Fresh back from the midnight showing of the final chapter in the Harry Potter film series, so, of course, I'm going to write about that instead of taking this opportunity to go to sleep at what would only be a mildly unreasonable hour. I'll try to minimize spoilers, but they're obviously going to be here.
First of all, a reminder that I'm not the hugest fan of the Deathly Hallows book. Long story short, my general sense about the movie is about the same as with Part 1, only generally more favorable because of the portion of the story captured. With a few small exceptions, the adaptation itself is about as strong as you could want. By and large, deviations from the source made perfect sense within the characterizations given in the movies and the nature of the medium. More important, the aspects of the book that I found most frustrating -- The Hallows, wand lore, Gringotts -- were minimized to the extent possible, while full attention was paid to the most important factors -- Snape's past, King's Cross, and others. In fact, I came into the theater thinking "If they handle Snape right, that will account for all other sins." And while I mostly feel they did this and more, I can't quite give it a completely free pass.
See, there were too many moments that just seemed...manufactured. Scenes that wanted to be emotional rarely were, and the execution just had a number of moments where it just didn't feel all there. It seemed, at times, like they were including sequences because they knew that the fans would be clamoring for them and just letting it ride on that fact. In general, I'd say that the more people who were on the screen, the less honest anything seemed. The core cast continues to be largely phenomenal, but the Wizarding World somehow felt less real than ever. Heck, early on, even the small moments seemed a little bit too rushed and matter-of-fact.
I want to end on a positive note, though. Even if it will never be the first Harry Potter film I reach for on a lazy day, Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 was an enjoyable time and a worthy ending to one of the most lucrative film franchises of all time. I'd really like to watch a cut of this and part 1 blended together to eliminate the handful of redundancies and see if I still have problems with some of the early pacing or if the momentum carries. I suspect that it would, elevating both movies considerably (thank God, DVD will also let us skip over Harry and Hermione dancing in Part 1).
Showing posts with label Harry Potter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harry Potter. Show all posts
Friday, July 15, 2011
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Thoughts on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (pt. 1)
Last summer, I re-read and posted my thoughts on the seventh and final entry in the Harry Potter series. At the time, I mentioned that I had serious problems with a number of elements of the book, both in terms of content and in structure. I also noted that my love of the characters and the ultimate redemption of Snape ultimately made the experience worthwhile. It's safe to say that, by and large, the same holds of part 1 of the film adaptation.
Since I already said pretty much all I have to say on the content of the book, I'm going to take this space to focus on some issues unique to the movie.
First, as anybody familiar with both the books and the movies would expect, the creators had to do a bit of backpedaling in order to make certain elements work. Instead of simply cutting the wedding scene, we get a ridiculously half-assed introduction of Bill ("Hi, Harry, I'm Bill Weasely. I got attacked by a were-wolf and like my meat on the raw side now!" "Oh, nice to finally meet you, Bill").
More distracting, as you might expect, was the way that Dobby was forced back into things after having all of his involvement since Chamber of Secrets cut out. I know that Dobby's sacrifice is immensely moving in the books, but movie-watchers have no familiarity with Dobby's work at Hogwarts or his adventures with Winky or Hermione's creation of SPEW.
I'm not even going to try to describe all of the problems with the scene where Harry and Hermione dance in the tent.
The final problem is that the screenwriters obviously didn't put enough time into some of the dialogue. There were a few lines so clunky that the audience actually laughed. In some cases, it was simply because the characters needed to express thoughts or explain things that could not have been spoken by a human being in a way that didn't sound ridiculous. This is a relatively common problem with any fantasy setting, and in these instances, the writers did a decent job of hanging the lampshade* and creating intentional humor out of the situation. But there were other areas where they didn't seem to recognize the problems. Similarly, the way they shot Harry's interactions with "Bathilda Bagshot" evoked laughter at a number of times in what was supposed to be a tense scene.
The filmmakers did a number of things extremely right, though. For one thing, the death of Hedwig, while a bit abrupt, made far more sense in this setting. Instead of getting hit randomly by a killing curse while stuck in her cage, she swoops in and harasses a Death Eater who was trying to shoot Harry. Not only did it provide Voldemort a much more reasonable means of identifying Harry than "OMG, he used expeliarmus! It must be Potter", but it makes more sense, since there's no good reason that Harry wouldn't have let Hedwig fly freely and find him at The Barrows later.
