FILM: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2

[MSM 126]

I know I posted this already in the General Discussion. However I didn't realize there is now this special review forum, and I think this movie deserves its own review thread! So I copied my review here, feel free to discuss!

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(SPOILERS AHEAD!!!):

Overall:

- I was a bit critical when I went to see it, afraid it would not live up to my expectatations. It turned out it totally did, and beyond.

- The movie is much better edited than the few predecessors. It's like Yates finally found his rhythm. The movie is very faithful to the book, much to my satisfaction.

Specific scenes:

- Alterations from the book:

- Almost none of them, unexpectedly, did bother me. Most of them were even ingenious.

- I loved the boat house sequence, it's thrilling. It's much better than Shrieking Shack. I just missed a wide shot in this scene.

- Neville saving the day felt completely right

- The flying scene of Voldemort and Harry really adds something. A danse macabre of the two main characters destined to kill each other.

- Few minor things I didn't like:

- why didn't they just show Bellatrix' wand at Gringotts? They had it!

- The pensieve looks like an ufo.

- The very last scenes of the trio when Harry breaks the elder wand, they felt abit out of place.

- The epilogue is quite embarrassing and unnecessary. It would have been a nice surprise if they would have left that scene out. Just a wide aerial shot of Hogwarts would have done.

- Snape's thoughts were now tears.

- The Snape memories were a bit rushed and I didn't like the child actors so much. Also it would be wonderful if they would have had the Snape memory from OotP in the montage!!

- Voldemort's death is the only scene that felt unsatisfying. You don't realize what exactly is going on and suddenly he is gone, and becomes confetti. Confetti!

What I really liked:

- There are some kick ass scenes. Really kick-ass, such as:

- Harry stepping forward as Snape speaks to the students.

- McGonagall vs. Snape

- Escape from Gringotts, wow!

- The boat house scene!

- Helena Ravenclaw, even without the back story.

- As much as I hate his interpretation, this is Michael Gambon's best movie as Dumbledore.

- Last but not least: Voldemort: he feels much more real, you can feel his fear now, his increasing weakness, yet still he shows he is the most powerful dark wizard ever at the right moments. I loved his reaction to Potter escaping at the courtyard, and the following confrontations between him and Harry. Oscar worthy material.

The music:

- Alexandre Desplat is no John Williams. Not technically, but also not regarding the flow of music. Yet this is one of his best scores to date. The music is much better than Part 1. Desplat at moments even imitated Williams in style, e.g. in the vault scene and during some of the battle scenes. Also there is much more music, more underscore, which felt good. The main problem is that Desplat tends to let the tension fizzle too quickly, e.g. after the dragon escape, but most obviously after the pensieve scene when Harry is contemplating. Music here was absolutely necessary.

- JW's theme is used properly and although I am a hardcore JW fan, and to my own surprise, I felt more of it wasn't needed. I do think however that because of its use, this film finally felt like a HP movie again. Having 'Leaving Hogwarts' at the epilogue was the obvious and only correct thing to do here, and although it is not edited to fit the onscreen action, hearing it in the background feels satisfying, as if JW after all is the one who rounds up the story musically. The 'End Credits' have Hedwig's Theme in the beginning, which was enough to make me very happy, although I would have preferred 'Harry's Wondrous World'.

Conclusion:

- We must be happy that we have had Potter movies of this quality. All of the critique should be seen in perspective. It all could have been much worse!

- I am a big fan of the very first movie. This one is a close second, if not the best of them all. It pushes 95% of the right buttons.

Rating: 5/5

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

As the last episode of the Harry Potter series it's very satisfying. The problem is the producers do expect everyone to do a Harry Potter marathon in the days before you go and watch it.

I watched DH part 1 before so I figured I'd be OK. But there was so much stuff dragged from the previous films that if you did not watch them for a year or so, the plot, such as it is becomes very murky.

Also Dumbledore is not handles very well in both this part and DH1. Both films hint ant a darker side that Dumbledore supposedly had. But Harry never seems to respond to it. The film also never makes it clear if Dumbledore knew Harry would survive it if he were killed by Voldemort at the "right time".

