Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II

Last night I went to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II in 3D. I managed to find a theatre here in Budapest that was playing the movie in its original format aka in English and no Hungarian subtitles.

Going to the movies is pretty strange in Budapest. You can book your seats in advance. The theatre has assigned seating. You show up at least 30 minutes in advance and you pay for the seats that you book. Its not general seating like in Canada (apparently there is assigned seating in India and New Zealand as well according to those I went to see HP with).

I’ve been a long time Harry Potter fan and I’ve been eagerly anticipating this movie coming out. I love the books and probably have read all of them at least a couple times. In many ways, I feel like I grew up with Harry. I was 11 when I read the first book. I have many memories of waiting in anticipation for the next book to see what J.K. Rowling had installed for the threesome.

In the past, I haven’t been that impressed with the Harry Potter movies. I really did not like the first 3 movies (especially as these came in the height of the Lord of the Rings movie craze). The 4th was acceptable, but not spectacular. From there, I felt the movies got a lot better in terms of keeping true to the books and cinematography. I was fairly impressed with Part I of Deathly Hallows so I was looking forward to seeing the movie.

For the most part I was really impressed with the movie. It kept fairly true to the book and told the story well. I was careful to not read the book before going to see the movie otherwise I would have spent so much time getting upset when things weren’t completely true to the book. I was surprised at how well I remember the events taking place. I think the last time I read the book was over a year ago. I watched it in 3D, but I felt like it wasn’t really needed. For most of the movie, I forgot that I was wearing 3D glasses.

If you haven’t seen the movie or haven’t read the book, stop here! Spoiler warning!

The movie starts off replaying the last few minutes of the previous movie where Voldemort breaks into Dumbledore’s casket and takes his wand. From there, the scenes depicted are very true to the books. Everything was happening the way I remember them. It wasn’t until we enter Hogwarts that things started to deviate quite a bit between the book and the movie.

Evacuating of students – In the book J.K. Rowling sends all those that are 17 years and younger home, but in the movie they all remained. It added a sense of further chaos, but it was really confusing watching it, trying to see where the characters were going. They kept on having to fight against the crowd. I felt like it was a waste of precious movie time that could have been spent on more significant things:

Snape’s memories – They added a lot more detail in this segment compared to the books. Some of the scenes shown, Snape wasn’t even in them! How could he remember it if he wasn’t there? I understand why, they needed to advance the story and tie up loose ends, but it was just strange.

Harry’s death – In the book when Harry is killed by Voldemort, the last thing that he thinks of is Ginny. She is one of the biggest reasons that he decides to go back (along with the fact that Voldemort and the snake was still alive). They didn’t reflect this at all in the movie.

Neville’s role – I felt the the movie robbed Neville of the role he played in the book. I didn’t like the way the changed the fighting at the end. He really turns into a hero in the book and I was looking forward to seeing him have a lot more screen time. They moved when he chops off the snakes head and it just didn’t sit well with me.

Last fight between Voldemort & Harry – In the book, this takes place inside Hogwarts among the others that are fighting. In the movie, they moved this showdown to the courtyard. There were no verbal spells which I felt were so important! It was a battle of the killing curse against the simplest of spells, the disarming spell which became almost an identity card for Harry.

19 years later – They completely failed here. Harry, Ron and Hermione barely looked a day over 20. Just because they tied their hair up different or grew a beard, doesn’t make them 19 years older! It was just too awkward to watch.

The movie wasn’t overly emotional. Where J.K. Rowling went into great detail of the death of Fred it was just one short scene where you see the Weasley family crying over his body. I was so prepared for a sob fest during this movie (I cry at the slightest emotion, and shed tears when reading the book), but I barely teared up. The only time I felt anything was right before Harry was going to walk into the Forbidden Forest and he was saying goodbye to Hermione and Ron (this doesn’t happen in the book).

Things I loved:

Neville & Luna – amongst the craziness there is a short scene where you see Neville searching for Luna. When asked why he was looking for her, he says that he has to tell her how he feels seeing as they may both be dead at the end of the day. So cute! I don’t remember this being in the book, but I see it as being fairly fitting.

Molly Weasley – Loved her duel with Bellatrix! So awesome. And her most famous line, “Not my daughter you bitch!” was delivered splendidly. 

Professor McGonagall – Her fight against Snape was perfect. The fury with which she fought! Loved it! And then she showed her other side when she said the spells needed to get the stone creatures of Hogwarts to come alive and protect the castle. She tells Molly Weasley that she has “always wanted to use that spell” with the most satisfied of looks. Update: I found the scene on youtube!

Overall, the cinematography was great. Scenes flowed together seamlessly and the fight sequences were done really well. So different from the first few films. I left the theatre feeling happy with the movie. Now to wait for it to come out on DVD, but in the meantime I’ll be watching random documentaries:

Have you seen the last Harry Potter film? What did you think of it? Do you agree / disagree with my thoughts?