finally looked at my friend and said "This isn't right." Some things include the change where the death of Snape occured, the severe damage that was dealt on Hogwarts, the sneak attack that occured inside the castle, with the film version having Harry disguise as a student to get into the Great Hall, with the Order of the Pheonix shortly behind him. We also see the final scene change greatly. Instead of it starting at the castle entrance, then finishing in the Great Hall, the film starts it at the entrance, then takes it to the top of the castle, then to the clocktower, then back to the entrance where it ends.
Another thing that changed drastically was the end that occured after Voldemort's death. We don't see the celebration occur in the Great Hall, nor do we see the professors return the school colors back on the walls. We then don't see Harry and the gang head up to Dumbledore's office and have one last conversation with his portrait and determine what to do with the Deathly Hallows. We don't see Harry restore his wand with the Elder Wand and then agree to return it to Dumbledore's tomb, nor do we see them discuss about the stone and cloak. Instead, we see Harry break the wand in two and throw it down into the depths. And you would think that they would have talked about the Hallows more since the past two movies were titled "Deathly Hallows."
But there was one part that stuck out to me the most, and really bothered me that it wasn't explored more within the two movies. In the book, Remus and Tonks are married, and before the raid at the Ministry, Remus tells Harry that Tonks is pregnant. I was okay that they didn't discuss it in the first film because I thought they would return to the storyline in the second. But Tonks has the baby named Teddy during their stay at Shell cottage, and they name Harry the Godfather in the book, and yet none of this was mentioned in the movie. Instead, we had that small clue that she was pregnant in the first film, then we discover that they have a son during the scene with Harry's dead family and friends. But no mention of Teddy was made during the epilogue, which was a big deal in the book.
And then there were the deaths of the movie. While alot of the deaths in the series wern't mentioned until after Harry sees their dead bodies, the one that wasn't viewed greatly was the death of Fred (correct me if I'm wrong). His death was a very emotional scene in the book, with Percy, the brother we haven't seen since year 5, come running up beside him in the battle, and then discovers his brother's death and carries him across the battlefield. In the film, Percy was not given a speaking role, and the death of Fred was not shown.
But there were more issues in the movie besides dishonesty to the book. There wasn't any hype or excitment during the movie. For 3 years, we have been anticipating the fight scenes because the fight scenes in movie 6 were removed to create hype for the 7th. But they failed to get me off my seat, which they sucessfully were able to do in the 5th movie. Nor did they focus on a fight long enough to raise my interest. And any fight that could have potentially been great, was cut short to focus on a scene that was slower and not as serious.
And then there was the issue that some parts seemed comical in a "Serious" situation. I know that they wanted to hit all of the emotional points, but this part of the series is life or death, and comical moments should be kept at a minimum. My gosh, Harry was presumed dead in Hagrid's arms, and the audience was laughing at a comical joke made by Voldemort. Probably not the best time for that.
So, Ladies and Gentlemen, while they got the overall plot right, they failed to spark my intrests by not staying truthful to the film, and not focusing on the best parts. And I'm not the only one that thought all of this, many people had the same views just as we were leaving the theatre. Sorry Mr. Yates, but I don't think you will have many fans on your side after this film.
So friends, out of a score of 10, I would rate the film a 6.5 or 6. Simply for not staying truthful to the book and no good fight scenes. But other than that, the graphics were great, and the gathering with the community to watch the end of a great era was worth every penny and time. But I know for sure that if you haven't read the book before and just stayed truthful to the movies, you will love this one, and will probably rate it better than I did.
So what did you think of the movie? What do you rate it? And did you watch it after reading the books? Post your comments!
-Tyler
