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i don't KNOW
I've really loved the Yates films visually: I think he's very creative and very good at working with a landscape and making these stories come alive visually. But lol um this one went a little over the "too Yates-y" line, like the part where Harry and Voldemort jump off a cliff for no other reason than so they could fly around the castle and it would be ~pretty~
And the thing where the camera zoomed in on the like, cracks in the elder wand I D E K
Which isn't to say there weren't the usual shots that were SUPER GORGEOUS as usual but I felt like I was eyerolling at some of the directing choices in a way I haven't before. The other thing I thought was off was the pacing: god, it was weird, after the first six films where they were always trying to pack so much into so little time that everything always went SUPER FAST, and then there was... DH2. Which was literally about a couple of days. Ultimately I still think splitting them was a good choice (ugh DH1 was perfectly paced) and I even still think they made the best choice as to where to slice the story, but this film was like... idk, it felt like Gringotts was kind of rushed, and then there were other times when it felt like they were streeeeetching the story out to make the film long enough. Like lol omg the part where Harry, Ron, and Hermione are trying to kill the snake and they keep losing their basilisk fangs? ALSO LOL THE SCENE WHERE THEY PUT HARRY IN HOGWARTS ROBES SO HE CAN JUMP OUT AT SNAPE AND BE LIKE "um I'm here bitch!", like, lol, I can't, who greenlighted that?!?!? It was just dramatic RIDICULOUSNESS
UMM FINALLY UGH I'm going to forever resent Steve Kloves for making me watch everything in KLOVES VISION because I'm so attuned to how he characterizes Ron now that I'm always on edge, waiting for something bad to happen? Honestly I think this was a pretty good film for Ron: a lot of his good moments from the book made it onto the screen here, he had his revelations and his moments. But idk the scene where Harry's going to the forest and he runs into Ron and Hermione, and Hermione is like "I'LL GO WITH YOU" and hugs him and Ron is just like .......standing there the whole time, like, ugh, that moment was entirely made up by Kloves (and kind of undermines the emotional impact of Harry not being able to stop and say goodbye to Ron and Hermione for fear he won't go, as in happens in the books), and it's the perfect exemplar of HOW KLOVES SEES RON. He just completely idealizes both Harry and Hermione and cannot part with his interpretation of Ron as the stupid, useless comic relief. I want to enjoy moments like the one in the Room of Requirement, where Ron is all "THAT'S MY GIRLFRIEND" and then runs back all "GOYLE SET THE PLACE ON FIRE" and kind of a endearingly ridiculous, because sometimes Ron is endearingly ridiculous, but it's like... how you are with your family. You can insult them because you love them, but if someone else says something bad about them you get prickly. I love laughing at Ron, because I love him, but I feel uncomfortable a lot of the time that Kloves asks me to laugh at him because it feels like he doesn't see him as anything but something to be laughed at.
I don't know how I feel about the kiss, by the way!!!
Anyway it wasn't really a bad film, here are some things I liked/loved:
- "you and whose army?" AHAHAHAHA
- all the shots of the death eaters were pretty stunning, honestly, and I also really loved the um, aforementioned trio scene on the stairs visually, SO GORGEOUS
- Hermione as Bellatrix! Oh my god I kind of totally forgot that was going to happen and seeing HBC do that was kind of delightful, oh my gosh.
- This movie made me think a lot about the morality of war against an enemy like Voldemort, like visually seeing all the Gringotts goblins slaughtered: that was so sad. And in a backwards kind of way it was Harry, Ron, and Hermione's fault because it wouldn't've happened if they hadn't broken in, but it also was a necessary step to getting rid of the brute who would do something like that. I don't know, sometimes visuals emphasize that kind of a thing in a way a book can't (at least for a really non-visual person like me)?
- Similarly: loved seeing all the old familiar faces (omg weirdly delighted every time I saw Slughorn and Cho, DIDN'T REALIZE I LOVED THOSE TWO THAT MUCH) of Hogwarts united like that, I don't know.
- Oh my god that one battle sequence where the trio is like, trying to move through the throes of people fighting was GOOOOORGEOUS/incredible/so good, I loved that so much
- MCGONAGALL, can we just, yeah. She's so effing great!!! Also I really loved everything about the part where they were preparing the castle, but idk it was sweet to see Molly and Minerva ~hanging~. And aw "I always wanted to use that spell".
- I actually liked that we didn't see Fred's death: I thought there was a lot of emotional impact in having the trio (but more specifically Harry) just come back to the castle and see all those horrible casualties. And that brief moment when the twins reach for each other in preparation for battle, ugh, my heart.
- THE SCENE IN THE FOREST WITH THE RESURRECTION STONE, omg. Honestly that scene, I can't express how much it gets me, I cry every time but the movie got it perfect, that was the only thing that made me cry.
and two more things I didn't like:
- k so I feel like one of JKR's ~issues~ is with the Slytherin house and painting them all as a united front of evil (although it was Hagrid that said all bad wizards came from there, not her, I think, a distinction to make) and obviously the books basically said "and then all the Slytherins left!" but IT WAS EVEN WORSE IN THE MOVIE, "THROW ALL THE SLYTHERINS IN THE DUNGEON!!!", really? All of them? Just for being sorted into Slytherin?
