![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silentdescantOMG IT'S ALL OVER. ;__________________________________;
let me start off by explaining my POV. i've read the books, a LOT, and i was definitely one of THOSE PEOPLE who watched the movies and pointed out ALL THE THINGS they changed from the books. BUT. i haven't read this book in... quite a while. i remembered the major points, like the horcruxes and the people who died and how it gets resolved, but the specifics were all kinda fuzzy to me. once i realized the movie was actually COMING OUT SOON OMG (these things tend to sneak up to me) i did flip through the last book just to get the gist (and when i say flip through i mean i literally read a few sentences out of every chunk of pages i grabbed). but at that point i realized it's probably BETTER for me to not really remember the specifics, so i didn't look into it too deeply on purpose. therefore: i watched this new movie as a MOVIE based on a book, and as a MOVIE, i really enjoyed it. NOW, of course, i want to reread the whole last book (the whole series, but srsly, DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THAT) and catch all the things i forgot about and pick the movie apart later, but for now, i'm very pleased.
the build-up: tiny-ish theater in a reeeeeally downtrodden mall (like srsly half the storefronts we passed were just EMPTY), so we didn't bother getting there tooooo early, we got there around 10:30 and the line for 3D and 2D was the same, and there really weren't that many people there (some, but not what i would consider a lot, after having gone to midnight showings in other cities). then 2D was called in to be seated and waaaay more than half the line disappeared, so we got right up near the front, and among all the people in line for 3D, it wasn't divided into specific screens, so there were only a handful of people in our theater before us. meaning: EXCELLENT SEATS. \o/ there were some people dressed up a bit, which is ALWAYS AWESOME (and i was a little sad i didn't have any type of costume stuff here--i have robes and hats and wands and shit at home), and there was this one REALLY CUTE little girl i saw afterward fully decked out and she srsly looked like an 11-year-old hermione, she was so adorable. mostly it was older teens, though, she was one of the only little(ish) kids i saw.
there was a girl next to me who i chatted with a bit and she was really cool, we talked about some stuff and commented on the previews and stuff like that. (THREE MUSKETEERS, HELLO THERE, and i think there was something else i got excited for but i was generally unimpressed with the movies coming soon.) BUT THEN ONCE THE MOVIE STARTED SHE DID NOT SHUT UP. she was one of THOSE PEOPLE that i usually am that comments on every little thing that's different from the book, but okay. srsly. it is the FIRST TIME any of us are seeing this movie. JUST SIT BACK AND WATCH, I DON'T NEED YOUR COMMENTARY. comment in your own home, or at least like, NEXT WEEK once the dedicated handful of people have a chance to enjoy. she did make a couple funny comments, though. near the end, when draco and his parents slip away: "aaaaaaand the malfoys check out." anyway, for the most part i was able to ignore her, she was just a minor annoyance.
SO, THE MOVIE. people cheered when molly killed belatrix, and OMG when neville killed the snake, that got lots of cheering. those were the two major audience moments. i got choked up when harry talked to his parents/sirius/remus in the forest, and then again during neville's little awesome speech. i got pulled out in the little dream sequence train station scene BECAUSE HARRY WASN'T WEARING HIS GLASSES. it was weird. it took me a minute to figure out what was wrong, and it was that i was seeing him as DAN and not as HARRY. that kinda bugged me. otherwise i liked the whole wrap-up atmosphere of it. oh, and when it showed voldemort all gross under the bench, the whole place went EEEEWWWW. lol i liked that, though.
i also liked: the cinematography, dan's "old" makeup, ron dazzling hermione with his brilliance (lolol looooove), SRSLY THE CINEMATOGRAPHY, and a lot of the little character moments, like MAGGIE SMITH IN GENERAL, and snape right at the end when he says about harry's eyes, and dumbledore in the train station, and DRACO, YES, DRACO, and his parents omg, and NEVILLE, and LOL SEAMUS BLOWING SHIT UP, and that creepy snatcher guy stepping over the line once the spell broke apart.
