Harry Potter 8

Cant wait to attend Voldemorts Funeral

The movie has got rave reviews and it hasn't even come out yet. I get the feeling that this movie is gonna be a huge emotional event. I hope i dont cry lol
 
I tried to sum up my thoughts (prior to watching) here.

Anyhow I'm off in a second to watch Part One at the cinema and then I'm going to my midnight screening of Part Two!

Next time I'm on Indietalk I'll be one Potter film richer! :)
 
Have fun!

edit: You guys have swedish fish over there? I haven't had those since I was 14 :P

"And so, tonight, I will watch an unwatched Harry Potter film for the last time."

This is going to be the hardest part.
 
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Good review. I especially liked how you mentioned "Ron's" premature balding. I spotted that when I was streaming the London movie premiere.

You say it ended on a happy and comical note. Does the movie have teary bits? The bit with Dobby in part 1 wasn't really much.
 
Just got in from seeing it. Meh, it's okay. Part 1 was vastly better in every way. This was just mediocre. Emotional moments seemed to play out in fast forward.
 
Dreadylocks said:
Wait. What?! It comes out earlier in Australia? This makes no sense to me...
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NickClapper said:
Yer, that post made me angry as well.

It's a British film!!!
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AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA :D

JoshL said:
And we will expect your cranky, book purist review as SOON as the film is done! And I'll do a cranky nit-picky review of the Hobbit once it comes out! Fun times! (and as much as I nitpicked LOTR, I do love and rewatch the movies. To be fair, the extended editions did course correct some of the Faramir character-derailing, so in the end, all is well...)
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I didn't like it. But there wasn't much chance I would after the mess they made of the last 2 :p The thing is, they left way too much out, but if they'd kept it all in, the movies would've been 4 hours long. But instead of just cutting out random (and important!) things, they added in new stuff as well. Grr.

Yeah. The books are just better than the movies. That's my opinion, and it ain't gonna change :p
 
I like that you use my title for book 7 in your review ;)

While I haven't seen 7.2 yet, I've gotta agree on Belatrix being played way too over-the-top. I still think Helena Bonham Carter was perfect casting, but yeah, she plays it a little too insane sometimes.
 
Good to hear the reviews! Can't wait to see it!

You thought the epilogue sucked, Nick? Is it different, or do you just not like it? I personally loved it, and I thought the lighthearted ending worked better (evil is vanquished and life returns to normal) than, say, a Lord of the Rings style ending (Frodo has PTSD and the rest STILL have to fight off the industrial revolution).

Like it or hate it, there never has been quite the cultural touchstone like Harry Potter (I can't think of another series designed to age with the readers). Sad to see it end, but absolutely 100% thankful for the upswing in fantasy films in its' wake.

And, no, insert_cliche, didn't expect you would like it, but always enjoy hearing dissenting viewpoints!

....like Nick continuing to bash Luna.... ;-)
 
I have to say that I think people who say that they didn't like the films because 'they left too much out' have a pretty weak argument.

And yer, I didn't like the epilogue in the book or the film. Just seemed tacked on and unnecessary. Plus what a weird font to choose for the supertitle for '19 Year Later...'
 
NickClapper said:
I have to say that I think people who say that they didn't like the films because 'they left too much out' have a pretty weak argument.
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I understand completely reducing things for a movie, like removing any and all on screen planning of a heist or finding a missing item being simplified. That's a movie moving things along at a different pace than a book. It's doing it poorly that I can't abide.

I didn't like how Daniel played Harry with 1 note the entire movie. No matter what he saw or did, it was the same expression and emotional pitch, no ebb or flow. This was particularly notable in
how uninterested both actors were in the KING'S CROSS dream. Dumbledore was incredibly flat and uncaring, as if it was another actor compared to previous outings. He had no emotion or attachment towards Harry. And even worse how callous he was when he brought back his parents, Sirious, and how he showed no vulnerability at all.

I wondered how they were going to translate the big snogging of Hermione and Ron. They just did it. No reason, no motive. No action or words to motivate it. Just bang. That was weak.

I felt that the big battle was extremely brief compared to what was expected. The trailers really did have all the best moments. The exposition moments were weak, bad dialogue and poor delivery with even worse narrative timing (see the
ending with explaining about the Elder Wand on the bridge
). Major characters were reduced to cameos, some with no lines at all.

One of the things that could have helped push emotions was the music. I think it was incredibly interesting when they went to an exact piece of music from the first film for the final scenes. John Williams is a god among film composers and Alexander DeSplat is great, he ain't no John Williams - and it showed to put JW's score right up against the other. What an incredibly tragic decision to not take John Williams up on his offer to score the last 2 movies! The music in Part 2 was flat and uninteresting and at times inappropriate.

