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Jul. 21st, 2011 11:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
girlofpreySo yesterday I went and saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.
So the first thing I want to say is that I didn't cry. I feel kind of bad about this, because loads of people keep talking about how much they cried, and I was kind of wondering if I might. But I'm really not that invested in Harry, Ron or Hermione, or Fred and George, or Remus and Tonks, so I think it just didn't work for me. But it's weird, because I did cry at the books. Maybe the films just handled it differently, or it was different when I knew what was coming - or what wasn't coming. I don't know.
However, the bits that did make me feel a bit wobbly were Lily and Snape as young best friends, and Lily coming back in the forest. Sadly, I had to run out to the bathroom after Harry found out he had to die, before the big climax, so I missed his reaction after that. But I got back in time for the forest bit, and I really did like that bit. And I liked the fact that Lily was the one in front of him, and the one he talked to the most. I really love a lot of Lily fic, especially at Godric's Hollow, and I think a lot of the information we get about Lily in the books and the films is quite idealised and about her being a Great Mother, rather than a mother. And between the bits with Lily and Snape and the bit in the forest it just really quite sold it to me that she was just an ordinary woman, who had a baby, and it was just a really unfortunate time and everything just went to hell. And that feeling that she loved him, and should have been with him, and he should have been with her, and that they weren't for a really shit reason, and that that was the real tragedy of Harry's life. There's a lot to suggest that it wasn't really Lily, of course, that it was just Harry's image of her that got brought back to him. I don't know, that part of the film kind of confused me. But that was the feeling I got from it, and it did make me well up a little bit.
And the other bit was the ending. And yeah, I was as annoyed and slightly sickened by the epilogue as most people. But it is nice, as other people have pointed out, after everything Harry had been through, to finally see him happy and with a family, like he always wanted. So even though it was a bit weird, and especially to see everyone paired up, like they were in some weird ptsd huddle, it was quite nice as well.
So anyway. Beyond that. I don't know, it's amazing how much you forget after a day. Helena Bonham Carter pretending to be Hermione pretending to be Bellatrix was kind of amazing, even though I don't know how they're explaining how quickly they're brewing Polyjuice Potion at the moment, given how long it took even in the films, I think. And I don't know why they didn't change her voice, either. But anyway. And I loved Draco, as always. With Harry in the room of requirement, and Harry being all "We all know you're in love with me Draco, WHY DON'T YOU JUST SAY IT!?". And then at the end, with his emo messed up hair and red-rimmed eyes, looking like he might just defy his father and stay on Hogwarts' side, until his mother called him over. Also, I get the feeling Narcissa is slightly more scared and less determined than she was in the books, but I do think her actress did a pretty good job, and I love that the Malfoys just sort of left at the end. Battle? Mmm, no. Things to do. Bye everyone.
Another person that quite impressed me was the woman who briefly played the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw. I know they didn't do that in as much detail as they did in the books, and I get the feeling they didn't really do it well enough for people who haven't read the books to have understood what was happening (why did Harry think she wanted the diadem destroyed?), but the woman herself, considering how briefly she was in it, I was really impressed with.
Anyway. Now one of my favourite sections: the weird sexy bits. We didn't get quite as much Hermione molesting in this film as we did in the last one. But my kink for psychic dreams, shared thoughts, and enemy pairings continued to be fulfilled by Voldemort/Harry. And my kink for people calling other people 'boy' or 'girl'. And then there was the bit where Voldemort was chasing Harry round a tower, and ended up doing a bit of weird bondage stuff with his cloak. And then slapped Harry around and ended up walking right up to Harry where he was backed up against a bit of masonry, so his face was a few inches from Harry's. And then Harry THREW HIS ARMS around Voldemort's neck and threw them off the tower together. My god.
It does continue to remind me of an icon I saw around the time the book came out though: "Voldemort is baffled by Harry's apparent inability to die".
And you know, it's a little hard to take Voldemort seriously when he was THAT CLOSE to Harry and didn't try just punching or stabbing him, or throwing him off that building. I mean, I wasn't rooting for him to win or anything, and I know he loved spells and all that, but it's a little hard to respect the villains 100% when they can't even think up A Knife.