i was really disappointed with the twins and the death! that was SUCH a big, BIG moment for me, and i reeeeally didn't think it was given enough weight in the movie. it didn't pack much of an emotional punch for me at ALL. maybe because i've imagined that particular canon death and many, MANY fictional deaths for fred (and george), and i've had a lot of time to build that up in my head and imagine it in a fuck of a lot of detail? i mean, it's nothing against the phelps' acting, i actually really liked that, i just think... it should have been so much more. it was like a glimpse and that was it. :( my immediate response was to WRITE SO MUCH DEATHFIC OMG.
i think that was my biggest thing, really! the whole flashback to severus and lily was... y'know, what it was, and it was that way in the book, a lot of info all at once rather late in the game, but that's the way it needed to be and i DID LOVE to see alan rickman bust out those tears for lily. omg. he's really great. anyway, that and the epilogue, which was lolarious in the book too, so that was to be expected. i thought dan's makeup really worked, and hermione seemed very mom-ish even though she looked a little young. ginny and ron still kinda looked their own age to me, and omg draco just made me lol. excellent. that whole bit's like fanfiction anyway, though, so whatever. it was very nice to end on the full circle note with the original theme music all brightened up and happy again. well played.
also, some of the humor felt shoehorned in, but for the most part i really liked how many little one-liners popped up. i felt like i was laughing or amused MOST of the time, which was kinda weird! but of course, once shit goes down at hogwarts, man, MAN, i was srsly tense. i had my hands flat on my thighs and 'cause otherwise i didn't know what to do with them, clap or crack my knuckles or dig my fingernails into my palms until i bled... idk. i just had to sit there very still and stare. lol which is EXACTLY HOW ACTION/SUSPENSE MOVIES SHOULD BE. i loved at the end, how the whole place was just WRECKED, and the trio comes out and i forget who, one of the boys, starts like kicking rubble off the bridge? it's a total "well... what now?" moment, and it felt really perfect to me. so much destruction, but the sun is shining and it's over and... they're kind of at a loss. loved it.
so, on that note... what now? now i want to go see it again, obviously. LOL. idk if i should try to read/skim the book a little more thoroughly first or not, though. i mean, i will EVENTUALLY, but it might be good to not ruin it for myself while i'm still taking shit in, i mean, from the comments from the girl next to me, the timeline was really messed up (lol that's the kind of shit i forget FIRST; i remember details like harry grabbing draco off a flaming pile of stuff in the room of requirement), and i knew going in that it was going to be pretty different because they have to wrap it up as a film series and not even touch on some of the stuff they left out earlier, so. idk. anyway. i wanna go see it again, and i think maybe i might (I HOPE) drive down to savannah to visit![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
undersea and see it with her and hang out a bit since i won't be around for our birthdays, and i'm definitely going to see it once i get home with my sister and my parents. so for now, my first reactions, i really liked it.
oh, another thing i liked (BESIDES THE CINEMATOGRAPHY) was the theme song changed so much into that haunting melody, man, loved that. but like i said before, DEEFINITELY good to end on the original song with things bright and shiny again. aaaand that's all i can really think of at the moment.
it hasn't quite hit me yet that it's all over. this is the last one. i mean, i cried a bit watching the livestream of the london premiere, when everyone was making their little speeches about this being the end (and not the end, and so on and so forth), but now... IDK, I FEEL ADRIFT. oh man, it's really over. how did that HAPPEN. it's been a long, amazing journey. i grew up with these characters. it'll probably hit me for real soon, i can kind of sense it coming. oh man. it's been fun.
let me start off by explaining my POV. i've read the books, a LOT, and i was definitely one of THOSE PEOPLE who watched the movies and pointed out ALL THE THINGS they changed from the books. BUT. i haven't read this book in... quite a while. i remembered the major points, like the horcruxes and the people who died and how it gets resolved, but the specifics were all kinda fuzzy to me. once i realized the movie was actually COMING OUT SOON OMG (these things tend to sneak up to me) i did flip through the last book just to get the gist (and when i say flip through i mean i literally read a few sentences out of every chunk of pages i grabbed). but at that point i realized it's probably BETTER for me to not really remember the specifics, so i didn't look into it too deeply on purpose. therefore: i watched this new movie as a MOVIE based on a book, and as a MOVIE, i really enjoyed it. NOW, of course, i want to reread the whole last book (the whole series, but srsly, DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THAT) and catch all the things i forgot about and pick the movie apart later, but for now, i'm very pleased.
