Ok, I've seen it again and can talk about it better. When I first saw it...I really didn't like it at all. I thought it was disjointed and put together as a series of videos, not as a smoothly told story...but I was looking at it thru the eyes of someone who knows the book well. At the second showing, I just sat back and watched...and thoroughly enjoyed!
Here there be spoilers:
My thoughts:
First of all…I LOVED Luna! She was perfect, just great and a ray of sunshine in a very dark movie, I liked her more in the movie than the book (kinda like Snape LOL).
The Thestrals were well done, and I especially loved the baby!
LOVEDLOVEDLOVED seeing Snape as a teen; I liked the Occlumency lessons too. Harry's Dad was a bit of a prat in that one scene...
If you at all like Lucius (or as I like to call him, Lucious) Malfoy, make sure you see this movie at an IMAX theater...he is yummilicious at the end, altho as horrible as ever.
LOVED that the twins had a LOT more screen time!
LOVED how “soft” Sirius is in the movie. His death was waaaay too fast, no build up at all.
LOVED Tonks! Didn’t love that she hardly got any screen time.
LOVED Neville! He's grown into his own.
Seeing Voldemort in a gorgeous suit was a bit disconcerting!
Kreacher was a trip, I’m glad they included him, I was disappointed we didn't get to see Sirius's Mom, altho we did get to hear her muttering a bit...no screaming, tho.
This was the first time I really dug Gambon as Dumbledore. He was dynamic in two specific scenes, just amazing!
I liked how Ginny kept looking at Harry :-)
Did you notice they used the levicorpus spell in the DA scene and towards the end? I don’t think that particular spell shows up til Half Blood Prince, it was one of the spells the teen Snape invented.
HATED how they had Petunia dressed, and how she was sprawled with her legs apart. Tacky.
HATED Umbridge! The actress did a great job (could've been a bit clearer on the "hem, hem"s). I still don't like (as I didn't in the book) the part where Harry has to write with her special quill and it carves what he's writing into his hand. Reminded me too much of high school.
HATED Grawp; he looked like Alfred E. Neuman.
HATED Mr. Weasley’s new hair do! Also HATED Mrs. Weasley calling him "Daddy". UGH.
Did NOT like Bellatrix's cackling; it felt too over the top. She did LOOK good, tho, too bad she’s Lucious’s SIL; they’d make quite a couple!
Seemed like many of the older cast members had aged SIGNIFICANTLY since the last movie. Not complaining, just saying.
Here's a couple of other reviews:
I agree with her about Lenny Henry!!!
"...a collection of interesting moments rather than a fully integrated dramatic experience..."
and
"...Evanna Lynch, a pale, wide-eyed 15-year-old nonprofessional from Ireland who, having read the book, decided that no one else could play Luna Lovegood, the weirdest witch at Hogwarts. It seems Ms. Lynch was right. She’s spellbinding."
She was!!!
Comments
We are going to see it tonight. Can't wait. Of course, I was naughty and read your spoilers. :-)
Now I can't wait to see it -- wish I could this weekend :(
not gonna look yet...
i've gotta see movie...
hopefully soon...
I was disappointed, too, at not getting to hear Sirius's mom shrieking every time the door opened. :) Also that Kreacher in the movie wasn't the reason that Harry thought Sirius wasn't home and in danger.
They left so much out, but short of a 2-parter movie, what can you do?
I loved it. And like you said, Luna was the best of all!
I agree with you. I guess I'll have to see it again. I was dissapointed about how much they changed from the book. Having Cho tip Umbridge about the DA was a bad move. I wish I could have seen the baby-headed Deatheater. Oh well, they did the best they could.
GD and I had mixed feelings ---- nitpicked it to death but had a great time nontheless
re: the levicorpus spell the only thing we could think of was that in movie#3 Lupin tells Harry that spells go in and out of vogue all the time and with that level of popularity its feasable that someone knew it from their parent or grandparent but ... again ... it was a detour from book lore
looking forward to seeing it a 2nd time ourselves!
Mama Kelly
I finally saw it today! Yay!
I agree with a lot of your loves and hates about it, I thought they did a pretty good job a dense book - esp capturing harry's frustration and sense of loneliness, but I did miss some of the fun things in the book that weren't essential to the plot line but gave it some fun. My new fav char is Luna, love the quirky for sure!
