Think of this as one of those fancy, critical "movie reviews." Except a lot less intelligent.
It feels so unnatural and wrong to say that I "loved" a Harry Potter movie because I usually strongly dislike Harry Potter movies. (And yet I go out and buy all of them and watch them multiple times...My mind works funny.) But I actually, really, genuinely liked this movie. I think it's due first and foremost to the fact that 1) Deathly Hallows is the only Harry Potter book I have yet to read more than once and 2) I haven't read it in quite a while. That really helped because I didn't have all the details of the book hanging out in my head space.
As "just a movie", I think it worked very well. The performances were really good (yes, even you, Emma). Rupert brought it like he has since the first movie and I love him for it. (Plus I suspect he's got hidden pec action going on under all those clothes which I find hot.) D.Rad has been steadily improving and it shows. And Emma, well...yeah...she wasn't bad, or whatever. Anyway, as for the other people, I liked that Bill Nighy was there, even if it was for only a couple minutes. I found Bellatrix annoying. I've never really liked Helena Boham Carter as Bellatrix but that's probably because I don't cream my panties over the character like some other Potter fans do. I'm sad that hot piece Blaise Zabini (don't know the actor's name) wasn't just randomly there for no reason because, well, he's a hot piece.
As for technical stuff, despite my 4 years of "training," I can't really say much about it critically. But from a plebeian point of view, I found the saturated color complemented the mood very well. And I found the hand-held camera (I think it was hand-held?? Either that or their Steadicam was broken) very intriguing and odd because it just popped up really randomly. Whatever.
I want to talk about the plot as a "just a movie" plot but, I really can't. Even though I don't remember the details very well, I still remember the basic plot of the book so I can't separate it from the "just a movie" plot. So, moving on to the "book adaption movie," besides the first two movies (which were probably, admittedly, pretty easy to adapt) this has been the best adaption of any of the books. I'll wait to judge the whole lack of Dumbledore's backstory since we have another 2.5 hours of plot left. Since there weren't too many "WTF?! Where is [blank]!" moments, I think they did a fairly decent job bringing this book to screen. It probably doesn't hurt that they have approx. 5 hours to do it.
As usual, I have to complain:
1)It was kinda annoying when they tried to weasel in things that they should have introduced before but couldn't until now. I can't recall any off the top of my head but it would be something like, "Oh, look, there's RUFUS SCRIMGEOUR, the Minister of Magic who came to power after Fudge stepped down about two years ago. I wonder what he's doing here?"
2)Why why why did Harry and Ron not have their heart-to-heart after he destroyed the Horcrux??? It wouldn't take that long and it was important in finally defining Harry and Hermione's relationship as strictly platonic. Ugh. Steve Kloves is totally a Harry/Hermione shipper.
3)When I read the book I was mostly looking forward to Ron's quasi-emotional breakdown at Malfoy Manor when Hermione was getting tortured. They were all so chill down there while Hermione was getting tortured (which wasn't as hardcore as it should've been) and that was annoying. Like I said, I'm convinced Kloves is a H/Hr shipper AND that he hates Ron because he never wants to show Ron or Hermione showing extreme affection for each other. And that annoys me. Because I found Ron's wailing and shouting and crying for Hermione really moving in the book.
4) There were some dumb unnecessary sequences like 1)Snape going to Hogwarts, 2) Neville on the train to Hogwarts, 3)that really stupid bit where Hermione was like "Put up the tent," then they faded to a shot of the tent, then faded out again. That was stupid.
Besides that stuff, and some other stuff that I've been told was important and missing, the movie was really good. I was pleasantly surprised and that was nice. (Also the theater I went to had caramel popcorn! How awesome is that?! I mean, it kinda sucked and got really stuck in my teeth but it was still really cool.) I'm cutting them a lot of slack since there's a second half of the movie. So, HP movie-makers, you have escaped my wrath this time. Nice going because I was totes sharpening my machete.
...
ciao!
P.S. - I wonder if I'll suddendly hate it after finally re-reading the book? Hmm....
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