the build-up: tiny-ish theater in a reeeeeally downtrodden mall (like srsly half the storefronts we passed were just EMPTY), so we didn't bother getting there tooooo early, we got there around 10:30 and the line for 3D and 2D was the same, and there really weren't that many people there (some, but not what i would consider a lot, after having gone to midnight showings in other cities). then 2D was called in to be seated and waaaay more than half the line disappeared, so we got right up near the front, and among all the people in line for 3D, it wasn't divided into specific screens, so there were only a handful of people in our theater before us. meaning: EXCELLENT SEATS. \o/ there were some people dressed up a bit, which is ALWAYS AWESOME (and i was a little sad i didn't have any type of costume stuff here--i have robes and hats and wands and shit at home), and there was this one REALLY CUTE little girl i saw afterward fully decked out and she srsly looked like an 11-year-old hermione, she was so adorable. mostly it was older teens, though, she was one of the only little(ish) kids i saw.
there was a girl next to me who i chatted with a bit and she was really cool, we talked about some stuff and commented on the previews and stuff like that. (THREE MUSKETEERS, HELLO THERE, and i think there was something else i got excited for but i was generally unimpressed with the movies coming soon.) BUT THEN ONCE THE MOVIE STARTED SHE DID NOT SHUT UP. she was one of THOSE PEOPLE that i usually am that comments on every little thing that's different from the book, but okay. srsly. it is the FIRST TIME any of us are seeing this movie. JUST SIT BACK AND WATCH, I DON'T NEED YOUR COMMENTARY. comment in your own home, or at least like, NEXT WEEK once the dedicated handful of people have a chance to enjoy. she did make a couple funny comments, though. near the end, when draco and his parents slip away: "aaaaaaand the malfoys check out." anyway, for the most part i was able to ignore her, she was just a minor annoyance.
SO, THE MOVIE. people cheered when molly killed belatrix, and OMG when neville killed the snake, that got lots of cheering. those were the two major audience moments. i got choked up when harry talked to his parents/sirius/remus in the forest, and then again during neville's little awesome speech. i got pulled out in the little dream sequence train station scene BECAUSE HARRY WASN'T WEARING HIS GLASSES. it was weird. it took me a minute to figure out what was wrong, and it was that i was seeing him as DAN and not as HARRY. that kinda bugged me. otherwise i liked the whole wrap-up atmosphere of it. oh, and when it showed voldemort all gross under the bench, the whole place went EEEEWWWW. lol i liked that, though.
i also liked: the cinematography, dan's "old" makeup, ron dazzling hermione with his brilliance (lolol looooove), SRSLY THE CINEMATOGRAPHY, and a lot of the little character moments, like MAGGIE SMITH IN GENERAL, and snape right at the end when he says about harry's eyes, and dumbledore in the train station, and DRACO, YES, DRACO, and his parents omg, and NEVILLE, and LOL SEAMUS BLOWING SHIT UP, and that creepy snatcher guy stepping over the line once the spell broke apart.
i was really disappointed with the twins and the death! that was SUCH a big, BIG moment for me, and i reeeeally didn't think it was given enough weight in the movie. it didn't pack much of an emotional punch for me at ALL. maybe because i've imagined that particular canon death and many, MANY fictional deaths for fred (and george), and i've had a lot of time to build that up in my head and imagine it in a fuck of a lot of detail? i mean, it's nothing against the phelps' acting, i actually really liked that, i just think... it should have been so much more. it was like a glimpse and that was it. :( my immediate response was to WRITE SO MUCH DEATHFIC OMG.
