Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 -- My Childhood is Slowly Coming to an End

Rating: 8.9/10 --> Why are you reading this, go see it now!!! 

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Wow.

I was extremely pleased with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.  If you think of the Part 1 and Part 2 as one giant movie it’s an extremely well done film.  David Yates has won me back.  It took me a while to forgive him for the shit he put on the screen with Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, but he definitely redeemed himself with the final chapter of the Harry Potter saga.  I loved pretty much everything about the movie. The soundtrack gets me every time. I’m a music geek, so I get chills just hearing Hedwig’s theme, and every other epic composition in the film.  The acting was way better.  The cliché dialogue was exactly what I was hoping for, because that’s what made the books so enjoyable as a kid.  I couldn’t help but gasp like a little schoolgirl when I realized Molly Weasley was about to tell Bellatrix, “Not my daughter, you BITCH!”  That scene was fantastic!  I thoroughly enjoyed my midnight showing, and the LARPing that occurred outside the theater elevated the experience.  A bunch of Potter geeks ran around yelling curses at each other, waving their wands like they were real. Priceless.

See the thing is you HAVE TO ignore everything you know about the books, so that you can just ENJOY the movie.  It’s an adaptation.  Things are going to get left out, things are going to get changed, and you just have to deal with it.  If you can get past that, then you’ll like the movie so much more.  However, there are a few little things that could have been done about Part 2, that would have made the film easier to understand for those who haven’t read the books, because let’s be real, if you’ve read the book, it’s so easy to understand exactly what’s going on, because even if it’s wrong, you’re correcting it in your head.  So here are the few things I’d fix…

SNAPE’S MEMORIES & THE PERCEPTION OF JAMES POTTER

I read on the IMDB boards that some people thought Snape was Harry’s father.  As RIDICULOUS as that is, I can understand why (but seriously, there was never a doubt James was his father, and he looks EXACTLY like James, clearly Snape’s not his father).  The filmmakers make it so that you sympathize with Snape so much that you forget he was a complete douche to Harry.  That’s fine, but one little line was left out, which would have made the Snape, Lily, James love triangle clearer… When Snape calls Lily a mudblood. This little forgone scene shows Snape’s darker side, and is the reason Lily stops being friends with Snape, and ultimately marries James.  That would have taken 2 seconds to add in.  Instead, to non book-readers James is a complete dick and Snape is just the misunderstood goth kid that could never find love.  Even in the Resurrection Stone scene, James says something encouraging to Harry, but he just ignores him.  That being said, the sequence in Snape’s memories was extremely well done (besides omitting that one scene) and Alan Rickman was an amazing Snape. 

WAIT, WHICH TWIN DIED?

They really didn’t do the twins any justice.  There’s no way you can’t love Fred and George.  If you don’t you’re dead to me.  There was never a clear shot to indicate which twin was Fred and which twin was George.  It would have been so easy to show George’s ear missing at some point to make it clear that FRED is the one who dies.  Also, draw out our emotions, make us cry, show Fred DYING!! It was so graceful and eloquent in the book, but in the movie we have no indication of him dying besides his lifeless body.  The only way you could even figure out that it was Fred who dies, is by listening to Neville’s monologue at the end. 

IS HARRY INVINCIBLE OR SOMETHING????

Ok so Harry is SUPPOSED to come back from the dead because he has the Resurrection Stone in his hand, the invisibility cloak, and was the current master of the Elder Wand, allowing him to defeat death, and choose to come back and fight Voldemort.  So why in the world does he drop the Resurrection Stone in the Forbidden Forest?  It doesn’t make sense why he comes back to life; rather he just appears invincible, when really that’s not the case at all.  The Hallows are the key to this story, but they are minute details in the movie. 

------ Like I said, I REALLY REALLY REALLY liked Part 2.  When you think of Part 1 and Part 2 as one movie it’s actually an epic film.  These little things that I think Yates and his team could have included would only elevate the film and make it a little less confusing for those who have not read the books (which you need to do NOW).  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is a great film, and it just might beat Batman: The Dark Knight’s weekend box office record of $158.4 million.  But don’t worry; Batman: The Dark Knight Rises will reclaim the crown.

P.S. - When's the last time they actually showed Harry with his lightning scar (not as a baby)?

Rayner… Out…