Second, the infiltration of the Ministry was one of the most entertaining scenes in the series so far. The actors who got to play the Ministry officials into whom our heroes polymorphed must have had boatloads of fun. The physicality of their performances was just perfect. It turned what was kind of an awkward, tense scene in the books into a great tension alleviator, punctuated at points by signs of just how twisted the Ministry had become under Death Eater control.
Third, as much as a handful of critics complained about the camping scenes, I felt that they were handled quite well (with the exception of the aforementioned dance). The creators did a good job of displaying the impact of The Locket on people's temperaments and of Ron's growing insecurity with minimal time commitment. Hermione's almost run-in with the Snatchers seemed a bit purposeless beyond showing the potency of the charms they had set up, but I won't complain too much about that. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of how Ron's absence strained Harry and Hermione, but I won't hold that against them overmuch. Ron was only gone for 80 pages in the book (mostly spent at Godric's Hollow), and the impact of his departure is something that was almost entirely told and not shown.
Finally, the animation used for the Story of the Three Brothers was absolutely fantastic. I would buy a DVD just containing the various Tales of Beedle the Bard told in that fashion in a heartbeat.
So, not a great movie for a person who isn't particularly fond of the source material, but an enjoyable time for Harry Potter fans. I'll never be convinced that Deathly Hallows was the appropriate way to end the series, but David Yates and crew are showing that they're devoted to making the best adaptation they can.
Since I already said pretty much all I have to say on the content of the book, I'm going to take this space to focus on some issues unique to the movie.
First, as anybody familiar with both the books and the movies would expect, the creators had to do a bit of backpedaling in order to make certain elements work. Instead of simply cutting the wedding scene, we get a ridiculously half-assed introduction of Bill ("Hi, Harry, I'm Bill Weasely. I got attacked by a were-wolf and like my meat on the raw side now!" "Oh, nice to finally meet you, Bill").
More distracting, as you might expect, was the way that Dobby was forced back into things after having all of his involvement since Chamber of Secrets cut out. I know that Dobby's sacrifice is immensely moving in the books, but movie-watchers have no familiarity with Dobby's work at Hogwarts or his adventures with Winky or Hermione's creation of SPEW.
I'm not even going to try to describe all of the problems with the scene where Harry and Hermione dance in the tent.
The final problem is that the screenwriters obviously didn't put enough time into some of the dialogue. There were a few lines so clunky that the audience actually laughed. In some cases, it was simply because the characters needed to express thoughts or explain things that could not have been spoken by a human being in a way that didn't sound ridiculous. This is a relatively common problem with any fantasy setting, and in these instances, the writers did a decent job of hanging the lampshade* and creating intentional humor out of the situation. But there were other areas where they didn't seem to recognize the problems. Similarly, the way they shot Harry's interactions with "Bathilda Bagshot" evoked laughter at a number of times in what was supposed to be a tense scene.
The filmmakers did a number of things extremely right, though. For one thing, the death of Hedwig, while a bit abrupt, made far more sense in this setting. Instead of getting hit randomly by a killing curse while stuck in her cage, she swoops in and harasses a Death Eater who was trying to shoot Harry. Not only did it provide Voldemort a much more reasonable means of identifying Harry than "OMG, he used expeliarmus! It must be Potter", but it makes more sense, since there's no good reason that Harry wouldn't have let Hedwig fly freely and find him at The Barrows later.
Second, the infiltration of the Ministry was one of the most entertaining scenes in the series so far. The actors who got to play the Ministry officials into whom our heroes polymorphed must have had boatloads of fun. The physicality of their performances was just perfect. It turned what was kind of an awkward, tense scene in the books into a great tension alleviator, punctuated at points by signs of just how twisted the Ministry had become under Death Eater control.
Third, as much as a handful of critics complained about the camping scenes, I felt that they were handled quite well (with the exception of the aforementioned dance). The creators did a good job of displaying the impact of The Locket on people's temperaments and of Ron's growing insecurity with minimal time commitment. Hermione's almost run-in with the Snatchers seemed a bit purposeless beyond showing the potency of the charms they had set up, but I won't complain too much about that. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of how Ron's absence strained Harry and Hermione, but I won't hold that against them overmuch. Ron was only gone for 80 pages in the book (mostly spent at Godric's Hollow), and the impact of his departure is something that was almost entirely told and not shown.
Finally, the animation used for the Story of the Three Brothers was absolutely fantastic. I would buy a DVD just containing the various Tales of Beedle the Bard told in that fashion in a heartbeat.