I rank this one pretty low on the 8 movies, as in it's 2nd to last for me next to ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. I didn't hate the movie, but it was such a disappointment after how good Deathly Hallows Part 1 was.
 
I agree on some of what you're saying.

The King's Cross sequence suffered from what I'd call 'The Lovely Bones Problem' where the CGI landscape makes the performances seem really unfocused. I've often felt that Gambon doesn't quite nail the Dumbledore character, mistaking aloofness for genius. But I didn't hate it.

I've often been critical of Daniel Radcliffe's acting, because it is limited, but I've cut him slack over the last two films because it's been much, much better.

The big battle was too brief? In the book it's basically one chapter of actual battle and then other chapters relating to stuff going on during the battle (The Diadem, The Prince's Tale, The Elder Wand...etc.) so I thought they took the battle and turned it up to 11. There's nothing like that level of destruction in the book but I think they did a great job of making it uber cinematic.

I didn't really like the Desplat score to Part One but I preferred the way that they tried to integrate the Williams score into this one. Like you I'm surprised that they didn't get Williams back to score this one but Desplat is pretty much the most in demand composer in Hollywood at the moment so maybe there's some weird marketing thinking going on. But I kind of liked the way they integrated the earlier themes in, something they didn't do in Part One. Personally I still prefer Nicholas Hooper's Half Blood Prince score...
 
NickClapper said:
The King's Cross sequence suffered from what I'd call 'The Lovely Bones Problem' where the CGI landscape makes the performances seem really unfocused. I've often felt that Gambon doesn't quite nail the Dumbledore character, mistaking aloofness for genius. But I didn't hate it.
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I'm marathon-ing all the old films right now (with copious amounts of vodka), and I do have to disagree with you here, regarding Gambon. All respect to Richard Harris, but his Dumbledore is dottering and decrepit; barely a part of the scenes he's in. He doesn't seem to care or even be aware of any of the scenes he mumbles through. Gambon comes in for the third film and he's warm and engaging. I'm on OOTP right now, and he's passionate and involved (as he was notably in Goblet as well). Again, not to discount how fantastic an actor Mr. Harris was, but I wish they had cast Gambon from the beginning.

My opinion, of course :-)
 
JoshL said:
I'm marathon-ing all the old films right now (with copious amounts of vodka), and I do have to disagree with you here, regarding Gambon. All respect to Richard Harris, but his Dumbledore is dottering and decrepit; barely a part of the scenes he's in. He doesn't seem to care or even be aware of any of the scenes he mumbles through. Gambon comes in for the third film and he's warm and engaging. I'm on OOTP right now, and he's passionate and involved (as he was notably in Goblet as well). Again, not to discount how fantastic an actor Mr. Harris was, but I wish they had cast Gambon from the beginning.

My opinion, of course :-)
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I actually agree with you about Richard Harris, his Dumbledore is far too...old.

But Gambon's Dumbledore often acts out of character (in terms of the books) like getting so angry in Goblet of Fire and then spending all the lessons in Half Blood Prince being kind of detached.

Saw Deathly Hallows again this evening (in RealD rather than IMAX) still enjoyed it! I'll have to see it in 2D this week to complete the set... :P
 
Point absolutely granted, but I thought that was a good change for the medium. Goblet's anger over someone CLEARLY fucking with Harry, but having no proof really helped translate the care that he felt for Harry. Doubly so his detachment in HBP; the ring had sucked the life out of him, and they went into that in detail in the book, but his exhausted detachment I thought was good "shorthand" if you will. Adaptations are always interesting for that; how do get across in five minutes what took 20 pages to really tell? I kinda hope they don't make Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" into movies, as they've talked about. There's just way too much they'd have to cut.

Good sign that you're seeing the new film so many times! I recall seeing Fellowship of the Ring 6 times...two after having been given a bootleg tape of it. Hooray for being a big geek!
 
I really enjoyed it. I love how they showed the epic war without it being 40 minutes of long drawn out fighting. I thought it was vastly better than part 1.
I arrived at the midnight premiere to find the lobby full of witches and wizards having a giant fake war.... all 10 or so showings were completely sold out.
 
Zensteve said:
Pretty awesome bit they snuck in, about 30 secs after end of final credit-crawl. :cool:
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Either you were lucky to see a special screening or that was a really dirty trick to play! I sat through 20 minutes of credits and there was nothing! My bf is mad at me because of you!
 
I thought it was excellant too.

We too stayed through all the credits and saw no cool snippet. But, rereading your post, Steve, did you mean that you had to wait another 30 seconds after all of the credits? Dunno, maybe we left to quickly after the credits. :(
 
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