[Muad'Dib 1,802]

I just watched it yesterday and to be honest, I left the theatre with a sensation of emptyness. On the good side, I really enjoyed the Snape flashback scene (Alan Rickman was brilliant during the whole movie) and the Epilogue. Those were the only moments that I truly enjoyed from the movie. I would have enjoyed the Dragon Flight scene if it wouldn't have been so.. short. Just when the music was pumping the scene up, it ended.

The duel between Voldemort and Harry was, at least to me, terribly overdone. And what was up with that shot of Harry and Voldy falling and "combining" their faces?? Was this the film's attempt to be artsy??

In fact that's another point: The film seemed to me mediocrily directed, like Yates didn't care what the fuck he was doing... "Hey, let's just make the camera turn around the characters with no apparent reason. That would make it look cool, dude!!!"

The trio itself didn't bring anything new to the acting side, but the rest of the older cast was bloody brilliant. Maggie Smith was spectacular, Gambon brought the Dumbledore from POA back, and as I said Rickman stole the whole film. Ralph Fiennes was great, considering the terrible material he had to do. I mean, Voldemort laughs and points at people like a bully. What the hell???

And something that struck me in an extreme way: In the book, Draco's mother says that Harry is dead when he's not. She's just trying to help him and trick Voldemort. That was something that, if I hadn't read the book, I wouldn't have a clue about it!! Just a simple exchange of looks would have done the trick, but no... Here they just went along with it, and the viewer was left clueless.

And what was up with trying to make the war realistic? This is a freaking movie about wizards and magic! Realism is not the way to go. Why not take advantage of this world and use it in its full potential? For example, the Dragon is completely wasted in the opening. Why not make it come back?

Now that I have watched the film, I'm really glad Johnny didn't score this one. It would have been a total waste, like it was with Desplat. If you want a modern score, that's fine. But hire a composer that's known for that instead of having a classicaly trained composer waste his whole talent in something as mediocre as this was. Thank God for the Epilogue, though...

[fommes 153]

The film was perfectly in line with the previous Yates films: good and entertaining, but thanks to the source material, the set design, the acting, and Desplat's music, and despite Yates's bad direction and the bad screenplay.

First off, the direction. Like with all the other Yates films, so much of what he does is confusing for the viewer (especially the viewer that has not read the books), the transitions between shots and scenes are occasionally awkward (e.g. the cut right after the final duel), the acting direction is often lacking (actors often just stand around in shots until they have a line or have to do something), and the timing in the montages - supposedly the most filmic part of the films - is often off: e.g. the crucial pensieve montage; the crosscutting of the final duel(s) is often jarring too (e.g. Harry looking behind him which is him supposedly seeing that the final horcrux has been dealt with).

But the screenplay is probably worse. Two films for one book, and they still leave so many loose threads hanging, or make some awkward shortcuts. E.g.:

- Who was right in Part 1's opening about the date of Harry's transport from the Dursley house.

- The Dumbledore back story. If you're not going to do anything with it at all, leave the sister out for instance.

- The horcruxes: they're struggling with them for two films and a half, and then suddenly Harry just needs to close his eyes and point out the next one.

- Many, many other examples but this really takes the cake: why Harry is not killed in the Forbidden Forest. I can't believe they didn't put that in in Dumbledore's scene, which is now rendered pretty useless as a result. The eight films revolve around a dark wizard cheating death, and now suddenly the hero gets a free-out-of-jail card without explanation?

The last example is exemplary of this film series (from the fourth film onwards): they're full of set-ups, but they leave out the pay-offs. Occasionally it's even the reverse, e.g. the flashback part about the prophecy.

In the end I have difficulty understanding that they left this huge project in these rather mediocre, at times amateurish, hands for the last four films. There was one deleted scene for Part 1 which was very brief but answered in itself at least three dangling threads in that film (answering questions that viewers both familiar and unfamiliar with the books are left with): cutting out this scene is surely a symbol of how these films cannot stand alone as films. And getting back to this scene, I just can't understand why it wasn't left in: was it because it's too 'talky' (even though it's brief)? From the fourth film on, they went out of their way to cut out all the mythology, all the connections between and within the films, effectively dumbing down the films to just a sequence of events. I have no idea - perhaps it results from a fear to lose a mass audience, perhaps it's because they want to imitate the modern blockbuster style (see also Yates's preference for minimalistic droning for the music)? In any case, they have surely underestimated their audience. While being decent films for the rest, they're the worst high-profile adaptations I can think of, because the films don't hold up as films and stories themselves. They're really awesome book illustrations, but they're bad adaptations.

