_jems_ (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} _jems_) wrote,@ 2011-07-14 00:42:00 |
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| Current mood: | Steve Holt! |
The end of an era
(just thought I'd get that subject line in first. *waits impatiently for the multitude of posts that will use that same subject line over the next few days*)
It's weird how Harry Potter was never really a fandom thing for me, and I never think I'm going to have anything to say about it after a book or movie is released, but inevitably all these FEELINGS and THOUGHTS keep cropping up and I end up posting about it anyway.
For me, Harry Potter is all about...well, Harry Potter. (It used to also be about Hermione Granger, but I don't enjoy Ron - especially not in the books - and the more her story entertwines with his, the less invested I become.) This movie? Also All. About. Harry. Potter. Unfortunately to its detriment.
Look, I love Harry, I do, but his journey in this book isn't what affected me the most, it was how his life had become filled with all these other people who chose to stand with him at the end. It was as much about them as it was about him, and this movie just wasn't.
Instead of the battle being this intense fight of goodness vs evil, it almost felt like it was just snapshots of moments while the real focus was on Harry and the horcruxes. Especially Molly's "Not my daughter, you bitch", which I was so looking forward to, felt completely disjointed. There was no build-up, nothing. Just a cut to Bellatrix and Ginny, Molly stepping in and then back to Harry and Voldemort.
And don't even get me started on Fred's death, which made me cry buckets when I read the book. (Though in all fairness, this could be because something was cut from the film for the Swedish release to bring the rating down from 15 years to 11 years.) Like, first a quick glance at something happnening and then all we see is the aftermath? I am not okay with this! (I'm actually hoping the scene was censored here so that I can at least see it the way it's supposed to be when it's released on DVD.)
I get the feeling that Snape's memories are supposed to make us feel sympathy for him, but all I could think when I read/watched that was "god, he's such an obsessed creepster!" It may redeem him in that it shows us he's not a murderer, but I find his obsession with Lily so icky that I'm just repulsed by the whole thing. Especially the part where he wants to look into Harry's eyes as he dies because his eyes are just like his mother's. IIIIIICK!
There, I think I got all the negatives out of the way. The positives aren't as fully developed in my mind, but some of the highlights were:
Neville! And his speech! And his stoic bravery! And his taunting! I loved it all.
Draco and his mother, who loves him enough to betray Voldemort just to find out if he's alive. Draco was never a favorite of mine, but damn if that didn't get me. More than in the book, actually.
Harry and Hermoine on the stairs when he tells her and Ron about what he's just learned from Snape's memories and he's voicing her worst fears and they hug and... Oh, I love them so much! The Harry/Hermione relationship is totally my favorite relationship in the entire series, and it doesn't have to be romantic or anything. They're just perfect together, whatever their relationship is. (The best part about the epilogue was the way they were framed in the last shot and how they in my mind, after the screen went black, turned to each other and said "see you at work tomorrow", before casually waving goodbye and going their separate ways.)
(Since about the end of book five I've actually been hoping that Harry would end up with Luna. The fact that he didn't was the biggest disappointment of the epilogue for me. Well, except for the fact that the epilogue exists at all.)
I think this movie will work much better when viewed together with the first part. Neither movie feels like it has an arc, because part 1 is all set-up and part 2 is all climax. If I had had anything to say about it, it would have been released as a four hour movie with an intermission in the middle.
Oh, and before the movie I found another desk I want! At about a third of the price of the one from my last post!
All those pieces are made of different types of wood and there is storage underneath. Since I was wanting a desk that does double duty as a make-up table, this works perfectly. You could put a mirror on the underside of one of those lids! And keep the make-up inside the compartment! I'm about two seconds away from ordering it, to tell you the truth. And since it's so much cheaper, I don't have to wait until my tax refund to pay for it, either.
Though considering I've found two perfect desks in the space of a week, maybe I should wait a while longer? What if I find an even better desk in a few days?