Boring. Uneventful. Disappointing. These are not words I would have guessed would fit the conclusions of the Harry Potter movie franchise starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, “The Deathly Hallows Part 2” directed by David Yates.
And yet, especially in the first five to ten minutes, the movie already had problems. Eerie silence. Uncomfortable body posturing, lack-lustre lines and poor delivery. It felt to me like all the actors were more focused on their other, more recent projects, and couldn’t wait to put Harry Potter behind them.
I think what the director was going for was somber, calm, tragic, heavy – but I expect that the pace would eventually take off. Instead, it never did; the movie even altered events in the book! Instead of the triumphant, brilliant, exciting conclusion of Harry Potter 7 (as written by Rowling in Deathly Hallows) where Harry defeats Voldemort in Hogwarts surrounded by friends and they all cheer and celebrate, and he explains why the wand responds to him and not Voldemort mid-battle, in the movie Harry battles Voldemort alone – leaving out the key dialogue points to be filled in (and poorly) at the very end.
They even threw in a cheesy scene where Harry and Voldemort wrestle and their faces blend together as if they’re one person – it made my girlfriend laugh out loud.
At first it seemed to be written as a stand alone film for people who didn’t read the books: they kept throwing in extra information that seemed unnatural and out of character, like “Hey Harry, don’t forget to bring your cloak of invisibility, you know, that you dad left you and makes you invisible.” At one point Ron tells Hermione “Harry must be in the room of requirement, that’s why he doesn’t show up on the Marauder’s Map. You told me that last year.” And she says “Yes. I did.”
Hard to explain exactly what I’m getting out – the lines were terse and enigmatic, spaced out by strange silences and weird looks. So even though it seemed they were trying to give viewers all the information even if they weren’t Harry Potter fans, at the same time filmography choices seemed to directly lead them in the wrong direction.
Harry deliberately drops the philosopher’s stone on the ground before Voldemort kills him (close up on the hand, the dropping stone), but we aren’t told why. Dumbledore remarks on Snape’s Patronus being a stag in a lewd way that made my Dad think Snape was secretly Harry’s father.
Non-Harry Potter fans (like my parents) came away from the movie not really understanding what had happened at all. And me, as a huge fan with high hopes, can’t understand what went wrong.
Did you see Deathly Hallows Part 2? What did you think?
July 31, 2011
Couldn’t agree with you more. It lacked the magic and whimsy of earlier episodes. Our stale, overpriced popcorn was more satisfying than the flick.
August 5, 2011
Thanks for the comment! I didn’t get any overpriced popcorn though I succumbed to a $6 coke. There was something off with that movie…
August 3, 2011
It wasn’t the Philosopher’s stone it was the resurrection stone and Snape’s patronus was a Doe, not a stag. But yeah agree with the rest of what you said they changed the storyline soooo much
August 5, 2011
Oops, you’re right. I should have been more careful. On a similar note: I’ve been criticized for saying Harry has a “magical father and human mother”. What I mean (and explain later) is that Harry’s father comes from a magical background and his mother comes from a non-magical one. A lot of people write to me saying “Lily isn’t a MUGGLE!”. I wanted to express the idea in terms that make sense to non-Harry Potter fans who don’t know the terminology. Do I need to change it?
August 13, 2011
Finally a review of this movie that I agree with. The last thing I expected was to feel nothing after the last movie, but that is exactly what happened. The acting, like you rightly said, was weak in many scenes. Many of the dialogues looked like they were written for a cliched Hollywood movie, not Harry Potter. What it lacked most was the emotional depth which I felt there was in Part 1. Most of the characters seemed pale imitations of the characters we used to know and love. It was as though the movie was trying to be epic when all it needed to do was stick to the book and do justice to it.I am also wondering what went wrong!
August 19, 2011
having watched all the movies and didnt read any of the books i thought the last film was terrible,the ending was pretty bad ,i mean that final battle wat was that,u cant hear them saying there spells then voldemort just evaporates,nobody watches it and even more bizarre nobody congradulates him lol,its like yea u killed him so what..why does he break the most powerful wand in the world is a mystery… i must read the last book cause im sure its nothen like the film,if it is totally different i hope they do a remake
August 23, 2011
Glad to see some others out there agree with me about the movie. The whole movie had this stange, quiet and sombre feeling… but the most jarring was the moment of victory which should have been a) exciting and b) celebratory.