Although that's not really something you can just apply to Voldemort, because Harry is just a little bit stupid, at least sometimes. Luna was chasing him up those stairs, and she wasn't saying "Harry!" or "Harry, I want to talk to you!", she was saying "Harry, you won't find the thing you're looking for where you're going", and Harry was just like "Yeah, whatever, I'LL TALK TO YOU LATER, Luna!". Especially since she was the one who told him about the diadem in the first place, so maybe she was kind of a good source of information about it, you know? But I guess it gave her an excuse to shout. And they worked it all out in the end. So whatever.
I didn't think they did Bellatrix's death scene that well. I didn't really get a sense of fear or rage from Mrs Weasley, which is what I imagined when I read the book. And then she didn't use Avada Kedavra, which I guess was because they wanted it to look more special effectsy, but that just...wasn't the story I read. And it felt like they were trying to keep the good characters from using Unforgivable curses, which doesn't really make any sense, because Harry and Hermione were happily Imperiusing the goblin in the bank earlier. That's probably not why the filmmakers did it, but that's sort of what it felt like. I don't know. And then afterwards, she looked sort of WAY TOO HAPPY about having killed her. Like, psycho, bloodthirsty happy. Which is not something I always hate, but again, it just wasn't what I got from the book when I read it, and I felt like it sat oddly with the rest of the film, or the rest of the battle scene. It was weird.
Oh yeah, and the bit where McGonagall orders the entire Slytherin house to be confined to the dungeons - well done on you message of all the houses working together, film. Based on what ONE student said. Well done. I know that the Slytherins all left in the book before the big battle, but that's a little different from being locked up so they aren't a danger to other children and the fight for freedom. Yeah. Grand.
And the ending. Yeah. Frankly, I really don't buy the whole thing about wands changing masters every time they get taken off someone, because I really feel like we've been seeing people Expelliarmus-ing people for quite a few books, and films. So every time that happened, the wands belonged to the people doing the Expelliarmus-ing, and didn't work properly for their real masters again? Unless their masters beat the person again, at which point that person's wand wouldn't work properly for them. And Harry didn't even beat Draco magically in the films, he literally just pulled it out of his hand. And if a wizard loses their wand they have to get another, which never works as well as the first one (unless it's a more powerful one, I guess), so they've basically got their magical wings clipped for the rest of their lives? And in the film, Harry never repaired his first wand, which I actually really liked in the book. So he's what, just happy to use Draco's? That makes me quite happy from a slash point of view, but it's a little bit odd characterwise, especially when it would probably have taken about an extra minute to film and explain. But anyway. My point is, I don't really believe it, based on what we've read earlier in the books. But Rowling needed a way for Voldemort to be held back and for Harry to beat him without actually killing him, I guess. So there we are. It's a bit weird, but there we are.
And yeah. There we go. I didn't like them killing off that goblin, when there was so much kerfuffle about alternate cultures and Harry sort of cheating him in the book, but that happened. But I did enjoy it, really. And for all the weirdness, and the way they treated the Slytherins, I do like how they made Draco slightly better than he was in the book, and gave him a nice family ending along with everyone else. It gives me hope that there's proper room in the Wizarding World for people who aren't heroes or people who help heroes, but aren't necessarily evil either. They err more on the selfish side, but that doesn't make them all bad. I don't know. I do like it.
In other news, I might be slightly in love with Tom Felton at the moment. Between the interview someone linked to a few weeks back with Jason Isaacs, talking about how he likes playing Lucius as a bigot and a bastard because it makes Draco not taking the evil path slightly more heroic, which made me want RPS for them - and the interview I saw from possibly a few years ago of Tom Felton saying if he couldn't have played Draco, he'd have probably wanted to play Hagrid or Hermione - to finding out he apparently talked his real life girlfriend into appearing in the epilogue as his wife, I have a tiny bit of a crush. Don't worry, I don't see him around that much, it will probably soon pass.
Phew. That took a while. But there it is. The last film. The end of the Harry Potter story probably. Wow.