i think that was my biggest thing, really! the whole flashback to severus and lily was... y'know, what it was, and it was that way in the book, a lot of info all at once rather late in the game, but that's the way it needed to be and i DID LOVE to see alan rickman bust out those tears for lily. omg. he's really great. anyway, that and the epilogue, which was lolarious in the book too, so that was to be expected. i thought dan's makeup really worked, and hermione seemed very mom-ish even though she looked a little young. ginny and ron still kinda looked their own age to me, and omg draco just made me lol. excellent. that whole bit's like fanfiction anyway, though, so whatever. it was very nice to end on the full circle note with the original theme music all brightened up and happy again. well played.
also, some of the humor felt shoehorned in, but for the most part i really liked how many little one-liners popped up. i felt like i was laughing or amused MOST of the time, which was kinda weird! but of course, once shit goes down at hogwarts, man, MAN, i was srsly tense. i had my hands flat on my thighs and 'cause otherwise i didn't know what to do with them, clap or crack my knuckles or dig my fingernails into my palms until i bled... idk. i just had to sit there very still and stare. lol which is EXACTLY HOW ACTION/SUSPENSE MOVIES SHOULD BE. i loved at the end, how the whole place was just WRECKED, and the trio comes out and i forget who, one of the boys, starts like kicking rubble off the bridge? it's a total "well... what now?" moment, and it felt really perfect to me. so much destruction, but the sun is shining and it's over and... they're kind of at a loss. loved it.
so, on that note... what now? now i want to go see it again, obviously. LOL. idk if i should try to read/skim the book a little more thoroughly first or not, though. i mean, i will EVENTUALLY, but it might be good to not ruin it for myself while i'm still taking shit in, i mean, from the comments from the girl next to me, the timeline was really messed up (lol that's the kind of shit i forget FIRST; i remember details like harry grabbing draco off a flaming pile of stuff in the room of requirement), and i knew going in that it was going to be pretty different because they have to wrap it up as a film series and not even touch on some of the stuff they left out earlier, so. idk. anyway. i wanna go see it again, and i think maybe i might (I HOPE) drive down to savannah to visit
undersea and see it with her and hang out a bit since i won't be around for our birthdays, and i'm definitely going to see it once i get home with my sister and my parents. so for now, my first reactions, i really liked it.oh, another thing i liked (BESIDES THE CINEMATOGRAPHY) was the theme song changed so much into that haunting melody, man, loved that. but like i said before, DEEFINITELY good to end on the original song with things bright and shiny again. aaaand that's all i can really think of at the moment.
it hasn't quite hit me yet that it's all over. this is the last one. i mean, i cried a bit watching the livestream of the london premiere, when everyone was making their little speeches about this being the end (and not the end, and so on and so forth), but now... IDK, I FEEL ADRIFT. oh man, it's really over. how did that HAPPEN. it's been a long, amazing journey. i grew up with these characters. it'll probably hit me for real soon, i can kind of sense it coming. oh man. it's been fun.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-07-15 10:39 am (UTC)I also cried a fucking lot. Probably more than you did, but there were some people in my audience sobbing so I just pressed my face into my hands real hard and cried quietly, managing some sniffles during the loud parts, heh. I teared up a few times during the first half, like, for some reason, at the first Hogwart scene when Harry, Ron, and Hermione entered the castle. All the kids were like YAY and my eyeballs were like LET'S LEAK. IDEK. I didn't think I'd cry at the deaths because the battle was like so quick and kinda shallow it wasn't really impacting me (aside from the sheer holy shitness of seeing Hogwarts fall apart!), but when they had the Weasleys pulling each other together and crying I went from zero to sobbing in .0000001 seconds.
And then Remus and Tonks! More crying. And then I almostkinda held it together when Snape went, until the EYES bit. And then the memories- I was fucking gone. Bawling. Almost as hard as when I read the book. LOVED little Snape. And Alan Rickman is just SUPERB. Neville made me cry more with his speech! The few little things I knew were off (such as Molly being there so early on) I just shrugged off and really enjoyed the movie for what it is. Although I will always rail about the fact that they could've just given Daniel Radcliffe green contacts! (And I didn't realize the no glasses thing, good on you! I kind of only see him as Harry, not a person, hahaha so I didn't have your problem luckily.)