So, not a great movie for a person who isn't particularly fond of the source material, but an enjoyable time for Harry Potter fans. I'll never be convinced that Deathly Hallows was the appropriate way to end the series, but David Yates and crew are showing that they're devoted to making the best adaptation they can.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Looking Back: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The first time I read the Harry Potter series, I pushed through all 7 books in 17 days. That included time spent packing, moving, and waiting to be in contact with people from whom I could secure the next volume. Once I finally finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, at the end of that marathon, I was exhausted and, admittedly, a bit depressed. It was hard to feel anything about the book in particular, other than the wonderful, dreadful knowledge that it was all done. As time passed, and I reflected on the final volume in particular, I had a few nagging issues with it, but I wasn't confident enough in my recall to make any formal complaints. Last summer, I had a bit to say while re-reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was a good re-experiencing these books in a less hurried (or should I say harried*) way, and I've been waiting for the opportunity to do the same with The Deathly Hallows.
I'm now happy to say two things about this book. One, my complaints still stand; and two, they are still largely overshadowed by a handful of key moments.
I'll start with the complaints because, well, that's just the sort of man I am. For one, the entire arc of the book is just alien to the rest of the series. Much of that comes from the fact that Hogwarts isn't present to provide structure of classes and quiditch term breaks. Stranger, though, is that, in this volume, Harry starts out on a mission. In every other book, Harry heads to school just hoping to God for a normal year. We know that isn't going to happen, but we also get to see everything develop and come together slowly with a few peaks of action or character building thrown in. It's almost a mystery structure: Weird stuff going on...One of the professors is acting weirder than normal... OMG, Voldemort!
In Deathly Hallows it's...well, it's just OMG, Voldemort! The whole time. It's a bit overwhelming. It's also strange because it gives Harry sort of a list of mission objectives to complete.
To me, it just feels less like a narrative and more like a lot of checking off of lists. It doesn't help that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are barely escaping death everywhere they go. Leave for The Burrow, barely escape death. Go to a cafe in London, barely escape death. Go to the Ministry, barely escape death. Go to Godric's Hollow, barely escape death. Go to a random forest, barely escape death. Go visit Luna's dad, barely escape death. Get captured by Death Eaters, barely escape death. Go to Gringotts, barely escape death. Go to Hogwarts, barely escape death. That's nine times, off the top of my head, that the kids almost die! That's nine times more than in any other Harry Potter book! Obviously, this is a very dangerous trip!
As borderline awkward as all of this is, though, it's not nearly my biggest complaint. That would be reserved for the long list of material that I feel is almost entirely unnecessary. There's a lot of time spent on the life (and lies) of Albus Dumbledore in this book. Most of it is there to give a false sense that Harry might have serious doubts or turn his back on his mission. I never thought that would happen. The only other purpose it serves is to humanize Dumbledore a bit, but I really don't think that was needed. Adults will assume that his wisdom was hard-won, and kids can stand to have a blemish-less hero once in awhile. It's all interesting to a degree, but not nearly as much as it is distracting. If Rowling can go on ahead and tell us what characters' lives are like in between the main ending and the epilogue through unofficial channels, she can do the same with Dumbledore's home life.
I also fail to see the point of removing Ron for a whole 80 pages of story. I suppose it serves to slap us in the face with the continued mutuality of Hermione's feelings and of his role in the group beyond comic relief, but it just seemed cheap to have him gone for one small vignette and suddenly back.
My biggest problem, however, remains with the eponymous Deathly Hallows and the half-assed introduction of wand lore. I really don't see how the Deathly Hallows were in any way necessary. The Resurrection Stone gave us a nice scene with Harry walking to his demise, I suppose, but it did nothing for the Cloak, and the nature of the Elder Wand then gets all mired up in the BS wand lore stuff. I would have much preferred they stick to the, "Hey, I died for everybody. You can't do any harm to anybody anymore. Suck it!" approach to the ending. Instead, they conflate it with the "Your wand is now mine by way of Draco's actions" Deus Ex Machina by which Harry doesn't even have to be the one to fire the killing curse at Voldy. If that was really the whole reason for all of that wand bull -- pretending that Harry never killed anybody (he did, think of why he didn't stun Stan Shunpike, and then the fact that he did the same to others on his trail) -- then it's just, well, dumb. I'll also note that, when push came to shove, none of the "good guys" were terribly opposed to using any of the "unforgivable curses". The readiness with which Harry uttered his first "imperius" always rubbed me the wrong way.
All said and done, though; as much as the various points above irritate me, it's still a more than adequate ending. Why? Because Harry experiencing Snape's memories is the most important chapter in the entire series. Because Rowling still knows these characters. Because I never actually wanted to stop reading, either time through the book. I meant to take four or five days to cover Deathly Hallows on this outing. I couldn't last longer than two, and I really tried.