Finally, the music: I thought Desplat's contribution was largely excellent. There were a few annoying Zimmer-style overpowering percussion/synthy sounds at select moments that were put there at request of the producers surely (nothing else in Desplat's discography sounds like that), but the actual notes that this accompaniment accompanied were very much Desplat, so it wasn't too bad at all. I normally hate tracked music, but I thought the use of the "Detention" piece was OK and probably the next best thing after original music: it was rerecorded as far as I could tell, and it wasn't a really high-profile version of the theme. The "Leaving Hogwarts" segment was OK too - again I would have preferred something original, but it was very fitting.

But in the end, with the tracked music it's the same story as with the film: it's nice, but average. It's a pity that Desplat wasn't given a free reign - surely another missed chance with this film series.

It makes for entertaining viewing - but with this kind of source material, it could have been so much more, as Cuaron has proved.

[Jeff 10]

To address a couple items above:

1) MSM - They didn't show Bellatrix's wand because Bellatrix knew it was stolen and tipped off Gringott's. This is why the goblin asked to see the wand, because he was expecting to see Bellatrix's wand. I read the book just before seeing the movie, otherwise I wouldn't have caught that.

2) Michael - Draco's mother asks Harry if Draco is alive, and Harry nods. That is why she told Voldemort that Harry was alive - in the book, Harry speculates that she needs Voldemort to approach Hogwarts so she can parade in as a victor and find Draco without getting killed. This isn't explained fully in the movie, but you can infer from her question to Harry that Draco has something to do with it.

3) I thought the trio's acting was spectacular, especially Emma Watson, who really outdid herself (between Part 1 and 2 vs the rest of the series). She's come a long way from passable to capturing the essence of her character (she was actually quite good in SS and CoS but got worse in 3-6).

[karelm 2,913]

I just saw the film and I loved it. I’m not a big HP fan (I haven’t read the books but I have seen all the movies).

One thing I wished to see more of was greater character development in Harry. This is what would have escalated a good movie to a great one. When Harry is dead and meets Dumbledore, there should have been a moment of hesitation between which path to take – to join his parents in death since he’s longed for them all his life or join his friends and finish the fight since he really came to his own through their friendship and shared experiences. Eventually he would choose his friends and the story would resume but this would be a big moment for the character having grown into his own from his past. Perhaps even Dumbledore would warn of great dangers ahead and his inability to interfere as he done previously but Harry would still choose this path proving his transformation to adulthood. Movies are made by the small moments like this that add character depth as they overcome the challenge that’s held them back all along. I think a greater writer would have taken this opportunity which JK Rowlings, great as she is, demonstrates a missed opportunity here. Perhaps this struggle is more noticeable in the books than in the films.

Regarding the music, this is my favorite Desplat score I’ve heard so far. I agree with MSM, Desplat is no Williams, but he is very capable and a JW fan. My problem with the score is that there were some missed opportunities that a great composer would have taken. Some of it did feel Zimmeresque (though this is how Zimmer should be done when the composer really knows what they are doing). I thought the Zimmer feel was most noticeable in the “Statues” track where the impulsive strings are placed under a trademark Zimmer chord progression. One of the biggest differences between JW and Desplat is how Desplat avoids leitmotifs and prefers to score the action. The end result is a great sense of rhythmic propulsion pushing the scene forward rather than character subtext which I find more satisfying and sophisticated. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very capable score – but what a gem we have in JW and his endlessly inventive material that established the tone for the franchise. I felt the coda sequence was a nice tribute to JW trying to capture the style but a true JW connoisseur would catch where the material veered into mimicry. Desplat knows what he's doing, but doesn't have memorable ideas that you just can't shake out of your mind - the kind that all composers seek.

Fommes, you make some excellent points and I agree completely with you.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[SafeUnderHill 205]

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

It reminds me how much I'd give to have had Williams score the last one in the end!

I would have liked to have seen that too. It's hard to get too upset though, because Desplat's score is pretty great.

[SafeUnderHill 205]

[publicist 4,643]

The music:

- Alexandre Desplat is no John Williams. Not technically, but also not regarding the flow of music. Yet this is one of his worst scores to date.