So the first thing I want to say is that I didn't cry. I feel kind of bad about this, because loads of people keep talking about how much they cried, and I was kind of wondering if I might. But I'm really not that invested in Harry, Ron or Hermione, or Fred and George, or Remus and Tonks, so I think it just didn't work for me. But it's weird, because I did cry at the books. Maybe the films just handled it differently, or it was different when I knew what was coming - or what wasn't coming. I don't know.
However, the bits that did make me feel a bit wobbly were Lily and Snape as young best friends, and Lily coming back in the forest. Sadly, I had to run out to the bathroom after Harry found out he had to die, before the big climax, so I missed his reaction after that. But I got back in time for the forest bit, and I really did like that bit. And I liked the fact that Lily was the one in front of him, and the one he talked to the most. I really love a lot of Lily fic, especially at Godric's Hollow, and I think a lot of the information we get about Lily in the books and the films is quite idealised and about her being a Great Mother, rather than a mother. And between the bits with Lily and Snape and the bit in the forest it just really quite sold it to me that she was just an ordinary woman, who had a baby, and it was just a really unfortunate time and everything just went to hell. And that feeling that she loved him, and should have been with him, and he should have been with her, and that they weren't for a really shit reason, and that that was the real tragedy of Harry's life. There's a lot to suggest that it wasn't really Lily, of course, that it was just Harry's image of her that got brought back to him. I don't know, that part of the film kind of confused me. But that was the feeling I got from it, and it did make me well up a little bit.
And the other bit was the ending. And yeah, I was as annoyed and slightly sickened by the epilogue as most people. But it is nice, as other people have pointed out, after everything Harry had been through, to finally see him happy and with a family, like he always wanted. So even though it was a bit weird, and especially to see everyone paired up, like they were in some weird ptsd huddle, it was quite nice as well.
So anyway. Beyond that. I don't know, it's amazing how much you forget after a day. Helena Bonham Carter pretending to be Hermione pretending to be Bellatrix was kind of amazing, even though I don't know how they're explaining how quickly they're brewing Polyjuice Potion at the moment, given how long it took even in the films, I think. And I don't know why they didn't change her voice, either. But anyway. And I loved Draco, as always. With Harry in the room of requirement, and Harry being all "We all know you're in love with me Draco, WHY DON'T YOU JUST SAY IT!?". And then at the end, with his emo messed up hair and red-rimmed eyes, looking like he might just defy his father and stay on Hogwarts' side, until his mother called him over. Also, I get the feeling Narcissa is slightly more scared and less determined than she was in the books, but I do think her actress did a pretty good job, and I love that the Malfoys just sort of left at the end. Battle? Mmm, no. Things to do. Bye everyone.
Another person that quite impressed me was the woman who briefly played the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw. I know they didn't do that in as much detail as they did in the books, and I get the feeling they didn't really do it well enough for people who haven't read the books to have understood what was happening (why did Harry think she wanted the diadem destroyed?), but the woman herself, considering how briefly she was in it, I was really impressed with.
Anyway. Now one of my favourite sections: the weird sexy bits. We didn't get quite as much Hermione molesting in this film as we did in the last one. But my kink for psychic dreams, shared thoughts, and enemy pairings continued to be fulfilled by Voldemort/Harry. And my kink for people calling other people 'boy' or 'girl'. And then there was the bit where Voldemort was chasing Harry round a tower, and ended up doing a bit of weird bondage stuff with his cloak. And then slapped Harry around and ended up walking right up to Harry where he was backed up against a bit of masonry, so his face was a few inches from Harry's. And then Harry THREW HIS ARMS around Voldemort's neck and threw them off the tower together. My god.
It does continue to remind me of an icon I saw around the time the book came out though: "Voldemort is baffled by Harry's apparent inability to die".
And you know, it's a little hard to take Voldemort seriously when he was THAT CLOSE to Harry and didn't try just punching or stabbing him, or throwing him off that building. I mean, I wasn't rooting for him to win or anything, and I know he loved spells and all that, but it's a little hard to respect the villains 100% when they can't even think up A Knife.
