Okay, maybe “wild” isn’t the word, but I was better than moderately impressed with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, a better-than-creditable end to a better-than-creditable fantasy film series, and a motion picture that offers a few satisfactions one doesn’t normally associate with such franchises. Two somewhat less than entirely pertinent observations I chose not to include in my review of the film for MSN Movies:
Whenever Tom Felton’s Draco Malfoy turned up, looking all truculently menacing and stuff, I thought maybe I was watching a “Behind the Music” episode on Heaven 17…and…
…not for anything, but Alan Rickman’s Severus Snape now has the stuff to go down a storm, as it were, on that Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians website…
Yes, I know. As a friend of mine observed recently of my head after I went off on a lengthy conversational tangent, “It’s noisy up there, isn’t it?”
Looking very forward to this, and I’m glad to see that you endorse it, because if I remember correctly you didn’t like the first part. I had very low expectations for it based on its reception, and when I finally saw it late in its theatrical run I was surprised at how much I liked it. Loved it, even. To me, the first part is one of the best contemporary Hollywood productions of recent times. For the first time in the whole (movie) series, I really felt like the characters were actual flesh and blood and that they were interacting with one another instead of spouting exposition at each other – the scene with Harry and Hermione in the tent, where they dance to (I think) Nick Cave is a lovely detail that really illuminates their relationship, and it’s hard to imagine any of the other films inventing a detail such as that to illiminate the characters and their relationships. And I think the movie expertly tows the line between being serious and being entertaining. Reminiscent of The Empire Strikes Back, in that sense.
Ryan, I’m a big fan of Deathly Hallows 1 as well, and the dancing scene is one that my wife and I argue about every time we watch it – most recently, this past weekend. She thinks it’s all wrong, but I think it’s a terrific bit of character/relationship development, and the Nick Cave song choice is INSPIRED. Really looking forward to this as well.
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK AT HER!
CUTE CUTE CUTE! Cute. CUTE! More Emma pix please. She is SO FETCHING. I wish she and like Amber Heard would have a Little Pillow Fight and when they talked they would just go “peep peep peep” like a little tweety bird or something.
WANT HER.
I’ve never seen a Harry Potter. Can someone tell me which one Emma started to get PIPING HOT in? Then remember it’s me asking, so subtract two movies. ZING. WANT.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR5ArnGJfmw
Has there ever been a commenter whose concerns have been more validated than JC? Truly prescient work on the thread for “The Ward”:
http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2011/07/the-current-cinema.html?cid=6a00e5523026f588340154338c5fe3970c#comment-6a00e5523026f588340154338c5fe3970c
Thanks for introducing me to the Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians blog – funniest thing I’ve seen in a while. Keep up the ‘good works’!
Mark, I think Part 1 is filled with nice little touches that really develop the characters. The first scene with Emma Watson wiping her parents memory is echoed a little later on when she wipes the memory of some baddies, and Watson gives an extremely nuanced expression that really conveys how hard it is for her to perform that spell again. A lesser movie would have spelled this out but Yates trusts his performers enough to convey this detail. Splitting the book into two films really gave the drama a chance to develop, as for the first time in the movie series there’s a little breathing room because they’re not just trying to cram every plot point from the books into a two hour movie.
Am raring to see it, liked your review a whole lot, though I hope I don’t come off as nitpicky in mentioning that the line you mention from Dumbledore & Harry’s chat is verbatim from the book, and I’m guessing there’s more where that came from. Rowling isn’t a great stylist but she doesn’t need to be…she’s strong in narrative, character and theme, and it sounds like, as usual, a lot of what’s great on the screen started with her.
intheblanks -
Well, I guess he mixed it up a bit with the “CUTE CUTE CUTE”, as opposed to “YEP YEP YEP”, so that’s something. 😉
Anyways, looking forward to this. Like Glenn, I don’t hold the series in ridiculously high esteem, but you’ve got to recognize the care with with each installment has been brought to the screen, however longwinded some of the films may have been. The young actors have grown into their roles nicely, and the supporting middle-aged (or older) British cast is second-to-none. Haven’t really been feeling it that much with regards to Voldemort, as he’s been on the periphery for much of the past few films (heck, he was only represented by a giant cloud in Half-Blood Prince, if I recall), but I imagine Fiennes and Radcliffe ramp up the emotional intensity in the last one, so I’m optimistic on that front. I quite enjoy “End-Of-The-World” scenarios when there’s actually some emotional impact involved (unlike most blockbusters, where visual effects greatly supercede character development).
I’ll be watching it at 10am (!) on Friday in IMAX…hopefully they’ll squeeze in that Dark Knight Rises teaser as well.
“…the care with WHICH each installment…”
It’s amazing how you can scan over your post three times and still miss something like that…*sigh*.
Saw it last night. LOVED the albino dragon. I also loved the way (here’s where I’m supposed to say SPOILERS) that Harry rejects Ultimate Magic Power after killing Voldemort (like it’s a surprise that he would?)
This fits in with the arc of the whole series. Harry is the heor but he’s not a superhero and he always needs the help of his friends to do Good and vanquish Evil.
IOW in Republican terms J.K. Rowling is a Communist.
I’m actually commenting on the two Glenns commentary with Glenn Whipp. I am one of those people who watched the first three movies and then decided to read the books. I read the first 4 in quick succession and then two months later had pre ordered the 5th book, which I picked up the day it came out (not at midnight – I’m a fan, but not fanatical). I loved all the books, but I was turned on to them because of watching the movies.