- sigh I still really wish they had cast younger for Snape/Lily/James/etc, like Alan Rickman is great but... HE'S 65
And the thing where the camera zoomed in on the like, cracks in the elder wand I D E K
Which isn't to say there weren't the usual shots that were SUPER GORGEOUS as usual but I felt like I was eyerolling at some of the directing choices in a way I haven't before. The other thing I thought was off was the pacing: god, it was weird, after the first six films where they were always trying to pack so much into so little time that everything always went SUPER FAST, and then there was... DH2. Which was literally about a couple of days. Ultimately I still think splitting them was a good choice (ugh DH1 was perfectly paced) and I even still think they made the best choice as to where to slice the story, but this film was like... idk, it felt like Gringotts was kind of rushed, and then there were other times when it felt like they were streeeeetching the story out to make the film long enough. Like lol omg the part where Harry, Ron, and Hermione are trying to kill the snake and they keep losing their basilisk fangs? ALSO LOL THE SCENE WHERE THEY PUT HARRY IN HOGWARTS ROBES SO HE CAN JUMP OUT AT SNAPE AND BE LIKE "um I'm here bitch!", like, lol, I can't, who greenlighted that?!?!? It was just dramatic RIDICULOUSNESS
UMM FINALLY UGH I'm going to forever resent Steve Kloves for making me watch everything in KLOVES VISION because I'm so attuned to how he characterizes Ron now that I'm always on edge, waiting for something bad to happen? Honestly I think this was a pretty good film for Ron: a lot of his good moments from the book made it onto the screen here, he had his revelations and his moments. But idk the scene where Harry's going to the forest and he runs into Ron and Hermione, and Hermione is like "I'LL GO WITH YOU" and hugs him and Ron is just like .......standing there the whole time, like, ugh, that moment was entirely made up by Kloves (and kind of undermines the emotional impact of Harry not being able to stop and say goodbye to Ron and Hermione for fear he won't go, as in happens in the books), and it's the perfect exemplar of HOW KLOVES SEES RON. He just completely idealizes both Harry and Hermione and cannot part with his interpretation of Ron as the stupid, useless comic relief. I want to enjoy moments like the one in the Room of Requirement, where Ron is all "THAT'S MY GIRLFRIEND" and then runs back all "GOYLE SET THE PLACE ON FIRE" and kind of a endearingly ridiculous, because sometimes Ron is endearingly ridiculous, but it's like... how you are with your family. You can insult them because you love them, but if someone else says something bad about them you get prickly. I love laughing at Ron, because I love him, but I feel uncomfortable a lot of the time that Kloves asks me to laugh at him because it feels like he doesn't see him as anything but something to be laughed at.
I don't know how I feel about the kiss, by the way!!!
Anyway it wasn't really a bad film, here are some things I liked/loved:
- "you and whose army?" AHAHAHAHA
- all the shots of the death eaters were pretty stunning, honestly, and I also really loved the um, aforementioned trio scene on the stairs visually, SO GORGEOUS
- Hermione as Bellatrix! Oh my god I kind of totally forgot that was going to happen and seeing HBC do that was kind of delightful, oh my gosh.
- This movie made me think a lot about the morality of war against an enemy like Voldemort, like visually seeing all the Gringotts goblins slaughtered: that was so sad. And in a backwards kind of way it was Harry, Ron, and Hermione's fault because it wouldn't've happened if they hadn't broken in, but it also was a necessary step to getting rid of the brute who would do something like that. I don't know, sometimes visuals emphasize that kind of a thing in a way a book can't (at least for a really non-visual person like me)?
- Similarly: loved seeing all the old familiar faces (omg weirdly delighted every time I saw Slughorn and Cho, DIDN'T REALIZE I LOVED THOSE TWO THAT MUCH) of Hogwarts united like that, I don't know.
- Oh my god that one battle sequence where the trio is like, trying to move through the throes of people fighting was GOOOOORGEOUS/incredible/so good, I loved that so much
- MCGONAGALL, can we just, yeah. She's so effing great!!! Also I really loved everything about the part where they were preparing the castle, but idk it was sweet to see Molly and Minerva ~hanging~. And aw "I always wanted to use that spell".
- I actually liked that we didn't see Fred's death: I thought there was a lot of emotional impact in having the trio (but more specifically Harry) just come back to the castle and see all those horrible casualties. And that brief moment when the twins reach for each other in preparation for battle, ugh, my heart.
- THE SCENE IN THE FOREST WITH THE RESURRECTION STONE, omg. Honestly that scene, I can't express how much it gets me, I cry every time but the movie got it perfect, that was the only thing that made me cry.
and two more things I didn't like:
- k so I feel like one of JKR's ~issues~ is with the Slytherin house and painting them all as a united front of evil (although it was Hagrid that said all bad wizards came from there, not her, I think, a distinction to make) and obviously the books basically said "and then all the Slytherins left!" but IT WAS EVEN WORSE IN THE MOVIE, "THROW ALL THE SLYTHERINS IN THE DUNGEON!!!", really? All of them? Just for being sorted into Slytherin?
- sigh I still really wish they had cast younger for Snape/Lily/James/etc, like Alan Rickman is great but... HE'S 65
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my whole group had a discussion about the slytherin/dungeon thing, too. not okay.
my one disagreement: alan rickman is perfect. and yeah he should probably be younger but whatever he is snapee. just saying.
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LIKE HE'S SUPER GREAT, I get it, but ugh they had to age up everyone to make them believable as his schoolmates and that gets me especially with Lily and James idk, THEY WERE LIKE OUR AGE WHEN THEY DIED, THEY DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO GET ALL PARENT-LOOKING. I don't know, sometimes I wish they had picked another Snape so they could've gone a different route with them/Sirius/Lupin. (Although the uproar when Sirius and Remus were cast and not ~young and hot~ like fandom wanted them to be: still hilarious.)