Deathly Hallows thoughts

[coyotegoth]

First, the good news: Deathly Hallows is a more entertaining, satisfying movie than Half-Blood Prince. In H-BP, most of the emotional underpinning of the story was removed; in particular, Snape was eviscerated, with nearly every trace of his hatred for Harry removed. (That Snape comes off as well as he does is largely due to Alan Rickman's own skill; too, the Unbreakable Vow scene at the beginning was good, although I wish we could have seen his answers for Bella's suspicions.) I'm inclined to think that Steve Kloves, screenwriter on all of the films save Order of the Phoenix (which, perhaps not coincidentally, is tied with Prisoner of Azkaban as my favorite of the films) is largely responsible here. All through the series, his scripts have been marked by jarring elisions which can't be explained solely by running time issues: details which remove the resonances and underpinnings (one random example out of hundreds: who exactly created the Marauders Map?), leaving only action set pieces.

One particularly frustrating set of deletions here: again and again and again, Director David Yates and Kloves remove scenes that deal with the issue of redemption. Among other scenes, we lose:

-Scrimgeour's refusal to give up Harry when under torture by the Death Eaters.

-Wormtail's hesitation at killing Harry, and the horror of his being strangled by his own silver hand.

-By far the most grievous example: in the book, Kreacher tells how he was made by Voldemort to drink the same potion which tormented Dumbledore; he grieves Regulus' loss; after Harry gives him the false locket as a momento of Regulus, Kreacher is deeply moved, and comes to genuinely care for Harry. Here, although both the voice actor and animators for Kreacher do fine work, we lose the whole story of his redemption: Harry simply orders him to find Mundungus, which he does- with Dobby's help, no less. (I forget: does the DH book ever mention how Mundungus got out of Azkaban, after being sent there in Half-Blood Prince?)

And now, to more general notes.

• OK, here we are at stately Malfoy Manor- but no peacocks D: Also, what's with Snape's rather windswept hair here?



• I never envisioned Malfoy Manor as looking quite so much like the New York Public Library, but all right. Generally excellent work all around on the meeting scene (although Helena Bonham Carter's Bellatrix will never cease to grate on my nerves); Jason Isaacs is working "haggard and unshaven" like nobody's business. The Malfoy family actors are particularly fine here; love Draco's flinching as Burbage slams to the tabletop, and Voldemort's mocking echo, "My Lord?" to Lucius. Really love Voldemort's contemptuously snapping Lucius' wand off of the sword cane handle, and then throwing the handle itself aside. Still think slipping that diary to Ginny was a good idea, Lucius?



• Err, Hermione, I don't mean to criticize- but should one happen to find oneself Obliviating one's parents and then erasing oneself from family photos (a fantastic scene; rather reminded me of Jean Grey tweaking Kitty's Pride's father's emotions in X-Men), mightn't one then wish to, say, pack them off to Australia, lest the Death Eaters come a'knocking? Just a suggestion.



• No "Take care, Big D" scene- another redemption lost. And here's Harry, looking into the totally unexplained mirror shard (truth be told, I remember the mirror was a gift from Sirius so they could communicate, but I've totally spaced on how it got broken). Are Yates & co. simply assuming everyone has read the books? Hmm... if so, they're probably right.



• Conversely, I very much like Harry's last look at his cupboard under the stairs, and the abandoned toy soldiers; now, he's playing war for real.



• Nice to see Bill- but, umm, is there a real point? He had very little to do in the book to begin with; here, they rush over the whole Greyback thing so quickly, I couldn't even catch what the actor was saying. ("Nice to meet you?" Oh, right: neither Bill nor Charlie (who's AWOL here, alas) were at the World Cup in Movie Four.)



• Oh, Phelps brothers, I less than three you so. "Had a lot of experience with that, have you, Mad-Eye?" *snicker* Infinitely prefer George's breaking up the Harry/Ginny kiss (toothbrush in the ear!) to Ron's quasi-incestuous jealousy.



• Great low-angle shot of Moody as they're taking off; a fine farewell for a warrior.