Although that's not really something you can just apply to Voldemort, because Harry is just a little bit stupid, at least sometimes. Luna was chasing him up those stairs, and she wasn't saying "Harry!" or "Harry, I want to talk to you!", she was saying "Harry, you won't find the thing you're looking for where you're going", and Harry was just like "Yeah, whatever, I'LL TALK TO YOU LATER, Luna!". Especially since she was the one who told him about the diadem in the first place, so maybe she was kind of a good source of information about it, you know? But I guess it gave her an excuse to shout. And they worked it all out in the end. So whatever.
I didn't think they did Bellatrix's death scene that well. I didn't really get a sense of fear or rage from Mrs Weasley, which is what I imagined when I read the book. And then she didn't use Avada Kedavra, which I guess was because they wanted it to look more special effectsy, but that just...wasn't the story I read. And it felt like they were trying to keep the good characters from using Unforgivable curses, which doesn't really make any sense, because Harry and Hermione were happily Imperiusing the goblin in the bank earlier. That's probably not why the filmmakers did it, but that's sort of what it felt like. I don't know. And then afterwards, she looked sort of WAY TOO HAPPY about having killed her. Like, psycho, bloodthirsty happy. Which is not something I always hate, but again, it just wasn't what I got from the book when I read it, and I felt like it sat oddly with the rest of the film, or the rest of the battle scene. It was weird.
Oh yeah, and the bit where McGonagall orders the entire Slytherin house to be confined to the dungeons - well done on you message of all the houses working together, film. Based on what ONE student said. Well done. I know that the Slytherins all left in the book before the big battle, but that's a little different from being locked up so they aren't a danger to other children and the fight for freedom. Yeah. Grand.
And the ending. Yeah. Frankly, I really don't buy the whole thing about wands changing masters every time they get taken off someone, because I really feel like we've been seeing people Expelliarmus-ing people for quite a few books, and films. So every time that happened, the wands belonged to the people doing the Expelliarmus-ing, and didn't work properly for their real masters again? Unless their masters beat the person again, at which point that person's wand wouldn't work properly for them. And Harry didn't even beat Draco magically in the films, he literally just pulled it out of his hand. And if a wizard loses their wand they have to get another, which never works as well as the first one (unless it's a more powerful one, I guess), so they've basically got their magical wings clipped for the rest of their lives? And in the film, Harry never repaired his first wand, which I actually really liked in the book. So he's what, just happy to use Draco's? That makes me quite happy from a slash point of view, but it's a little bit odd characterwise, especially when it would probably have taken about an extra minute to film and explain. But anyway. My point is, I don't really believe it, based on what we've read earlier in the books. But Rowling needed a way for Voldemort to be held back and for Harry to beat him without actually killing him, I guess. So there we are. It's a bit weird, but there we are.
And yeah. There we go. I didn't like them killing off that goblin, when there was so much kerfuffle about alternate cultures and Harry sort of cheating him in the book, but that happened. But I did enjoy it, really. And for all the weirdness, and the way they treated the Slytherins, I do like how they made Draco slightly better than he was in the book, and gave him a nice family ending along with everyone else. It gives me hope that there's proper room in the Wizarding World for people who aren't heroes or people who help heroes, but aren't necessarily evil either. They err more on the selfish side, but that doesn't make them all bad. I don't know. I do like it.
In other news, I might be slightly in love with Tom Felton at the moment. Between the interview someone linked to a few weeks back with Jason Isaacs, talking about how he likes playing Lucius as a bigot and a bastard because it makes Draco not taking the evil path slightly more heroic, which made me want RPS for them - and the interview I saw from possibly a few years ago of Tom Felton saying if he couldn't have played Draco, he'd have probably wanted to play Hagrid or Hermione - to finding out he apparently talked his real life girlfriend into appearing in the epilogue as his wife, I have a tiny bit of a crush. Don't worry, I don't see him around that much, it will probably soon pass.
Phew. That took a while. But there it is. The last film. The end of the Harry Potter story probably. Wow.
