HP and the Deathly Hallows!

[Captain Russ]

NOTE TO EVERYONE:

Gone fishin'

[B_Metal]

I wish I had a boat to go fishing. Mind you I know it's not necessary to have a boat to fish, I just think it'd be more fun.

[Anderson]

I wish I had a boat to go fishing. Mind you I know it's not necessary to have a boat to fish, I just think it'd be more fun.

Until some asshole in a speedboat cuts too close to you. Then, you have to convince the other retards that the boat isn't going to sink.

Then, you remember why you don't pack enough life vests. When you bring more than 3 people on a boat, somebody's gotta die.

[B_Metal]

Boats, useful in many ways, including but not limited to body disposal.

[FilmNerdJamie]

Best film in the series, I'd say.

[Trejo]

Was hoping the epic battle at Hogwarts would be a little more.. epic.

Otherwise a pretty damn solid finale

[BMichaelKrol]

Oh boy... That was not so great. Seriously gang, the Emperor has no clothes.

[Anderson]

Oh boy... That was not so great. Seriously gang, the Emperor has no clothes.

Back it up, parcheese.

[V]

I'm wating for the video... and that is ALL I'm going to say.

[BMichaelKrol]

Back it up, parcheese.

Will do, Cochise. I'll be back tomorrow.

[FilmNerdJamie]

Interesting to see some still underestimating Potter. Didn't see that many predict it'd best The Dark Knight's opening and yet we're still just hearing, "Well it'll drop big time next weekend!"

Well...looking at the glowing reviews and word-of-mouth, who's to say this last movie won't buck the trend and have a solid hold next weekend?

[gravedigger]

Accio crying Jackface!

I think they kind of missed the boat with the Battle of Hogwarts (i.e. where were the centaurs and giants?) but overall it was pretty great. The stuff with Snape still makes it burn that the almost completely removed him from Half-Blood Prince, which was his book. Lots of really good effects, though. And it was great seeing Neville become the fuckin' man.

[BMichaelKrol]

The more I think about this movie, the more I'm underwhelmed.

The main problem with this film is it's not big enough, either spectacle wise or emotion-wise. Take the Battle of Hogwarts for example. It seems very small in comparison to what it could have been. In the book there were more creatures involved (centaurs, grawp, etc) which gives the battle an additional dimension. The other creatures in the magical world had a stake in this fight too and they're bringing it. There was very little of that in the picture and I'm not sure why. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a HP purist. These are large books and some stuff needs to be cut. But why scale the battle down? Why not make it bigger? This is the last film ever (until the remakes in about ten years), go epic, like in ROTK. It's not like this was done practically. Get some more servers and get them rendering!

And speaking of which, now that special effects are essentially ho-hum (CGI ruined the "How did they do that?" wonder), big ticket effects sequences like this need more emotional grounding. Again, ROTK did a great job in this department. During the giant battles in LOTR, there was still a serious emotional element that the audience could follow. Here, not so much. The battle was very sanitary; we only saw the aftermath. I know a lot of that isn't in the book -- we don't get to see Tonks killed, for instance -- but if you're adding stuff that isn't there already, why not go for broke here too?

Which brings me to my second major beef with the film: the ending was completely ruined.

Well, let me back that up a bit. They ruined Neville's big moment and the Voldemort Harry duel was a big mess.

First point: Why in the hell did the filmmakers decide that Neville needed to give a big third act speech? Seriously, that's one of the worst trends in modern block buster film making. Most of these speeches are poorly written, inappropriate, and way too on the nose. As is Neville's here. Additionally, why did they change how Neville killed Nagini? This part was great in the book and it worked logically. How they did it in the film doesn't work at all.

In the movie, Harry pops up, says "O Hai Guise! I'm alive!" and he runs off. Voldy loses his shit and runs away, leaving Nagini to her own devices. What's wrong with that, you ask? Well I'll tell you: It makes no fucking sense at all.

Voldemort knows Potter's offing Horcruxes like I off sucka-mcs at the mic. Voldemort also knows that as long as there are Horcruxes out there, he's pretty much invulnerable. Knowing both of those things, why the fuck does he take off and leave Nagini unprotected? Hell, he must know that Nagini is the last Horcrux at that point, why is she even out of his sight? Like ever? Voldemort's a lot of things but stupid and irrational he is not.

It just doesn't work. So the filmmakers ruined a great moment from the book just to add a stupid speech and to throw in character actions which make no sense. Bravo.