• Death Eater attack very well handled, even with Hagrid's To Live and Die in LA-style driving; the movie gains huge props for me by having Hedwig free, and joining in the fight, rather than being trapped in a cage. (It then loses said props when Harry theorizes that she led the Death Eaters to him by defending him, rather than having Harry's merciful use of Expelliarmus- which sets up the whole ending- be the cause. SURE, HARRY, BLAME THE OWL.)



• So, rather than going to the Tonks' home- a place with which he has no particular connection, and hence no way to draw the Death Eaters' attention- Harry heads straight for the Burrow, and is left alone for long enough- even though the Death Eaters know exactly where it is, having set it on fire in the last movie- for the wedding to come off? Nice strategizing, everybody.



• Yikes, Remus' slamming Harry against the wall and demanding that he prove his identity makes Dumbledore's questioning Harry about the Goblet of Fire in movie four look tame. (By the way, there are no words in the English language for how glad I am that they deleted Remus' misguided attempt to join the Trio- very probably my least favorite secene in the entire series- even if it leaves David Thewlis with little to do.)(Lupin's conversation with Harry on the bridge in Azkaban remains one of my three or four favorite moments of the film series.)



• Huh, Hermione's the one to mention Voldemort in the cafe, and draw the Death Eaters. Any particular reason why? I like Ron's readiness to kill the Death Eaters here- gives him something to play besides goofiness, until we get to the tent scenes. (That said, his transparent attempt to side with Hermione about going to see the Lovegoods had me in hysterics.)(Speaking of whom- if the entire movie consisted of nothing but Evanna Lynch and Rhys Ifans doing that dance they're doing at the wedding reception, it would be time and money well spent. SO WONDERFUL.)



• Nice touch, having the dust devil at Number Twelve look like Dumbledore.
DON'T MIND ME; TOTALLY MISREAD THIS IN THE BOOK. MOVING ON NOW...


• Love the wing-flapping bat skeleton models in Sirius' room.



• Wow, the Death Eaters hijacked the Hogwarts Express- where they're greeted with "Hey, losers- he isn't here." from Neville. Oh, Neville!



• Generally liked the Ministry sequence a great deal- nice visual echoes of V for Vendetta and Brazil. Very fine work from the actors playing the Polyjuiced trio; meanwhile, having Mr. Cattermole walk up in his underwear as Ron kisses his wife is... something.



• HARRY, HOW COULD YOU LEAVE MAD-EYE'S EYE TRAPPED AT THE MINISTRY? GAAH FAIL FAIL FAIL.



• Ron's splinching: YIKES.



• Very nice choices of location for the scenes of them hiking (Ron can't handle Side-Along Apparition, but he can walk all over England?); one feels very strongly that Yates is trying (and failing) to be Peter Jackson here. I don't know; perhaps you simply need Howard Shore in order to pull this sort of thing off.



• Huh, just realized: the church in (the Wizarding village of) Godric's Hollow is the only real evidence in the entire series of religion crossing over from the Muggle world. (A quibble: don't they say "Happy Christmas," rather than "Merry Christmas" in England? Still, Harry at his parents' grave is nicely touching.)



• Wow, the whole Bathilda Bagshot scene is impressively creepy as fuck.



• I absolutely love the Deathly Hallows storytelling scene- is it on YouTube yet?- and am reminded of silmaril's perceptive observation of the paucity of fiction among wizards. Still, I wish we could have seen Luna's room.



• WTF was with the tent here? In Goblet of Fire, it looked more like a B&B; here; it's just... tentlike. Did Perkins' lumbago prevent his keeping it decorated?



• Welcome back, John Hurt!



• Wow- Bellatrix actually carves the word "MUDBLOOD" into Hermione's arm: for once, Bella's as scary as she should be, instead of simply HBC making faces. Which she then immediately starts doing again. *facepalm*



• Dobby's death scene moving (as how could it not be?), but no HERE LIES DOBBY, A FREE ELF tombstone. D:


Overall movie grade: B+