Okay, not really. Depending on how you look at it, it was over when I went to college, graduated from college, hit puberty, or learned to drive. Or perhaps it will never be over, as I plan on being an actor, and acting is basically playing pretend full-time. But no matter how you look at it, I've definitely crossed a threshold; I finally saw the very last Harry Potter movie ever.
I've had a very tumultuous relationship with the Harry Potter movies. I usually left the theater fuming and frustrated, wishing I could give the director, screenwriter, producers, or preferably all of the above a piece of my mind. How DARE they miscast the role of Dumbledore and make him a weirdly mean and in my opinion totally unlikable character? How DARE they make Hermione's hair look so gorgeous? How DARE Daniel Radcliffe grow up stocky and rugged instead of awkward and skinny? (Just let me at his genes and they won't know what hit them!)
But when it came to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One I was pleasantly surprised. I actually liked the movie! Though I still had many of my same complaints (curse you, Daniel Radcliffe's genes!!), overall I thought the film successfully captured the grim and gritty atmosphere of the book, and that the three main actors were more compelling than in previous movies.
Part Two fell right in with its predecessor for me. I was pleasantly surprised by most of it. But I did, of course, have some issues with it. And why have a blog if not to air my grievances with random films that I watch? Maybe someone at Warner Bros. will actually read this and realize that all along, I've been right about everything. ("Why oh why didn't we consult this brilliant young woman on every facet of these eight movies? How could we have been such fools?")
This probably goes without saying, but major spoilers lie ahead. Book spoilers, film spoilers, they litter the path before you. Don't proceed unless you've already processed the movie yourself and you're ready to read someone's at times delighted, at times infuriated opinions.
I'm going to do this list-style, touching on every point that I was concerned/curious about before I saw the movie:
The Snape Revelation
This may have been my favorite moment in the entire book and I was REALLY invested in how the film handled it. I was incredibly satisfied with what they did. I thought Alan Rickman was fantastic. It was like, after seven movies in which pretty much all he got to do was be ice-cold, he busted out every other emotion he hadn't been able to convey. It broke my heart. I don't remember if this scene was included in the book (and I don't have my copy with me to double-check), but I thought the moment when Snape is shown finding Lily Potter dead was particularly moving. They managed to capture the most fascinating thing about Snape and his story: he really hates Harry because Harry is James's son, but he also--at lest sort-of--loves Harry, because he is Lily's son. Harry is the representation of the union of James and Lily that causes Snape endless pain, but he is also the only living descendent of the one person Snape loves. I thought the filmmakers and Alan Rickman did a beautiful job portraying that cognitive dissonance and making Snape the bizarre hero he is in the books: a truly mean and horrible person, but also an incredibly brave and loving person. That's what makes him so fascinating. Bravo to all who made that moment excellent!
Ron and Hermione Finally Give In to Their Overwhelming Passion
I wasn't incredibly invested in this moment, mostly because I didn't expect it to move or surprise me, and then lo and behold--it did! I thought the placement of the kiss--in the Chamber of Secrets, when Ron and Hermione are alone--was just right (even though it differed from the books). Both actors did a good job with it, too--it felt sincere and spontaneous. The grins from each afterward were pretty adorable as well.
Mrs. Weasley Detroys Bellatrix Like It's NBD
And here, for the first time, I was disappointed. What I remember from the book is that Ginny and Bellatrix are fighting, and Ginny holds her own for a while, but Bellatrix is after all an incredibly evil and powerful witch, so Ginny begins to falter and it looks like she might become yet another casualty, when Mrs. Weasley appears, hollers her famous line with power and passion, and then takes Bellatrix after exchanging a few blows.
In the film, it didn't seem as if Ginny was in that much danger, and then Mrs. Weasley didn't so much holler the line as growl it (if memory serves). And then she and Bellatrix went back and forth a bit and then Bellatrix sort of...shrived up. And that was it. How disappointing! And surprising, that a moment full of satisfying drama in a book could actually be less dramatic in a film.
