Friday, July 15, 2011

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 - My review

***The following post CONTAINS SPOILERS.***

I just got home from the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2...and while I wait for the 5 Hour Energy I drank earlier this evening to make it through said midnight premiere to wear off, I figured I'd write up my review while it was all still so very fresh.

In a word, the movie is amazing.  I have been reading the books and watching the movies for 10 years now.  Each movie was better than the previous one...they've been building and building - not unlike the story itself...and the entire series comes to a very emotional, very violent, and very satisfying end with this last movie.  There are *always* going to be differences and omissions when a book is made into a movie...to expect otherwise is absurd.  David Yates managed to massage those differences and omissions enough that really, in the end, it doesn't matter.

The three main actors - Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione), and Rupert Grint (Ron) - brought a maturity and a sincerity to their roles in this final film that is reflective of their characters' evolution throughout the series.  But the shining star...the absolute, without-a-doubt, no-question-in-my-mind best actor in this installment was Alan Rickman as Professor Severus Snape.  If that man doesn't get an Oscar nomination at the very least, there is something very and truly wrong.  The entire theater was in tears, yours truly included.  What a brilliant performance!!!

Some highlights for me aside from the main three plus Alan Rickman's performance include:
  • Julie Walters as Molly Weasley, "Not my daughter, YOU BITCH!"  The theater erupted in applause.
  • Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom.  Neville FTW!!!
  • The infusion of humor into the dialogue even as Hogwarts fell under attack.  That humor has been in every script thus far and to omit it now would have been an injustice.
  • The epilogue scene.  Sure there were chuckles from the audience, but it's a happy time and it deserves a laugh.  It was a positively endearing ending to the book and it translated well onto the screen. 
What did you think?  Did it meet your expectations?  Will you see it again?  I know I will!!!  There's at least two more viewings in theaters in store for me.  And I'll probably bawl the entire way through them, too.  Let me know what you thought of the movie in the comments!

No comments:

Post a Comment