Second point: the Harry Voldemort duel fell flat. In the book, the final duel took place with everyone around them watching Harry and Voldemort duke it out. That's important, thematically. It shows the good wizards and witches are not afraid of Voldemort anymore. Here they run around the castle and shoot shit at each other's wands, in a way that really reminded me of Egg Shen's and Lo Pan's fight in Big Trouble in Little China. It didn't work. It was too sanitary. Dueling in front of everyone keeps the stakes in front of the audience. This isn't just about HP and Voldemort. The entire magical world is at stake. The way the duel is done in the movie, it doesn't feel like that all. It feels really small.

Again, I don't necessarily care that they changed the book, but if you're going to change it, make it better. Here, they didn't.

And final nitpicky complaint, I was hoping that after ten plus years of making these films, there would be something special in the credits, a la the credits in ROTK. It would've been nice to give Radcliffe, et al, a nice little curtain call there. But they didn't, which adds to the movie's small feeling.

Honestly, I was underwhelmed because it seems like they treated this film like just another movie. It deserved better treatment, and so do the fans.

[Anderson]

The more I think about this movie, the more I'm underwhelmed.

The main problem with this film is it's not big enough, either spectacle wise or emotion-wise. Take the Battle of Hogwarts for example. It seems very small in comparison to what it could have been. In the book there were more creatures involved (centaurs, grawp, etc) which gives the battle an additional dimension. The other creatures in the magical world had a stake in this fight too and they're bringing it. There was very little of that in the picture and I'm not sure why. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a HP purist. These are large books and some stuff needs to be cut. But why scale the battle down? Why not make it bigger? This is the last film ever (until the remakes in about ten years), go epic, like in ROTK. It's not like this was done practically. Get some more servers and get them rendering!

And speaking of which, now that special effects are essentially ho-hum (CGI ruined the "How did they do that?" wonder), big ticket effects sequences like this need more emotional grounding. Again, ROTK did a great job in this department. During the giant battles in LOTR, there was still a serious emotional element that the audience could follow. Here, not so much. The battle was very sanitary; we only saw the aftermath. I know a lot of that isn't in the book -- we don't get to see Tonks killed, for instance -- but if you're adding stuff that isn't there already, why not go for broke here too?

Which brings me to my second major beef with the film: the ending was completely ruined.

Well, let me back that up a bit. They ruined Neville's big moment and the Voldemort Harry duel was a big mess.

First point: Why in the hell did the filmmakers decide that Neville needed to give a big third act speech? Seriously, that's one of the worst trends in modern block buster film making. Most of these speeches are poorly written, inappropriate, and way too on the nose. As is Neville's here. Additionally, why did they change how Neville killed Nagini? This part was great in the book and it worked logically. How they did it in the film doesn't work at all.

In the movie, Harry pops up, says "O Hai Guise! I'm alive!" and he runs off. Voldy loses his shit and runs away, leaving Nagini to her own devices. What's wrong with that, you ask? Well I'll tell you: It makes no fucking sense at all.

Voldemort knows Potter's offing Horcruxes like I off sucka-mcs at the mic. Voldemort also knows that as long as there are Horcruxes out there, he's pretty much invulnerable. Knowing both of those things, why the fuck does he take off and leave Nagini unprotected? Hell, he must know that Nagini is the last Horcrux at that point, why is she even out of his sight? Like ever? Voldemort's a lot of things but stupid and irrational he is not.

It just doesn't work. So the filmmakers ruined a great moment from the book just to add a stupid speech and to throw in character actions which make no sense. Bravo.

Second point: the Harry Voldemort duel fell flat. In the book, the final duel took place with everyone around them watching Harry and Voldemort duke it out. That's important, thematically. It shows the good wizards and witches are not afraid of Voldemort anymore. Here they run around the castle and shoot shit at each other's wands, in a way that really reminded me of Egg Shen's and Lo Pan's fight in Big Trouble in Little China. It didn't work. It was too sanitary. Dueling in front of everyone keeps the stakes in front of the audience. This isn't just about HP and Voldemort. The entire magical world is at stake. The way the duel is done in the movie, it doesn't feel like that all. It feels really small.

Again, I don't necessarily care that they changed the book, but if you're going to change it, make it better. Here, they didn't.

And final nitpicky complaint, I was hoping that after ten plus years of making these films, there would be something special in the credits, a la the credits in ROTK. It would've been nice to give Radcliffe, et al, a nice little curtain call there. But they didn't, which adds to the movie's small feeling.

Honestly, I was underwhelmed because it seems like they treated this film like just another movie. It deserved better treatment, and so do the fans.

Spot-on at points, but working from too much expectation in others. One of your better summaries so far.