*I really ought to be shot
I'm now happy to say two things about this book. One, my complaints still stand; and two, they are still largely overshadowed by a handful of key moments.
I'll start with the complaints because, well, that's just the sort of man I am. For one, the entire arc of the book is just alien to the rest of the series. Much of that comes from the fact that Hogwarts isn't present to provide structure of classes and quiditch term breaks. Stranger, though, is that, in this volume, Harry starts out on a mission. In every other book, Harry heads to school just hoping to God for a normal year. We know that isn't going to happen, but we also get to see everything develop and come together slowly with a few peaks of action or character building thrown in. It's almost a mystery structure: Weird stuff going on...One of the professors is acting weirder than normal... OMG, Voldemort!
In Deathly Hallows it's...well, it's just OMG, Voldemort! The whole time. It's a bit overwhelming. It's also strange because it gives Harry sort of a list of mission objectives to complete.
Primary Objectives:
1. Find horcruxes.
1a. Find the locket
1b. Find the cup
1c. Find something related to Rowena Ravenclaw
1d. Get the snake alone
2. Figure out how to destroy horcruxes.
2a. Recover the sword of Godric Gryffindor
2b. Break into the Chamber of Secrets in unlikely fashion
to retrieve Basilisk Fangs.
2c. Learn that the dumb, fat, evil kids randomly learned
how to cast a ridiculously potent fire spell.
Bonus Objective:
3. Unite the Deathly Hallows.
To me, it just feels less like a narrative and more like a lot of checking off of lists. It doesn't help that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are barely escaping death everywhere they go. Leave for The Burrow, barely escape death. Go to a cafe in London, barely escape death. Go to the Ministry, barely escape death. Go to Godric's Hollow, barely escape death. Go to a random forest, barely escape death. Go visit Luna's dad, barely escape death. Get captured by Death Eaters, barely escape death. Go to Gringotts, barely escape death. Go to Hogwarts, barely escape death. That's nine times, off the top of my head, that the kids almost die! That's nine times more than in any other Harry Potter book! Obviously, this is a very dangerous trip!
As borderline awkward as all of this is, though, it's not nearly my biggest complaint. That would be reserved for the long list of material that I feel is almost entirely unnecessary. There's a lot of time spent on the life (and lies) of Albus Dumbledore in this book. Most of it is there to give a false sense that Harry might have serious doubts or turn his back on his mission. I never thought that would happen. The only other purpose it serves is to humanize Dumbledore a bit, but I really don't think that was needed. Adults will assume that his wisdom was hard-won, and kids can stand to have a blemish-less hero once in awhile. It's all interesting to a degree, but not nearly as much as it is distracting. If Rowling can go on ahead and tell us what characters' lives are like in between the main ending and the epilogue through unofficial channels, she can do the same with Dumbledore's home life.
I also fail to see the point of removing Ron for a whole 80 pages of story. I suppose it serves to slap us in the face with the continued mutuality of Hermione's feelings and of his role in the group beyond comic relief, but it just seemed cheap to have him gone for one small vignette and suddenly back.
My biggest problem, however, remains with the eponymous Deathly Hallows and the half-assed introduction of wand lore. I really don't see how the Deathly Hallows were in any way necessary. The Resurrection Stone gave us a nice scene with Harry walking to his demise, I suppose, but it did nothing for the Cloak, and the nature of the Elder Wand then gets all mired up in the BS wand lore stuff. I would have much preferred they stick to the, "Hey, I died for everybody. You can't do any harm to anybody anymore. Suck it!" approach to the ending. Instead, they conflate it with the "Your wand is now mine by way of Draco's actions" Deus Ex Machina by which Harry doesn't even have to be the one to fire the killing curse at Voldy. If that was really the whole reason for all of that wand bull -- pretending that Harry never killed anybody (he did, think of why he didn't stun Stan Shunpike, and then the fact that he did the same to others on his trail) -- then it's just, well, dumb. I'll also note that, when push came to shove, none of the "good guys" were terribly opposed to using any of the "unforgivable curses". The readiness with which Harry uttered his first "imperius" always rubbed me the wrong way.
All said and done, though; as much as the various points above irritate me, it's still a more than adequate ending. Why? Because Harry experiencing Snape's memories is the most important chapter in the entire series. Because Rowling still knows these characters. Because I never actually wanted to stop reading, either time through the book. I meant to take four or five days to cover Deathly Hallows on this outing. I couldn't last longer than two, and I really tried.
*I really ought to be shot
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