I was oddly squicked by Harry clasping Voldie's neck, ew. Couldn't get over what a BAMF McGonagall is! Love her! Almost wanted to slash Seamus and Neville. Loved them both in general with the pithy jokes and Neville's sudden realization of love for Luna! (<33333) And then them just sitting next to each other was so KEWT. Helena Bonham Carter was superb as usual and I'm said she didn't get more spoken parts, but the section where she was playing Hermione polyjuiced as Bellatrix I thought was phenom! Like I almost saw Hermione's face in hers, and the mannerisms etc were spot on.
I definitely have a soft spot in my heart for Draco and it's totally fanon and all because of those years of reading him and Harry hopelessly in love...but I kinda loved seeing the Malfoy's flee together. I just feel like Draco is really just a scared little boy, trying to do what he's told for fear of his own life and his family's. He got in over his head by a combination of being an immature little prick and the circumstances of his birth and his father's position. But he just wanted to survive and be with his family.
The epilogue made me laugh. Just like in the book. It's a huge ORLY moment for me. And I think your assessment of the age makeup was spot on. For me, Hermione felt the most convincing- maybe because of how she carried herself more than anything else. She knew how to play a mother well. :) I was sad that I was facepalming so hard over Draco's hairline and groce facial hair to notice Scorp. And we were robbed our slashy significant eye contact, lol! They un-gayed it as expected. Was sad Dumbledore was gypped of his full backstory with Grindelwald. And I have to say that the movie portrayal of him IMO made him seem even more ruthless and cruel. It really left a bad taste in my mouth. And I was hella angry reading the books, but I think the more thoroughness and more dialogue helped me reconcile it a bit. They cut a lot of awesome dialogue for the sake of action in the movie. Which I understand logistically/realistically.
My head hurts from crying, heh. And I just want to curl up with brill fic but I know I should sleep. Sigh. It is really really hard to believe that it's over. Crazy.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-15 04:07 pm (UTC)(Also, I am in fact re-reading the series rn, as I do every summer when we go on holiday.)
no subject
Date: 2011-07-15 06:26 pm (UTC)I enjoyed the film. Visually, it was very nice, and the script was emotionally satisfying, and it felt right. I was worried it might not feel right but it did. I got a bit misty-eyed at parts, I'll be honest.
Our audience cheered at Bellatrix dying (I wasn't sure whether or not they'd keep Molly's line, but I'm glad they did, as that's one of the things I would've croaked at had they left out) and the biggest cheer was when Neville killed Nagini.
The Snape stuff actually... got to me. I didn't think it would. Movie!Snape is very different than book!Snape, and I hate the way they did the Pensieve flashback stuff in the other films (they're some of my favorite parts of the books), but I think the emotions were running so high at that point in the film that I didn't care if things were how I imagined them or not. I can't believe I got misty-eyed at that crap, oh my god.
Maggie Smith. ♥
I kind of thought the battle scene at Hogwarts would be a lot longer. I didn't expect it to end so quickly, tbh. The deaths did not have as much as an emotional impact as I thought they should have. Those were BIG moments, and on screen it was like, we show Remus for two seconds then cut away. WHAT. And I didn't like the way the other twin reacted - I really thought it would be hella more... you know, insane.
The epilogue, oh my gawd. The only one that looked like an adult was Ginny lol. Draco's BEARD, the hell. I hate that part in the book but I figured they'd include it so whatever.
I also thought there would be more gold in the vault scene. Which is when, by the way, our theatre lost power. Hermione said "Stop moving" and then the screen went BLACK. We were like... wtf? So they restarted the movie and we watched the first 20 minutes again. :/
I would love to watch the movie with you. \o/
Other things:
+ Little Snape was so precious, oh my god. His HAIR.
+ I wanted more Dumbledore & Grindewald out of the movies. I loved those parts of the book. I understand why they left them out though.