It all ends.
Well for the two loyal readers this blog actually has, they'll know I got in to the premiere viewing of the final installment of the Harry Potter series. I've been a huge fan of the books since I first read them in 2001 and frankly most of the movies tended to disappoint. But that's normal with adaptations - you lose out on the subtleties, additional plotlines and in the case of Harry Potter, I feel we lost the inherent sarcasm that he spews oh so easily in the books.
That said, my overall verdict for the final installment is: satisfied.
As expected, there were a few changes, but I was definitely happy to see a lot of dialogue was imported straight off the books and the intensity was just as captivating. I'm not much of a review writer, but I am very much of a bullet-pointer and therefore, I give you - the bullet-pointed review. Enjoy!
- I was constantly amused that wand translated to 'baguette' in the French subtitles.
- Knowing that Flitwick and Griphook are played by the same person enforced on me that they looked like brothers. TO be fair, he carried out the role real well.
- Bellatrix. Gosh. She does such a good job really, does Helena Carter. Even as Hermoine she's rather convincing. The character is one of those love to hate
- McGonagal was brilliant. I'm really glad they included the Locomotor spell, with a nice little quip. I wasn't thrilled they left out her threat to Slughorn to have Slytherin choose an allegiance. The line "we duel to kill" in the book always gave me goosebumps.
- Aberforth was awesome. Loved his character and it was unfortunate he had limited screen time but he had the tone and attitude correct, unlike Gambon's Albus has been.
- "The boy who lived, come to die." Brilliant. That entire sequence was perfect.
- Seconds after I thought to myself, where in Merlin's Beard is Hagrid, he showed up on screen.
- The Battle of Hogwarts lives up to expectation. The scenes, intensity, darkness and the fact that we got to see (again) a lot of the characters in small roles was great. I did miss John Cleese though.
- Caveat (and a little bit of a spoiler). I've spoken to a couple who felt that they handled it well but I was not entirely thrilled with the last 15-20 minutes. It wasn't bad, I just felt it could have been better, although I will say that outside of that, the movie surpassed my expectations. However, for me the end scenes were about the conversations Harry and Voldemort have. I missed that.
Finally, I leave you with some thoughts from people sitting around me before the start of the premiere:
- "I cried at the end of the book wonder what's going to happen in this movie!"
- And my favorite: "If I haven't seen part 1 is that okay?"