Harry's Long Walk of Doom Complete with Ghosts
I was really worried about this. I was concerned about how Daniel Radcliffe and David Yates would choose to handle the big moment when Harry Potter walks to certain death. How to do it without seeming melodramatic? But also accurately capturing the intense emotions someone would experience walking to their death?
Given my concerns, I was relieved and surprised to find that Harry's Walk of Doom worked beautifully. I think it was an incredibly smart move to play up the fact that deep down Harry had always known his days were numbered. Melodrama was avoided because instead of freaking out, he was more resigned, which made sense with the fact that he had sort of known all along. But it also wouldn't have seemed right if there were no strong emotions at all, so I think again it was a wise move to let Hermione carry the weight of emotions when she and Ron find out Harry is going to die. Because Hermione was upset, I, the audience member, could identify with her and allow myself to be upset, without Harry having to be the one getting upset to catalyze catharsis.
The appearance of the ghosts was beautiful, too, I thought. And I LOVED how Ralph Fiennes played the moment when Voldemort kills Harry. It was like he understood that on some level he, Voldemort, was actually losing. Voldemort may have been "winning" in that he was about to kill Harry at last, but ultimately he was clearly the weaker man because Harry could face the one thing Voldemort most fears: death. Thank you, Ralph Fiennes.
Neville Longbottom is a BAMF
I have always loved Matthew Lewis. I have always been pleased with his performances. And in this one, we got a slow-motion shot of him slicing the head off a ginormous snake. Awesome.
Voldemort Finally, FINALLY Bites the Dust
SO anticlimactic. He just sort of...dissolved. What?? It was so undramatic! Once again, the book actually succeeded in being more theatrical than the movie--not the way it's supposed to work. Why couldn't he have died in a huge, satisfying burst of light, and THEN dissolved into thin air? In the book, Voldemort dies when his own killing curse ricochets back at him (if I remember correctly), which makes his death interesting in that Harry doesn't actually directly kill him. In the movie I wasn't sure what was going on. Why did he suddenly start disintegrating?
To quote a brilliant fellow Harry Potter fan: "Who knew Voldemort was made of paper mache?"
Harry Rocks the Love Magic
I thought Daniel Radcliffe did a really great job delivering that all-important line in which...wait...what? Where was that moment? They didn't include it??
The moment I'm talking about is the one in which Harry (sort of awkwardly, it must be said) explains that Voldemort can't hurt all the people Harry died for because by sacrificing himself Harry called up the same deep magic that Lily activated when she died for her son. Just as Harry was protected by his mother's love, the people fighting at Hogwarts are protected by Harry's love. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought this was, you know, kind of the whole point of the entire series, put in one little moment. And yes, it was a bit blunt, hit-you-over-the-head, etc., but also really moving. And satisfying, because Voldemort wasn't just defeated in that he was physically destroyed, but he was defeated in that all his power was sapped away by the deeper power of love-protection. That's where he really got beaten; his physical death was almost less important.
I don't know why the filmmakers chose to cut this. I think the ending of the film would have benefited from its inclusion. The climax would have been more dramatic with a symbolic/psychological defeat of Voldemort as well as a physical defeat.
The Epilogue
I felt ambivalent about the epilogue when I read the book. I didn't hate it like some people did, but I wasn't incredibly taken with it, either. I didn't really understand why it needed to exist.
The epilogue wasn't perfect in the movie, but I think I understand now why it needed to exist. As I watched the grown-up Harry, Hermione, and Ron usher their children onto the Hogwarts Express, I felt a tug in my heart and my tears started flowing in earnest for the first time. It was like Joanne Rowling was saying to me, "Peytie, it's okay to grow up. Just as you've fought with Harry, cried with Harry, failed and succeeded with Harry, you can grow up with him too. Hogwarts is not gone; your children will go there. You haven't lost Harry and his friends; they are grown-ups with you, too."
I think I needed to be 22 years old and embarking on my post-college adult life to fully feel the weight of this final moment. I continued to cry as the credits rolled, not in grief but in gratitude for the series that defined my childhood.
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